is a non-specific reaction formed in the process of evolution in response to an action stress factors . Constant stress lowers the body's defense system, which leads to a number of diseases. Depending on the degree of stress resistance of a person, the state of his protective reactions, both obvious and latent forms of diseases can occur. Thus, the role of stress in the occurrence of human diseases is undoubtedly large.

Depending on the nature of the action on a person, they distinguish:

1. biological stress or systemic - occurs in case of poisoning, physical injuries, inflammatory processes, diseases internal organs

2. Psychological stress - arises as a result of negative experiences and always covers the emotional sphere - this is emotional stress, which often leads to a decrease in the vital activity of the human body. Main reasons: conflicts, social factors.

One form of human stress is frustration – psychological condition acute experience that arises as a result of the appearance of obstacles on the way to your goal. This is a constant conflict between the actual significant problem and the impossibility of its implementation. Frustration most often leads to depression, anxiety, suicidal acts.

Not in every case, stress leads to the emergence of diseases, a lot depends on the human character and the ability to cope with the problem alone.

Under the influence of stress, there are several options for the development of events:

stress resistant the person stays healthy

The person will get sick neurotic disease

Development psychosomatic disease

Psychological defense mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are adaptive mechanisms, the role of which is aimed at reducing emotional tension, while they protect a person from painful feelings and the occurrence of psychological and physiological diseases. They are usually unconscious and deny reality.

Types of defensive reactions:

1. crowding out- this is a psychological defense mechanism by which impulses, desires, feelings that are undesirable for a person, which cause him anxiety, become unconscious. In this case, the situation is not perceived, and the emotions that arise in this case are perceived as unmotivated anxiety.

2. Negation- a psychological defense mechanism, the role of which is to deny, lack of perception of a certain psycho-traumatic circumstance. It is realized when any external conflicts arise and is characterized by a distorted perception of reality, when a person does not perceive information that does not correspond to his basic attitudes, ideas about the world and about himself.

3. Reactive substitutions . Reactive substitutions include the replacement of unacceptable tendencies with opposite ones. For example, excessive love of parents for a child can develop into disgust for him, and even hatred.

4. Regression- return to an earlier stage of development. In other words, the behavior of the child.

5. Insulation- in the role of a protective mechanism, there is a lack of communication between unpleasant emotions and internal stress.

6. Identification- a defensive reaction in the form of comparing oneself with a threatening object.

7. Projection- the mechanism is based on a process by which unpleasant feelings and thoughts for a person do not relate to the person himself, but are attributed to other people. An aggressive person may perceive himself as a vulnerable person, and say that the behavior of other more aggressive people causes an aggressive reaction in him.

8. substitution- his role is manifested in the transfer of his negative emotions to other people or objects.

9. Rationalization- in this case, a person lays out his desires as a concealment of the reasons that caused him to lose self-esteem.

10. Sublimation- psychological protection is based on the transfer of one's true desires into socially correct forms, for example, aggressiveness in sports.

Despite the diversity of all psychological tricks their protection is united by one general characteristics- the relationship between psychological disorders and diseases of internal organs. Related to this are the peculiarities in the medical care of such patients, the need for the interaction of psychiatrists, psychologists and doctors who treat physical diseases.

Influence chronic stress on the body

For a person, stress is naturally a bad state, but if you look from the other side, then stress is the activation of all processes and defense mechanisms in the human body. Scientists have proven how a stressful situation arises, the activity of the adrenal cortex, pituitary gland and hypothalamus sharply increases, these structures release a huge amount of hormones and other active substances into the blood to keep the body in good shape. It also activates the immune system, immune defense organs produce more leukocytes, interferon and immunoglobulins.

This causes the fact that during nervous tension or stress a person needs less time to sleep, less food, and also the fact that it is very difficult to catch any infection. However, after stress, all these defense mechanisms are exhausted, and the person becomes very sleepy, hungry and unprotected even against mild infectious diseases. The effect of chronic stress on the body is even more detrimental.

Under the influence of unpleasant factors on a person in the natural environment and the social sphere, the depletion of the body passes very quickly. Consider how stress affects the main body systems.

