Effects of Stress

Everyone experiences stress and is vulnerable to it. We do not, however, have to be helpless victims to it. We can manage it, reduce and control it, and can minimize or prevent the negative consequences.

Stress: Push the Limits and Risk Death

There are some similarities between mechanical systems and human systems that are useful in appreciating the powerful effects of stress. Every system, human or mechanical, has limits and requirements for effective functioning. Each system operates within the limits of tolerance for demands, pressures and tensions placed upon it. The electrical circuits in your house are capable of handling a limited amount of power. When more energy is demanded than is safe to handle, the circuit is broken or a fuse is blown. If the water pressure in your plumbing is higher than it is designed to handle, a fitting will eventually leak or burst. If you run your new automobile hard all the time and neglect the proper maintenance, it will start giving you trouble and will deteriorate more quickly. Keep neglecting it and it will shut itself down and force you to attend to it. Pushing a system beyond its limits and neglecting proper maintenance invites deterioration and breakdown.

Just like machines, human systems have limits and breaking points and require maintenance. If you are under increased pressure, push yourself hard and neglect the proper maintenance on yourself, you will also deteriorate and eventually have a breakdown. Your body will force you to stop and attend to it. If you neglect the maintenance in your marital relationship, your spouse will start giving you trouble, there will be a deterioration of the relationship and a breakdown in communication and goodwill. Don’t push yourself so hard that you use up all your best and have nothing left for your spouse and family but fatigue, intolerance and irritability. Don’t risk the loss of your personal relationships or the loss of your health. Save some of your best for your loved ones and yourself.

Stress can be Harmful to Your Health

Inappropriately handled stress can be devastating. It lowers our resistance and makes us more vulnerable to illness and disease. The increased inner pressure can cause our health to deteriorate resulting in a variety of serious physical problems. Stress victims can become emotional cripples and physiologically old and run down long before their time. Stress can cause a loss of not only health, but also loss of jobs, loss of families, even loss of life.

Stress can be Harmful to Others

People under stress also make more mistakes, and these mistakes can cause others to be secondary victims to someone else’s stress. I would not want to have surgery by a stressed surgeon or be cared for by a stressed nursing staff. Nor would I want to be a passenger on a plane maintained by a stressed maintenance crew or flown by a stressed pilot.