Colbert Don: If Our Body Could Speak

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Colbert Don: If Our Body Could Speak

Hormones in our body must be in balance. For normal functioning, the body needs a certain amount of each hormone. A slight shortage or excess of a hormone often leads to negative physical consequences.

The founder of the modern concept of stress, Canadian physician and scientist Hans Selye was one of the first to point out the connection between emotional stress and illness. He concluded that fear, anger and other intense feelings cause the adrenal glands to enlarge due to excessive exposure to pituitary hormones. In other words, severe stress leads to the fact that the pituitary gland constantly secretes excess hormones.

The insidiousness of adrenaline

The effects of adrenaline, a stress hormone, are similar to those of many drugs. When the level of adrenaline in the blood rises, a person feels at their best. If an excessive amount of this hormone circulates in the body, then the person feels a surge of energy, he does not want to sleep, everything around him inspires

Many people whose jobs constantly require increased "alertness" become addicted to stress - or rather, from a constant rush of adrenaline. Executives vigorously climbing the corporate ladder, prosecutors and lawyers battling in courtrooms, resuscitators pulling patient after patient out of the world, all admit their adrenaline addiction.

Adrenaline is a powerful hormone, its effect on the body is multifaceted. It promotes concentration of thinking, sharpens vision. Under its influence, muscles tense, preparing to "fight or run." Epinephrine raises blood pressure and increases heart rate, even though the blood vessels are narrowing. The release of adrenaline slows down digestion as blood drains from the stomach and intestines and flows to the muscles.

If the stress is short-lived, then the adrenaline rush is certainly beneficial. For example, say an angry bulldog or a drunken bully attacked you. Your body will immediately react to the danger by releasing adrenaline and cortisol - a hormone that is secreted by the outer layer (cortex) of the adrenal glands, is a regulator of carbohydrate metabolism, and also takes part in the development of stress reactions. But a powerful surge of activity will be followed by severe fatigue - the body needs to relax.

Many people know that after a particularly terrible or violent event, you feel completely exhausted. A respite is required.

Remember that your body does not discriminate between the causes of stress. A quarrel with your spouse or a squabble with your teenage son, an angry outburst when someone cut you off on the road, are also reasons for the release of adrenaline and cortisol. The body senses danger or difficulty and instantly releases additional hormones.

An acute reaction to short-term stress - the release of adrenaline and cortisol, the mobilization of all the forces and resources of the body, followed by fatigue and relaxation - does not harm a person. This reaction can save your life by giving you courage in a fight with a vicious dog or extra agility if you decide to flee.

If the stress is prolonged, then excess hormones will enter the body almost constantly.

Imagine a person who has lived for years in anger at a spouse or child. In this case, the adrenaline rush may become excessive.

Another example: a person who works for a long time under the direction of a ferocious boss or in a system that destroys personality. The feeling of one's own insignificance, fear and anger - these are the feelings that accompany the unfortunate person every day. Such long-term emotional stress leads to the constant release of adrenaline and cortisol into the blood, the excess of which has a devastating effect on the entire body.

High levels of adrenaline, which do not decrease over a long period of time, cause high blood pressure and increased heart rate to become common. And for the body it is extremely harmful.

An excess of adrenaline increases the level of triglycerides (fatty acids) and sugar in the blood. In addition, blood clotting increases over time, leading to the formation of blood clots. The load on the thyroid gland increases, the body produces more cholesterol. Long-term exposure to all of these factors is life-threatening.

Excess cortisol

I have already said that the release of adrenaline into the blood is accompanied by the release of another hormone - cortisol. Over time, excess cortisol leads to high blood sugar and insulin levels.

The content of triglycerides in the blood also increases and remains high. Long-term exposure to excess cortisol results in a person becoming fat, especially in the middle of the body. In addition, there is a depletion of bone tissue - it loses calcium, magnesium and potassium. There is a risk of developing osteoporosis. At the same time, the body retains sodium more strongly, which contributes to an increase in blood pressure.