It is worth bringing to the fore nervous system, the effect of chronic stress on her is the most detrimental, and leaves behind the greatest consequences. So, what happens in the brain during a period of constant stress? First of all, the nervous system is constantly in an excited state, which can provoke nervous behavior, irritability and insomnia in a person.

Given that the body is constantly depleted, active substances such as dopamine, serotonin and others are needed, the body begins to “require” stimulating substances. Perhaps every person has noticed that during hard work he constantly needs coffee, smokers are even more active, reaching for cigarettes. The need for sweets also increases, since a sufficient amount of glucose is needed for adequate brain function.

The constant influence of stress over time will lead to the fact that the work of the brain, despite the constant use of stimulants, will become less productive, which in turn leads to even greater stress on the nervous system and, over time, to the depletion of the cells of the nervous structures of the brain. Such conditions lead to psychological problems. Often these problems manifest themselves: attacks suicidal panic attacks.

However, even in conditions of chronic stress, you can and even need to try to maintain the normal activity of the nervous system. Doctors recommend taking sedatives and sedatives, of course, during the period of stress on the body, the use of these drugs will reduce the productivity of actions, but it will help maintain normal brain function and calmness. In addition, a healthy sleep regimen is very important.

Remember, sleep per day should be at least 7 hours! If a person suffers from insomnia under the influence of chronic stress, there are special recommendations, such as: take a warm shower before going to bed, eliminate all negative factors that prevent you from falling asleep (light, extraneous sounds, extra vibrations), an important factor is also the comfort of the bed. The bed should be moderately soft, the pillow comfortable.

A person should also cover adequately, that heat and cold are factors that do not help to fall asleep. Eating just before bedtime is not recommended, it is best done 2-3 hours before bedtime. Remember insomnia, only exacerbates the stressors!

It is worth noting that in addition to the nervous system, stress also adversely affects other human systems. During chronic stress, complications or relapses of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract very often occur.

Heart problems can occur up to heart attacks, and hemorrhagic strokes are also not uncommon. Infectious diseases can also often join with the influence of chronic stress on the body. This is due to the fact that although the immune system is initially very active, in a certain phase of chronic stress, it is completely depleted. In this state, anything can easily “cling” to the body.

The use of alcohol and narcotic substances in conditions of constant stress is categorically contraindicated. Such substances give the illusion of imaginary well-being and elimination of the problem, which, in fact, led to stress, but they do not solve the essence of the problem. In addition, the problem of developing addiction to such substances leads to the fact that even when a person’s problems dry up, problems of chronic alcoholism and drug addiction appear.

With chronic stress, the help of a psychotherapist will not be superfluous. You should not build illusions that the therapist himself will solve the problem for you, but he will help you figure out what will contribute to the appearance alternative view to the problem.

In conclusion, I would like to say that in modern reality there are many factors that provide stress. The influence of chronic stress on the body is very detrimental, but it must be dealt with with correct and adequate actions, otherwise this condition will not end in anything good.

Stress (from the English. Stress - tension) - a set of non-specific protective physiological reactions that occur under the influence of an emergency stimulus (physical or psychological), as well as the corresponding state of the nervous system of the body (or the body as a whole). The term "stress" was first introduced in 1936 by the Canadian scientist G. Selye.

The mechanism of stress

Under the action of an extraordinary (stressful) stimulus on the body, an intense persistent focus of excitation is formed in the cerebral cortex - a dominant that subjugates all the activity of the body.
Following the appearance of the dominant, a "chain reaction" develops, which prepares the body for an intense muscular load. Corticotropin-releasing factor is formed in the hypothalamus, which causes the pituitary gland to secrete a large portion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) into the blood, stimulating the activity of the adrenal glands, this leads to the release of adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormones). Under their influence, the heart begins to beat faster and stronger, blood pressure rises, breathing quickens, the water-salt balance of the blood changes, the sugar content and the number of leukocytes increase in the blood. All biochemical reactions are accelerated, the energy potential increases. Thanks to all these processes, the body adapts to new conditions. The mechanisms of such adaptation to the effects of physical, chemical, emotional and other stimuli are not specific and are common to any stressful effects. This made it possible to formulate the concept of the so-called general adaptation syndrome.

