Davis 1

Alexis Davis

Professor Johnson

ENG 1201.517

3 November 2020

Why Stress is Very Important

You may be stressing over something right now and not even realizing it! “Stress

affects 55% of the United States population compared to the 35% global average”

(Chokshi). Different types of stress are carried and felt in different parts of the body, and

each person deals with and handles it many different ways. Personally, I tend to hold

stress in my shoulders, all thanks to genes passed down from my mother. I never knew

this until I started getting massages, in which she informed me that they were very tight.

She asked, “What are you so stressed out about?” After having constant tenseness in

my shoulders I began to question where my stress was coming from. I wanted to

research what causes stress in adults and what we can do to curve a growing national

problem. Many adults don’t realize the amount of stress they carry within their body, and

the various ways it negatively impacts everyday life. This paper will take you through

each phase of how stress changes your outlook on daily tasks and ways you can

positively improve your mental health.

Stress is a feeling of either emotional or physical tension. Actions that cause you

to be frustrated or feeling large amounts of pressure are both main reasons that a

person experiences stress. Although there are a number of reasons stress negatively

impacts mental health, experiencing a short sense of stress has shown to be positive,

and could help you avoid danger. This is known as acute stress, your brain's response
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to a short lived traumatic experience. This action does not only happen when you go

through a negative situation, it also happens when you endure something exciting. The

nervous system sends a large rush of adrenaline and other hormones to increase heart

rate, rapid breathing, and higher blood pressure. The most common example of acute

stress would be the feeling of slamming on your brakes, because an animal runs out in

front of your car on a back road in the dark. It’s that feeling of panic, when you have to

quickly figure out what to do. Now onto talk about another common type of stress, would

be known as chronic stress. Chronic stress occurs when the feeling of stress lasts for a

longer period of time and happens more often than just a one time feeling, like acute

stress. Situations like having debt with no solutions to pay it, going through a controlling

relationship that you don’t know how to get out of, and any mentally challenging task

that goes on for weeks or months would be a main cause for chronic stress. No matter

what you go through in life you will deal with some type of stress at one time or another.

Coping with stress or a stressful event is handled differently depending on that

person, how one sees a situation or how physically and mentally healthy they may be.

Genetics and other events that happen through learning periods in a person's life can

take a huge toll on how they deal with stressful situations later on in life. People that

have dealt with abuse while growing up are more likely to overreact in stressful

situations or settings, in which they cannot control. There are many bad habits that

stress can lead a person towards. For example, some adults lean more toward drinking,

smoking, and overeating because they do not know how else to manage their stress.

The change in someone’s hormones can be a leading cause in how they deal with the

stress in their life. Allostasis is the process in which the body responds to stress. Stress
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comes when the nervous system sends a mix of hormones and signals that cause a

change in the body's physical response. These hormones can intensify your

concentration, reaction ability, and strength. For example, a parent could be said to

have superhuman strength when it comes to saving their child in a car accident or

house fire. Meaning you may act in a way that you never thought you could. When

we’re in stressful situations, our body allows us to do things we do not normally do in

our everyday life.

While dealing with stress, you could also have a intensified heart rate and blood

pressure. In a New York Times article, Steven Wolf stated in “Relieving Stress: Mind

Over Muscle” that, “People in tense, sedentary jobs are particularly prone to a chronic

shortening of the muscles” (Goleman). Sometimes you don’t even realize that you stay

in the same position for your job and it can lead to tense parts of your body. Buildup of

tensions get worse everyday, meaning neck and shoulder muscles get shorter and

shorter over time. Forehead muscles, such as the corrugator muscles, are a good

gauge to monitor overall tension in the body. The masseter and temporalis control

muscles of the mouth and cause you to clench your jaw. Tension in these muscles

could cause you the most painful muscle knots. A common symptom of problems in the

tension triangle, either muscles in the jaw or neck, would be constant headaches and a

stiff neck. Headaches are caused because of constricted blood flow. Crimped muscles

can be caused by doing something in an awkward position, such as holding your phone

in awkward positions. Many people are known to multi-task while on the phone, such as

holding your phone in between your shoulder and your face. Most people don’t catch

themselves slouching, and don’t relieve that a short time of an awkward position could
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affect your body so much in the long term. Posture is very important in the human body.

According to Kim DeokJu in “Effect of an exercise program for posture correction on

musculoskeletal pain”, she states, “If incorrect postures become a habit at an early age,

individuals maintaining those postures may adapt and consider them comfortable, and

this can cause strain on the spine, pelvis, muscles, tendons, joints, bones, and discs,

which can lead to fatigue and deformation” (DeokJu). Combined with stress we are

causing so much wear and tear on our bodies that in the long run are irreversible. So it's

very important that we find a healthy and efficient way to deal with the stress that

causes a negative change to our bodies.

