When an individual is stressed, there are many symptoms that show up. These symptoms can be placed into two categories: physical symptoms, and phychological symptoms. Generally, one will experience some of both in most stressful situations.
Usually, people do not associate their stress-related symptoms with stress. This is largely
due to the fact that most of us are not very educated about stress and do
not recognize it as something that can affect the body and the mind. Too
often, a stressed person will think that the stress symptoms they are
experiencing are the result of some awful disease. This will cause them to
become even more stressed, especially since they will not be diagnosed with
a disease (pertaining to the symptoms), and therefore the stress symptoms
will increase.
Stress can aggravate and trigger many diseases, some of which include: Angina, Asthma, Diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and Stomach and Duodenum ulcers.
As well stress has a large effect on the immune system. For centuries, doctors have believed that level of stress and susceptibility to disease are directly related, but it wasn't until recently that scientists have accepted this theory. They believed that the immune system acts independently of other physiological and psychological systems in the body. But so much evidence has accumulated to prove that high levels of stress will lower the immune system that they are now beginning to change their opinions. It doesn't matter if the stress that is being experienced is everyday stress, major changes, or trauma, the same result-a higher vulnerability to illness-will occur. Some diseases that seem to have the most relationship to stress include mononucleosis, tuberculosis, herpes sinplex, influenza and the common cold.
Psychological symptoms can be divided into two categories: emotional symptoms and behavioural symptoms. Emotional symptoms are usually the most obvious ones, and behavioural symptoms are the ones that deal with some sort of a change in your personal performance.
There are many phrases that we use in everyday life to describe our reactions to stress, and they are based on real symptoms. The following are some of the more common ones. "My heart was in my mouth," "I nearly wet myself," "Pain in the neck," "That makes me sick," "I'm tired of that," and "There were butterflies in my stomach."
During a time of stress, it is possible for the body to adapt to the stress, and thus some of the stress symptoms will disappear. This, however, will only work up to a certain point. If stress persists for a long enough time, then it is likely that some more serious effects will develop, both physical and phycological. It is even possible to still not realize that they are symptoms of severe stress, and believe that they are because of a diferent disease.