The adaptation syndrome proceeds in three stages, unfolding as a single process. These are the stage of anxiety, the stage of resistance (adaptation) and the stage of exhaustion. If stress occurs within the first two stages, then everything is fine, such stress is even beneficial for the body. If the stressful situation remains relevant (the conflict was not resolved successfully, some need remained unsatisfied), and also if a person constantly remembers what he experienced, impulses again enter the cerebral cortex that support the activity of the dominant, and stress hormones continue to be released into the blood. This leads to a decrease in the body's defenses, since the release of hormones exceeds the required level. Then comes the third stage of depletion of adaptive reserves, and this is a direct path to illness.

In the emergence of the adaptation syndrome, in addition to the hormones of the pituitary and adrenal glands, the nervous system plays a certain role. It has been established that an extreme stimulus first leads to excitation of the sympathetic nervous system and higher nerve centers, from where it is transmitted to the pituitary and adrenal glands.

However, without a certain level of stress, no vigorous activity is possible, and complete freedom from stress, according to Selye, is tantamount to death. Thus, stress can be not only harmful, but also beneficial for the body (the so-called eustress), it mobilizes its capabilities, increases resistance to negative influences (infections, blood loss, etc.), can lead to relief of the course and even the complete disappearance of many somatic diseases(peptic ulcer, allergy, bronchial asthma, coronary heart disease, etc.). Harmful stress (so-called distress) reduces the body's resistance, causes the occurrence and worsening of these diseases. Selye believed that diseases arising from stress are due either to its excessive intensity or to an inadequate response of the hormonal system to the action of the stressor.

Sometimes distress occurs even when exposure to stressors is low. The nature of the difference between eustress and distress is largely unclear. Behavioral reactions to stressful situation. An active search for ways to change it contributes to the stability of the body and does not lead to the development of diseases. If you refuse to actively search, the resistance phase of the adaptation syndrome turns into a phase of exhaustion and, in severe cases, can lead the body to death. An indicator of these types of behavior and an important mechanism for their regulation is the level of catecholamines in the brain. Thus, the nervous system determines the nature of the body's response to stress.

Symptoms:

	Fatigue, exhaustion
	Muscle pressure: teeth grinding during sleep, pain in the muscles of the jaw, back, neck and shoulders
	Headaches, migraine
	Irritability, nervousness, resentment
	Sleep disturbance: insomnia, nightmares
	Anxiety and panic
	Excessive pessimism, seeing the worst in everything
	Hyperactivity: sudden bursts of energy Inability to calm down and sit in one place
	Inability to correctly assess events, slow reactions Inability to focus attention, concentrate on one thing.

However, the patient himself denies the presence of these symptoms or stubbornly ignores them.

Here are just a few simple recipes from our favorite ship doctors:

	TOS: Shore Leave	Recipe from Dr. McCoy: A wonderful uninhabited planet resembling Earth. Park-like, beautiful, green, flowers, trees, green lawns, peace and quiet.... By the way, before you kick the captain on vacation, be sure to remind him that the rights of a crew member end where the safety of the ship begins.
	TNG: Captain's Holiday	Recipe from Dr. Crusher: Weekly vacation (especially useful for captains)
		Recipe from Dr. Bashir: Karvino juice... Lorvan crackers... a holosuite program... a jumja stick... and gambling tokens. And do not forget that you have every right to remove the captain from his duties. Remind your commander of this.
	VOY: Persistence of Vision	Recipe from EMH: Something nice for fun. Another holographic novel, for example. And mind you, this is the first time in ZF history that a hologram is giving orders to a captain.
	VOY: Scientific Method	For especially stubborn captains who do not follow the rest regimen prescribed by the doctor, who refuse to sleep and torture themselves with work under constant stress, who have a disgusting habit of eating on the go and who do not know how to rest at all (as a result of which they suffer from headaches), the last resort remains - osteopathic pressure therapy. And do not even try to look for easy ways - hypospray will never replace an intense massage session.