Today’s society comes with a whole new set of stressful situations that we have

never had to comprehend, there are a lot more things we could easily be stressed

about. Between the Corona Virus or all of the back and forth between electoral

candidates and the division in our nation could cause someone to have serious chronic

stress. 2020 has been a record breaking year for how many events could have in a

short period of time. Not only have we all gone through a shut down as a country, but

many of our small businesses couldn’t even make it through. Personally, I work in a

salon, and we were shut down for two months. This made our business take a huge hit,

and it still isn’t over. There is something new everyday. There have been a lot of crazy

and eventful things that have happened, such as hurricanes on top of hurricanes,

discovering killer bees, a pandemic that has us wearing masks every single day, and

now debating if vaccinations are going to be mandatory. Lately, we found out that we

are not even supposed to see our family on a holiday made to spend with the family.

When we think it will be over, there are restrictions after restrictions. There have been
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many lives lost due to this sickness and a lot of stress on the economy. When will this

all stop? We are not sure but until then everybody is going to keep stressing about it

over and over. Some people find have discovered that looking at social media and the

news is exhausting. There is a lot of fake news on different site, so we do not know

what is true, which can also cause nnecessary stress on yourself. Try taking a break

from any media and read a fact filled book, that you can receive and interpret helpful

information out of.

Even though we all tend to show it in different ways, we are all stressed about

something in our lives. Those reasons listed above might not be the only thing you’re

stressed out about, it could be a current relationship issue or breakup, a stressful work

meeting or, one that we can all relate to, transitioning to online schooling/teaching. It is

just as hard on teachers as it is students I’m sure, but working a full time job and going

to college full-time, has made me think about my career choice. I realized I was not

enjoying school at all like I used to, as we’re not getting the social part of college.

Possibly, it could be the factor of stressing about not knowing how to do an assignment

or stressing if you can’t manage to pass a class, in which I recently had to drop one for

that reason. I’ve learned you need to knock out the things in life that are bringing you

down, and I learned that a four-year degree just might not be for me. Many of us stress

over the little things, and need to learn how to avoid it. In order to be able to relieve

stress, you need to know where it’s coming from. Melissa Sophia Joy, N.D., and a

certified massage therapist, stated “The first rule of thumb for finding relief? Bringing

awareness to the “why” behind your tension” (Shannon-Karasik). Awareness alone can

allow the body to relax and reduce the stress just by addressing it. Some things you
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could try to relax more and relieve stress are essential oils. Put some cooling oils on the

irritated spot and let it rest. Stretch the tight parts of your body, or even roll out your

back with a golf ball or yoga mat. Adding a light workout like a morning walk or jog or a

yoga class could also be a very beneficial task to help relieve the stress in someone's

life. Sometimes you just need a bit of positivity and a breath of fresh air. Another

unhealthy thing that most of us do everyday is stare at our cell phone or computer. To

make sure you’re following the right techniques, you need to adjust your computer

screen or cell phone, so you aren’t constantly holding your head down. Keep your

computer screen and cell phone at eye level, do this by keeping your computer on a

table instead of in your lap or by keeping your cell phone held high. Try finding

alternative ways to use a phone or computer; such as using a stand up desk while using

a computer to reduce the strain that we constantly put on our necks. Also try using

headphones or your speaker phone while talking on the phone, so your neck is not in a

kinked position causing tension or stress to the nerves.

Bad posture takes a huge hit on your shoulders and back. According to Elizabeth

Beasley in “How Stress Contributes to Chronic Neck and Shoulder Pain”, she informed

us that, “1 in 10 people suffer from neck or shoulder pain. Also 25% of all Americans

suffer from high stress levels and the other 50% say they experience moderate stress

levels” (Beasley). Stress is a response of both physical and emotional components that

starts your body to fight off any danger. Emotional components would be when the brain

is alarmed, which causes your body to release cortisol, adrenaline and other hormones

to prepare your body to fight off the danger. An emotional component that could set off

your brain would be to set off anxiety or a fear that you may have. Physical changes
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could mean a higher heart rate and blood pressure, rapid breathing, and tensed

muscles. Stress works as a shield to protect us from harm. Stress isn’t always the

reason for shoulder and neck pain, but it can make small existing pain much worse than

they start. A small repetitive motion causing you aches can lead to enlargement of your

blood vessel, causing you to clench your muscles in your neck, jaw, and shoulders. Also

it can restrict neck and shoulder movement and heighten your perception of pain. Some

other things you can do to reduce stress is progressive relaxation on the areas that are

tense, do mediation for 10-20 minutes every day, and lastly aerobic exercises as stated

in the paragraph before, to stretch and release tenseness of the sensitive muscles.

