Disadvantage Of Anxiety

When people suffer from a lot of anxiety and stress and they don't know how to deal with it then their body will undergo physical changes as it starts to get hit with a barrage of external anxiety producing experiences.

The natural response to the physical changes within the body is for protection. When suddenly faced with a dangerous situation, the anxious people actually become physically prepared to respond by either assaulting the source of stress or running from it. This condition is commonly referred to as the fight or flight response and is accompanied by a release or hormones called corticosteroids. The purpose of these intense hormones secretion is to constrict the blood veins in the outermost parts of the body which drives the extra volume towards the brain and also feeds the larger muscles in preparation for extra reserve strength. The heart starts to rev up, the digestive system halts, breathing becomes abnormal and muscles get tense.

The fight or flight response plays out in different stages of progression. The first stage is the initial alarm stage as described before. If the impending doom one unexpectedly faces is dissipated just as fast then the alarm stage goes into reverse mode and the physiological changes that were taking place are ceased and the body resumes the normal functions. However, if the source of stress anxiety or danger continues, a secondary stage shows up in more of a confrontational mode. The physical changes in the digestion, muscles and breathing continue in their elevated state. When this confrontational stage persists due to prolonged stress anxiety or the threat of danger continues indefinitely, the heightened physical state begins to take its toll on the body and it becomes overstressed. At this point, many of its functions start to shut down.

Most of the people react differently to anxiety and stress by amplifying some of the physical changes mentioned while experiencing none of the others due to the variety of external stimuli and simple hereditary factors. The reactions of some people focus primarily on the muscle system, some on the circulatory, some on the digestive tract, and some simply succumb to full blown panic attacks. Those with the muscle focused reactions are continually stressing the connective tissue in the back, shoulders and neck, leading to tension headaches. Eventually, this stress heads towards the lower back causing the lower back pain; this is actually the root of the most prevalent cases of back pain.



These people lose the ability to relax and are constantly plagued by that back pain and begin endless quests to ease the pain. This becomes a vicious cycle as the source of the back pain due to constant stress and anxiety is not addressed but more often, just the relief of the back pain itself. People whose stress is more focused in the torso area become affected by ulcers, colitis and other digestive anomalies due to the constant tension within the stomach and intestinal tract. Individuals who are more affected in the circulatory system by ongoing stress and anxiety become victims to the indescribable pain of the migraine headache.





  • John Palsson
  • 21/11/2008, 12:06 AM
  • 0 Comments