Women react to stress differently than men. Although the sex hormones and neurochemical processes of the fairer sex to some extent protect against stress, women are more susceptible to its physical and emotional effects. Women do not run away from stress and do not, but survive it long enough.

How stress affects women

The natural anti-stress hormone oxytocin is produced in women during childbirth, breastfeeding, and in both sexes during orgasm. So in this regard, the beautiful half of humanity wins. However, women need much more oxytocin than men to maintain their emotional health.

According to Dr. Paul Rosch, honorary vice president of the International Stress Management Association, women are worse affected by abstinence, and they also experience more stress than men.

According to experts from the American Academy of Family Physicians, stress is an expression of the natural instinct for self-preservation. And while it may alert a woman to an immediate danger, such as a fast approaching car, prolonged stress has a negative impact on physical and emotional health.

Our stress response has been carefully honed over millions of years as a defense mechanism. And it was wonderful for our ancestors, who had to run away from saber-toothed tigers. The tragedy is that today there are no tigers, but there are a lot of annoying things like traffic jams, to which our unfortunate body reacts like in the old days, earning hypertension, stroke and ulcers.

What diseases can be acquired due to stress

According to the American Stress Institute, 75–90% of first-time doctor visits are complaints of stress-related health disorders. The effects of stress can be in various ways: from headaches to irritable bowel syndrome.

Stress can be different, but if you are worried about work, children, neighbors and your marriage at the same time, this is no longer a joke. In women, severe stress can lead to menstrual irregularities or, for example, to an unexpected one.

Lori HeimLori Heim

Here are some of the body's reactions to stress:

1. Eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are 10 times more common in women than men, and this is most likely related to stress levels. Like depression, these disorders appear due to a lack of serotonin and are often treated by increasing the production of the hormone of happiness.
2. Stomach ache. Stress causes you to rush into unhealthy and “comfort” foods that are high in calories and easy to prepare. Another case: due to stress, you cannot eat anything at all. The main stress-related disorders are cramps, bloating, heartburn, and irritable bowel syndrome. Depending on whether you are stress eating or, on the contrary, starving, you gain or lose weight.
3. Skin reactions. Stress can exacerbate existing conditions, resulting in itchy rashes or blemishes.
4. Emotional disorders. Stress can lead to permanent bad mood, irritability, or more serious mental problems such as depression. Women are better than men at hiding anger because they have a larger area of ​​the brain responsible for such emotions, but women are twice as likely to be affected by depression. The impact of stress on a woman's emotional state can range from postpartum depression to depression during menopause.
5. Sleep problems. Stressed women often have trouble falling asleep, or their sleep is too light. And this is especially bad, because strong helps reduce the negative effects of stress.
6. Difficulties with concentration. Stress makes it difficult to focus and effectively cope with work and household chores. If stress is caused by problems at work, and then it interferes with work, then a vicious circle is obtained.
7. Heart diseases. Stress negatively affects the cardiovascular system, increases blood pressure, leads to heart attacks and strokes.
8. Decreased immunity. One of the most difficult physical responses to stress is a decrease in the body's ability to cope with a cold or chronic illness.
9. Crayfish. Some scientists believe that there is a link between stress and breast and ovarian cancer. So, it was found that the risk of developing breast cancer was 62% higher in women who experienced more than one difficult event, such as a divorce or death of a spouse.

How to Reduce Stress

A study presented at a recent meeting of the Western Psychological Association says that 25% of happiness depends on how well you manage stress. And the most important strategy in managing stress was planning or anticipating what might upset you, and using stress-reducing techniques. And these techniques are as old as the world.

Start eating right

Avoid junk food, eat balanced food. This is how you improve your physical state and then emotional. Here are some of our articles to help you:

Find time for exercise

Physical activity is a phenomenal way to deal with stress and depression. Research shows that exercise elevates your mood and releases endorphins, natural chemicals that improve your mood.

Doctors say: “You need to be less nervous,” but they don’t tell you how to do it. Today in the section "Healthy lifestyle" we talked with a psychotherapist about how stress and nerves affect our health.