Meditation helps with relaxing the muscles that are tense from constant stress that you

are having. Allowing any extra stress to reduce in your body.

While keeping your stress levels high, worrying about one thing over and over,

can lead to serious health problems. These serious health conditions can involve

problems with overeating or obesity. This is caused by an increase in appetite due to

stress, which is normally followed by weight gain. Becoming obese can then put you

into a increased risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As I stated earlier, stress

leads to increased blood pressure and heart rates, which affects the cardiovascular

system. The cardiovascular system also may increase your glucose levels, which is

what causes weight gain. With any of these risk factors, you could be at a high risk for

heart disease, atherosclerosis, stroke, and as I said above, obesity or diabetes. High

blood pressure is the number one leading factor of a stroke. According to Henrik

Bronnum-Hansen in “Long-Term Survival and Causes of Death After Stroke, he stated,

“Time trends in survival probability up to 5 years after a stroke were analyzed in a Cox
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regression model that included the covariates sex, age at stroke onset, and time”

(Bronnum-Hansen). This means that once you have a stroke, you are limited to the rest

of your lifespan. As the years following your stroke incident increase, the less of a

survival probablity you have.

Stress buildup can also affect the nervous and immune system. It can weaken

your immune system by making you more prone to catching a sickness, such as a cold

or any other infection. By affecting your immune system, it is common to cause

depression .Once it hits your nervous system it causes a “fight or flight” response.

Another study found that stress can affect your memory. Memory as a whole and

transferring short-term to long-term memory, both rely on the hippocampus. According

to William Scoville in “Loss of Recent Memory After Bilateral Hippocampal Lesions,” he

stated, “The Hippocampus is an area of the brain that has the highest density of

glucocorticosteroid receptors and also represents the highest level of response to

stress” (Scoville). The hippocampus covers short term and long term memory, and is

proven to be related to stress. Constant stress can cause functional and structural

changes in that section of the brain. These structural changes can then lead to atrophy

and neurogenesis disorder. People with post tramatic stress disorder are shown to have

a hippocampus that is reduced in volume and can cause you associated memory

disorders. Another effect stress has on the hippocampus, is that it can negatively impact

the way you perceive information to learn. It negatively affect the ways you remember

information and to be able to obtain it as well. The process of strengthening your

memory cannot start until you have controlled your stress. An example, that we

probably never would have thought of that helps improve memory, is taking a written
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exam. If you don’t follow through with ways to manage your stress, it can lead to serious

health problems.

In conclusion, there are many things to stress about in today’s world, but there are so

many ways you can reduce it. Now that I have taught you about the effects of stress on

your body, reviewed several stressful situations that we all go through, and explained

the different mechanisms of reducing stress and why you should, I hope you take this

essay into consideration and better yourself today. There are too many longterm effects

to be stressing over the little things in life. Find something today that has been stressing

you out and try to eliminate it.

Works Cited
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Beasley, Elizabeth. “How Stress Leads to Neck and Shoulder Pain.” Healthgrades,

Healthgrades, 8 Aug. 2020, www.healthgrades.com/right-care/bones-joints-and-

muscles/how-stress-contributes-to-chronic-neck-and-shoulder-pain

Brønnum-Hansen, Henrik, et al. “Long-Term Survival and Causes of Death After

Stroke.” Stroke, 1 Sept. 2001,

www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/hs0901.094253.

Chokshi, Niraj. “Americans Are Among the Most Stressed People in the World, Poll

Finds.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Apr. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/americans-stressful.html.

DeokJu, Kim, et al. “Effect of an Exercise Program for Posture Correction on

Musculoskeletal Pain.” Journal of Physical Therapy Science, The Society of

Physical Therapy Science, June 2015,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4499985/.

Goleman, Daniel, and Tara Bennett-goleman. “RELIEVING STRESS: MIND OVER

MUSCLE.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 1986,

www.nytimes.com/1986/09/28/magazine/relieving-stress-mind-over-muscle.html.

Scoville WB, Milner B. Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions. J

Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1957;20:11–21.

Shannon-Karasik, Caroline, and Olivia Bahou. “7 Easy Ways to Relieve Neck and

Shoulder Pain At Home.” InStyle, 15 Apr. 2020, www.instyle.com/videos/relieve-

stress-neck-shoulders.
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