Your Good Health Matters » Your Stress Questions Answered

How can it be that using stress reduction is cumulative? Does your threshold somehow get higher or something?

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:07:35 +0000

The stress response and as well as the relaxation response do not have on and off switches and the nerves that cause these responses stay active and the responses can grow stronger over time. You can think of the stress response like an accelerator pedal in your car and the relaxation as a break pedal. As long as the stress response is active it is like you are holding down the accelerator pedal and when the relaxation response is active you are stepping on the break and slowing down the physiological activity of your body.

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How much can stress affect your heart and blood pressure?

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:06:33 +0000

Your stress response can significantly affect heart and blood pressure. One of the effects of the Fight or Flight response is to tighten the peripheral arteries on the surface of the body. This is to prepare your body for possible injury and give you a better chance of survival if you are physically hurt. But, as mentioned earlier a chronic stress response can keep your arteries restricted and narrow even at rest and this increases your blood pressure and makes your heart work harder than necessary. One of the biofeedback devices we have available for home use is the Resperate. FDA cleared for treating high blood pressure and stress it is essentially a breathing trainer that trains your relaxation response by using the breath. This therapeutic relaxation works to dilate the arteries back to their normal size thus reducing blood pressure and your stress response.

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Is stress an important cause of my severe foot neuropathy pain?

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:05:58 +0000

It is possible that physical trauma which can be termed a stressor initially contributed to your foot pain, I am sure you have already discussed the causes of your foot pain with your doctor. You may now want to be alert to the possibility that the pain from your injury may be a stressor that can increase your stress response and even your pain. To minimize the negative affects of your pain being a stressor, you want to take good care of yourself while your foot is healing and we would recommend practicing relaxation techniques which can raise your pain threshold and help you reduce your stress response

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Is neurosis a mental disease? And, how does one overcome it?

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:04:48 +0000

Basically neurosis is an old generalized term that relates to emotional health and it means that somebody is suffering from some degree of emotional pain caused by distortions of thinking. You can say that depression or anxiety is a form of neurosis but you can also say that almost everyone suffers from neurosis of one degree or another. Everyone sees the world from a personal point of view based on their particular experience and this can cause emotional upset. This relates to your stress response because people will often worry about issues that have been resolved or could easily be resolved. The worry itself becomes a stressor and dealing effectively with the mind where worry occurs can be an important stress management technique.

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Are some people so prone to stress that they will never be able to manage it?

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:03:49 +0000

No, we don’t believe this is true. We have very effective ways to handle stress that involve identifying the sources of stress and then learning how to reverse the stress response.

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Aren’t people pre-wired to live at a certain stress-worry level regardless of external stressors?

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:02:39 +0000

We don’t actually believe that people are pre-wired to live at a certain stress-worry level. I would look at this question as a developmental Issue. When a person doesn’t know how to stand back from their self-talk and takes their mind’s fear based output seriously they are more prone to experience their self-talk as a stressor.

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Is a person’s propensity for stress genetic or learned?

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:01:40 +0000

There Is actually a component of both genetic factors and learned behavior In our stress response. Some people have nervous systems that are very reactive which makes them more prone to stress responses than other people and experiencing stressors can make us more sensitive and reactive to future stressors.

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StressLess Living News

Tom Cobb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:53:35 +0000

We have received a number of questions about stress from readers of our StressLess Living Newsletter and over the next few weeks we will be answering them in posts here. We will be posting answers to seven questions today. Anyone interested in subscribing to the newsletter can find the sign-up form on the left navigation of any page of Lifematters.com. We welcome comments and any new questions.

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