Anastasia Sergeevna Pereira

psychotherapist, Gestalt therapist

Is it true that all diseases are due to nerves?

No, but there is some truth in this. Our body is a single system, the psyche and physical state are interconnected. Every emotion, every feeling is reflected in our body. A banal example is anxiety, in which our hands sometimes shake, our heart rate quickens, and sleep is disturbed.

Initially, emotions were needed to protect us, but over time, we began to push them out, suppress them, and they needed to go somewhere. They began to go into bodily manifestations - hence the concept of diseases due to the nerves. And yes, stress can cause devastating illnesses. But it is unlikely that you will develop a genetic disease if you are nervous.

What happens to me when I'm stressed?

The chain is like this:

The stressor (irritant) through the receptors acts on our peripheral nervous system,
- stimulation of receptors activates autonomic nervous system, mostly sympathetic department, which enhances the formation of releasing factors in hypothalamus,
- the latter stimulates the production of hormones in the anterior lobe pituitary gland,
- the reaction reaches adrenal cortex, stimulated and secreted cortisol- stress hormone.

In parallel with this stress reaction, a number of other hormonal changes occur, a “stress-limiting” system is launched, which prevents tissue damage under the influence of an excessive concentration of certain hormones in the body.

In general, stress is a normal and everyday reaction of the body, it makes us react to stimuli, adapt, find ways out of unpleasant situations and conditions.

The term "stress" was introduced by the scientist Hans Selye. In his opinion, stress is a non-specific reaction of the body to extraordinary circumstances, stimuli, and it has three stages.

First - anxiety when the body goes into shock, reacts to the irritant, begins to mobilize its forces to fight it. Second stage - resistance: we are looking for ways out of the situation and resolve the conflict. And often beyond this stage, stress does not go, the body returns to normal. But if the stress is too strong and prolonged, then the third stage comes - exhaustion.

So stress can literally kill me?

It all depends on its intensity, duration and frequency of exposure - in this case it will be called distress. If a person is in a constant state of stress, his adrenal glands produce hormones for a long time, the body begins to deplete. At one point, he can no longer cope - hence the illness and, in the worst case, death.

Sometimes a person cannot cope with the first stage of stress - anxiety, the mechanisms of the body are so activated that it is incomparable with life. This can happen, for example, if you really frighten a person.

With chronic stress and depression, a person fades away. Remember the grief of loss. It happens that in an elderly couple who have lived together for a long time, first one person dies, and then, after a few months, another. The fact is that when the meaning of life is lost, the body sees no reason to continue working normally.

What diseases can appear due to stress and nerves?

Whatever - a person can very creatively adapt to stress. For example, children may respond differently to stress caused by an angry kindergarten teacher. One child will suffer from enuresis, the second will complain about headache, the third one will just start fighting other guys. It all depends on the type of personality, lifestyle, conditions in which a person grew up and is now.

But there are diseases, the so-called "Chicago Seven" in which the main cause of occurrence will be mental problems. These are arterial hypertension, duodenal ulcer, ulcerative colitis, bronchial asthma, thyrotoxicosis, rheumatoid arthritis, neurodermatitis.

It is important to understand that not in all diseases the fundamental factor is mental, but at the same time it is present in any of them, just its percentage is different, and in this "seven" it is predominant. Even if a person suffers from cancer, there is such a factor. And if this person wants to go to psychotherapy, then the doctor can at least help him accept his illness, adapt, realize what is happening. Of course, we cannot cure cancer like this, but we will help a person to live this life with better quality, because a stable mental condition may reduce the intensity of symptoms.

How can I stop being nervous?

I'm always surprised when they say "we need to be less nervous." I will be happy for a person if he has a working scheme that calms him in one second so qualitatively that nothing comes back again, but I don’t know such. It is important to remember here that it is normal to experience emotions and feelings, albeit strong ones. There are no good or bad, positive or negative among them, our body needs them all. You only aggravate your condition by trying to force out and suppress some kind of emotion.

Emotion is a symptom, which is stupid to remove without finding a replacement. If you yourself can not cope with the cause, find it, go to a specialist. And now, when they say "stop being nervous", do not take it as a guide to action, remember: it's normal to feel.

