Signs and Symptoms of Stress Exhaustion

By: Corwin Brown Click author's name for more of his/her articles

What’s the cause of nervous exhaustion? Chronic stress. When you experience stress, your body produces adrenal hormones that excite your nervous system. Whether you're late paying the mortgage or a Bengal tiger is chasing you, the result is the same – rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, and emotional agitation. On a short-term basis, this is a good thing because it is your body’s method of self-preservation.

Stress Exhaustion is a combination of physical and emotional exhaustion which is the result of prolonged high stress situations. Combined with lack of rest, stress exhaustion can be highly debilitating. People who suffer from stress exhaustion feel overwhelmed by the events around them. Many also experience feelings of frustration and helplessness. If not addressed, stress exhaustion can lead to additional health problems.

Stress exhaustion can be very frightening to experience...demands, failures, setbacks,
worries, pressures or threats are bearing heavily upon us but we are aware of becoming less and less able to respond to the situation we are constantly tired - in fact we are becoming more and more dysfunctional we just desperately "want out" of this distressing situation and we are in danger of taking hasty action that we might later regret!

Stress Exhaustion affects the immune system, the body's first line of defense against illness. High amounts of stress release hormones which depress the immune system. In the short term, this may not have a detrimental effect. In the long term, however, the immune system will be compromised by these hormones. Stress exhaustion has been linked with depression, heart disease, and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases.

Signs and Symptoms of Stress Exhaustion

Symptoms include feeling tired, weak, and dizzy; headache, nausea and possible vomiting. Heavy perspiration; skin feels moist.

Mainly a symptom of anxiety and stress, excessive worry means the sufferer worries about even the smallest of life’s events. A sufferer will be unable to find positive outcomes to anything and will continually assign negative outcomes to all situations. In continually assigning negative outcomes, life becomes very hard as sufferers are in a fearful state of mind for prolonged periods, a state that harms the body as well as the mind.
The higher the level of farm stress, the greater the likelihood that the individual farmer will be showing some of the physical and psychological symptoms of stress.
Some women experience signs or symptoms of pregnancy within a week of conception. For other women, pregnancy symptoms may develop over a few weeks or may not be present at all. Below is a listing of some of the most common pregnancy signs symptoms. If you have been sexually active and experiencing any of the following symptoms it is important to take a pregnancy test.

Hormonal changes in the stress response can aggravate migraines, arthritis, and backaches. In fact, headaches and backaches are two of the most frequent physical symptoms of chronic stress. Millions of dollars are spent every year on over-the-counter pills to relieve these pains. Physical symptoms caused by stress are more common than most people realize. Stress is a major cause of a variety of physical complaints. Physicians estimate that at least 50 per cent of all patient office visits are for problems caused by one type of stress or another.

Adrenalin is what gives athletes that winning burst of energy and Good Samaritans the ability to rescue people by lifting cars. Adrenalin is also the source of our "fight-or-flight" response, which enabled our prehistoric ancestors to escape from saber-toothed tigers and other predators. By stimulating your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin, caffeine puts your body in this "fight-or-flight" state, which is useless while you're just sitting at your desk. When this adrenal high wears off later, you feel the drop in terms of fatigue, irritability, headache or confusion.