Chronically high cortisol levels are always associated with:

• Weakening of the immune system, which in turn opens the door to many diseases.

• Decreased tissue and organ consumption of glucose, which is a major cause of diabetes and obesity.

• Depletion of bone tissue, leading to osteoporosis.

• Decrease in muscle mass and impaired growth and regeneration of the skin, which contributes to loss of strength, obesity and acceleration of the aging process.

• Increased accumulation of fat.

• Weakening of memory and learning ability, destruction of brain cells.

Too much and too long

If you do not take action, then the long-term presence of excess adrenaline and cortisol in the blood corrodes the body, just as acid corrodes metal.

Even hours after a stressful event, levels of these hormones can remain high, and they begin their destructive work. And if emotional stress is chronic, then the constant influx of hormones becomes threatening, and destructive emotions become fatal.

The body begins to eat itself. A powerful influx of active hormones affects organs and tissues, which leads to various serious diseases.

It is sad to admit it, but for modern people, life full of overload is becoming the norm at an increasingly early age.

Well-known Hawaiian psychologist and teacher Paul Pearsall believes that our young people get tired before they have time to reach adulthood.

After conversations with his students, Pearsall came to the conclusion that many of them show symptoms characteristic of the last stage of stress - nervous exhaustion, deterioration of the physical and psychological state, complete depletion of the body's energy and immune reserves.

Teenagers enter adulthood, already crammed with television spectacles of murder and other violence. About seventy thousand scenes of violence are the emotional baggage of the average teenager.

A child's mind does not distinguish between a staged murder and a real one

The brain perceives only a threat and reacts to it. Remember what feelings overwhelm you when you watch a dashingly twisted thriller, such that goosebumps run down your skin. You are safe, but adrenaline is still released into your bloodstream. Now imagine that you mistook a hairball for a spider. Despite the fact that you just saw the spider, the adrenaline is right there. The same thing happens with children when they watch scenes of violence. The events take place in the virtual world, but the brain's reaction is real.

If a person strives to get pleasure from external stimuli, he often develops an addiction to stress, dependence on stress. New sensations are always a kind of stress, in which the corresponding hormones immediately begin to work. The result is a pleasure akin to that of a drug. Thanks to the pleasant sensations that arise under the influence of stress hormones, a person finds the new experience exciting and exciting.

The irrepressible pursuit of the sensations that hormones provide leads to dependence on life in extreme circumstances.

The addiction develops, and the person is tirelessly looking for something new, unusual, unknown, exciting feelings. He lives among the heat of passions, when stormy events continuously replace each other.

And the result?

The state of over-excitement is perceived as normal, and anything that does not give an adrenaline rush seems boring and frustrating.

But gradually, such a person develops an addiction to adrenaline. Just as an alcoholic needs a dose of alcohol, a stress addict needs a dose of hormones. This need is felt on both the physical and mental levels. Like any chemical addiction, adrenaline addiction leads to destruction of the body. And when the adrenaline intake decreases, the person develops withdrawal symptoms.

Stop the release of hormones

I will never forget the words of the institute professor who led our psychiatry. He used to be a dermatologist.

Once I asked why he left dermatology and went into psychiatry. He replied: “An endless stream of people suffering from psoriasis and eczema flowed to me.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that these patients were crying out their mental pain through their skin.

Almost all of these patients had difficult experiences - they had the right to sob and groan. But they didn't allow themselves to cry. And their grief came out through the skin - in the form of a painful, itchy and weeping rash.

Studies have shown that when a person is stressed, psoriasis and eczema worsen.

If our body could speak, then every skin eruption would become a cry: “Look! I can no longer tolerate your destructive emotions!"

Even though I'm not a dermatologist, my advice is: "If your skin starts screaming, listen." And as a therapist, I highly recommend that you learn to relieve stress.

Colbert Don, from Deadly Emotions.