What if you need to calm down right now?

Remember what helped you to be distracted, to cope with unpleasant emotions for you, and try to switch to it.

In addition, psychotherapy has drug treatment and we can help a person achieve a stable emotional state. In addition, psychotherapy is not indicated for everyone, and even if it is needed, we first stop the sharpness and only then conduct psychotherapy sessions.

And if I'm nervous in life (nervous)?

If you want to deal with this, good psychotherapy can help here: we need to know the cause of the problem, the purpose of the changes, and how to deal with it. The direction in which you would like to engage is your personal choice.

Often it comes from the family, from childhood: a person needs such a protective mechanism to cope with an unpleasant situation. And here it is important to understand that we do not change the personality, but we will help the person to better understand what is happening to him, why he became like this - due to this, the reaction to stimuli will also change.

How to actually deal with stress?

Everyone wants an easy way, but it doesn't work that way. Banal things help in the fight against stress: do what you want, not what you need, do what you love, go to your favorite job, live in your favorite family, relax, listen to your own body and its needs. And of course enter into your life physical exercise: not to build muscle, but to keep yourself in good shape. It doesn't matter whether you choose the gym or dancing - the main thing is to have fun.

It is also important to live in the moment, here and now, to recognize and accept yourself as different. Meditation practices are very good, but they need to be approached carefully. For many psychotic disorders, meditation can only hurt, so first make sure that it is not contraindicated for you. And find a good teacher.

Is there a cure for mental illness? What can I do to maintain mental health?

Everything that I have listed above, plus observe the daily routine and nutrition, regularly visit doctors and not run physical illness and also to teach foreign languages for the prevention of dementia.

It is important to live emotions with high quality, no matter how difficult they are, not to crumple them, not to hide, not to throw them away. If you live the emotion for real, and even better next to someone, it will let go faster.

We teach our children not to cry, not to get angry, and then I see them in therapy with their parents, we learn to get angry again, take offense, express emotions. By the way, in the overwhelming majority of cases, they turn out to be not so scary, for many it’s enough just to tell the person that he upset them.

What psychological trauma do we most often receive?

Any emotion can be considered a psychological trauma if a person cannot cope with it, if it worsens the quality of his life. This is about individuality: one person will successfully forget about bullying at school, another will take it with him for life, and the third will even come to suicide.

We face trauma every day, but we adapt. And the category of people who were protected from everything from childhood is much more prone to injury than children who were allowed by their parents to meet with stress. When you know what will hurt you, you either avoid such situations, or you already prepare and endure them much more calmly.

And how to deal with such injuries?

We live in society, and our emotions are born from contact with another person. It is very important, when something happens to us, to come to someone who is important to us, who is interested in us, who wants to be near, with whom we can share experiences. It is important to talk about your experiences.

Secondly, it is important to reflect, to live emotions. If you want to cry - cry, this is a normal reaction of the body. If you start swallowing tears, it will only get worse: bad dreams, nausea, problems jamming, etc. Are you angry? Shout, hit the pillow.

How to help a person if he came to me with such a problem?

Listen actively. You do not need to "turn on the rescuer" and think that you should tell the person how you should help. When a person feels bad, he does not always want to get advice and the standard “everything will be fine”. Moreover, he may react aggressively to this.

It is important to be with a person, to endure the whole palette of his emotions and feelings, perhaps just to sit, looking into his eyes. You can say what is happening to you at this moment, what you feel: not “oh, I (my great aunt) had a similar situation”, but “I see how much it hurts you, and this makes me sad, I sympathize with you ". No need to give advice, so we leave the person and his experiences, we run away.

What if I don't feel anything?

It's important not to lie. A person may not say that he does not believe you, but he will definitely leave with the feeling that something has not happened. In this situation, it is important to be honest at least with yourself, not to try to squeeze emotions out of yourself.

The best thing you can say in such a situation is: “I don’t know how it is, I can’t be in your place, it doesn’t work, but I definitely see how bad you feel and I can be with you now.” And sometimes that's really enough.

Here is a gymnastics for the body, which is advised to do every day. Is there one for the psyche?

I think that this can be attributed to meditative techniques. There is another exercise that might work well. Before going to bed, remember what you did during the day, what was good, what emotions you experienced and why, what you liked and what you didn’t, etc. A light analysis of what happened during the day, the truth improves the quality of life: we do not just spin in a string of events, but we realize what the day was like.

29.01.2018, 08:08

All diseases are from the nerves, goes the old saying. Psychologists specify - the reason for everything is stress. Even a common cold can be caused by anxiety, fear, lack of attention. A tired and unloved person came down with the flu - and received the missing portion of rest and care. The child is afraid to go to school - and now fever and sore throat are in a hurry to help. Psychosomatic medicine sees a direct connection between the state of mind and body. How negative emotions provoke the occurrence of seasonal viral diseases and whether it is possible to scare off a cold with a good mood - in our material.

Anxiety and fear damage the immune system

In late January - early February, there is a traditional rise in the incidence of SARS. In order not to become a target for viruses, it's time to think about prevention. From the point of view of psychosomatics, the best option is to clean up the soul and get rid of the accumulated suppressed emotions. The first step is to address anxiety.

- Fear and background anxiety reduce immunity, because our adrenal glands produce stress hormones: adrenaline and cortisol. Both hormones are needed by the body to cope with stress more easily. They pose a health hazard in chronic stress - when they are released in large quantities, - explains medical psychologist Anna Topyuk. - If anxiety is situational, it is adequate stress. The order “fight” or “run” appeared - the hormone was developed, the person did something to get rid of the threat that had arisen, and the level of cortisol dropped. But if a person simply suppressed stress, the hormone was produced and remained above the norm. The immune system fails.

A person who is constantly anxious receives a powerful blow to the body. Moreover, if you do not like to drink water, this will aggravate the situation. “Hormones are excreted from the body by water. If you don’t drink it, the action of hormones will be long-lasting, ”the specialist notes.

On a subconscious level, we ourselves allow ourselves to get sick in order to get away from any situation for a while. The body says: "Stop!"

But you need to remember: stress is different stress. If in a chronic form it becomes a fertile ground for diseases, then a short-term shake-up, on the contrary, mobilizes and turns on the body's defenses. “There is no life without stress, because a healthy person, in order to feel alive and complete, needs to feel the presence of problems that need to be addressed as they arise,” says the psychologist. - If the level of stress has grown to a threshold where a person can no longer adapt and the tension is too high, then useful stress is transformed into dangerous. And this danger provokes not only the psyche, but also the somatics (body) to react.”

Despondency attracts the virus

Autumn despondency due to cold and frost aversion - these experiences disturb the soul and become a trigger for chronic stress. As a result, the mood becomes even worse, because now the blues are accompanied by a cough, a sore throat and other classic signs of SARS.

You need to try to change the stereotypes that provoke anxiety, the psychologist suggests. “If there is a belief that summer is pleasant and winter is not, learn to accept the unpleasant season as it is - with all the cold and the need to dress,” recommends Anna Topyuk.

In addition, the firm belief that you will get sick can result in a real cold. This attitude makes you constantly wait for possible health problems and worry about it. As a result, stress hits the immune system, and a weakened body is not able to resist the virus.

We let ourselves get sick

Falling down with the flu, the body says it's reached its limits.

- A person loads himself with worries, works seven days a week, tries to do as much as possible, and as a result gets sick. As a rule, on a subconscious level, we ourselves allow ourselves to get sick in order to temporarily get away from an unsolvable situation, the specialist states. - The body says: “Stop! Look, winter has just come, you have a reason to stop. Everything happens subconsciously - a person may even wonder why he suddenly fell ill. He will believe that he caught a cold because of the open window, the cold, and does not realize that, it turns out, he took care of himself so much, showed tenderness to himself and thus gave himself the opportunity to rest.

If you have to work at an unloved job or there are problems in the team, this only adds to the blues. They begin to overcome the tendency to despondency and lack of taste for life. “It's no wonder adults get sick at jobs that aren't satisfying. After all, every day is stressful. And in winter and autumn, there is a legitimate opportunity to get ARVI and let the body relax. A person allows himself this, this is the so-called secondary benefit from the disease, ”explains Anna Topyuk.

The psychologist warns: if you do not know how to express and manifest your needs, to defend your position, this will increase the likelihood of a cold. If an employee is afraid to ask the boss for a vacation, and there is no strength to work from dawn to dusk, the body will find its way out. A sneezing and coughing employee with a high temperature will no longer have questions about an unplanned absence from strict management.

Among emotional reasons Respiratory infections are also called by psychologists the loss of joy in life, self-dislike, low self-esteem, fear of the future. A cold will also be attracted to those who want to know everything about everyone, control everyone and teach life.

Don't give SARS a chance

To fight back SARS will help the manifestation of emotions. Feeling joy and love, feeling comfortable at work and at home, adding rest and relaxation to your life (for example, swimming pool and massage), you will help the body keep immunity at a high level and resist viruses. Allow yourself to rest, realize that it is impossible to do everything and highest level. Do not seek to solve other people's problems when no one asks for it, and take days off more often. “A person who accepts life as it is, treats himself and others with unconditional love, without guilt or accusation, may not be afraid of viruses,” Anna Topyuk is sure. “I haven’t had a cold for several years now. It happens that one day I sneeze, but the next there is nothing. Even if I take this virus, it doesn’t stay with me because it doesn’t resonate with me.”

People suffering from ARVI should think about what conflicts they carry in themselves. “You need to turn to yourself and a certain level of self-understanding in order to identify the causes of increased anxiety. Ask yourself: Am I satisfied with my life right now? It is very important to understand whether there is inner well-being or not. Outwardly, after all, everything may seem in order - a smile, kindness, an active lifestyle, but cats are scratching at the heart at this time, ”the specialist describes a common situation.

A firm belief that you will get sick can end in a real illness. This attitude makes you constantly wait for possible health problems. The accumulated stress hits the immune system, as a result, a weakened body cannot resist the virus.

Two different person may react differently to the same problem. Some people retreat before a difficult and unpleasant situation, while others constantly push themselves forward. Some, faced with resentment, try to quickly forget about it, but others cannot calm down for a long time and yearn for revenge.

Anna Topyuk recommends changing your lifestyle with the help of psychological work over self and introspection. It is useful to notice your true emotions and needs, learn to recognize and solve your own internal conflicts in time, so as not to trip up immunity. Putting things in order in the soul is an effective prevention not only against influenza and SARS, but also a good protection against other diseases.

How to bring order to the soul

Ask yourself what solution to the problem you are avoiding. It often happens that the problem is not noticed and not solved, as this may affect some area of ​​life, a person may be latently afraid of what other people will say and think. Think about the secondary benefit: it may be more convenient for you to get sick than to directly declare something and defend your rights.

Ask yourself what you are afraid to admit to yourself. Alcoholics experience similar feelings: they know that they drink a lot, but they cannot admit to themselves that they are addicted to alcohol. In the case of stress that provokes colds and other diseases, about the same. Sometimes the mere awareness and recognition of the problem can alleviate the condition. When you admit that you have a specific problem, then the disease has served its purpose and is no longer needed.

Ask yourself if everything in life is going the way I would like. Is my life going the way I dreamed.

Ask yourself the question: have I endured in silence for too long and am I so satisfied with my life.

Angina as a gift to a student

If the child is emotionally more comfortable at home than at school or kindergarten, he is more prone to blues. Thus, he expresses his unwillingness to be in an environment that is not the most pleasant for him. “Children use the opportunity to get sick as a gift to avoid being in a hostile environment. For a child, this becomes a way out, he gets sick and stays at home more often,” the specialist explains. - In this way, children also receive a secondary benefit - the attention of their parents. By the way, often psychological reasons parents simply do not see the disease and look more at the medical aspect. Although the child is actually stressed, his body has weakened. At the same time, mind you, not everyone catches a cold - those who have a favorable, comfortable environment both at home and at school or kindergarten are less susceptible to viruses.