Does stress affect acne? Relationship between stress and hormonal disorders

Hello everyone! Stress is an immediate response of the human body to rapidly changing external conditions. It can be any situation, both harmless and requiring caution. An individual is able to experience shock at the sight of a car racing through a red light, at the approach of an aggressive person or a stray dog. Such situations cause the release of hormones, with the help of which one or another reaction to such an event is formed.

Stress is an essential part of everyday human existence these days. Its peculiarity lies in exactly how and with what intensity the individual's body will react to the current situation. Most often, the greatest burden falls on the emotional or physical sphere. And today we will talk about how stress affects human health.

Causes of stress

The most common causes of stress are:

  • overload;
  • new work;
  • constant nagging of the boss;
  • strong shock;
  • conflict;
  • anxiety;
  • panic fear;
  • self-doubt;
  • significant hypothermia;
  • possible accident;
  • disease;
  • received injury;
  • hunger;
  • thirst, etc.

Such influences entail a corresponding reaction of the organism. It can be very different. It depends on the complexity of the situation and its impact on the person. It also matters whether he himself, the people for whom he is responsible or his relatives are involved in it.

It is very important how it manifests itself. The person either hides and suppresses them. It may also be an option that he does not show the feelings that he actually experiences in order to achieve the necessary reaction of others.

Stress can arise at any time. Even a small child who is called to the blackboard at school is already experiencing it. In the future, almost every step of an adult is accompanied by one or another negative impact.

What are the reactions to stress?

If there are too many such situations or the body's reaction to them is inadequate, then they can be harmful. Gradually:

  • the person becomes anxious;
  • it decreases;
  • he is constantly nervous;
  • irritated;
  • crying;
  • screaming;
  • swearing, etc.

As a result, he is very quickly exhausted, tired, his attention is scattered, his memory is reduced, muscle clamps begin to appear, which entail quite severe pain.

Human health gradually begins to suffer. Oriental medicine is generally of the opinion that most diseases occur under the influence of stress. Indeed, bronchial asthma, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, stomach ulcers, etc. develop precisely as a result of nervous overload.

This happens because a significant negative nervous effect does not pass without a trace for a person. He develops a severe emotional disorder, temporary under normal conditions or permanent under continued stress. Any failure in the body of an individual begins with a psychological trauma. It is she who pulls with her other dysfunctions of internal organs.

Therefore, specialists in the field of medicine and psychology are closely engaged in the study of this serious problem. It has been proven that most diseases of the internal organs occur under the influence of nervous overload. If they are repeated too much, then the development of pathology is possible.

It happens in the following way. At the moment of a stressful situation, the endocrine organs are activated. An active release of hormones begins. Their excess has a strong effect on the brain, stomach, cardiovascular system. If such a state is prolonged or not neutralized, then a failure occurs.

A sharp release of a large number of various hormones leads to a significant increase in heart rate, sudden jumps in blood pressure, and the reaction of the parasympathetic system. If this is repeated often enough, then gradually the body's defenses are reduced. Sometimes a poor state of immunity is no longer able to protect a person from even the development of cancer.

Thus, an abundance of stress weakens a person, disrupts his metabolism, and inhibits regeneration processes in cells and tissues. They suffer from this:

  • leather;
  • muscles;
  • brain;
  • spinal cord;
  • bones;
  • hair;
  • nails;
  • thyroid;
  • spine, etc.

The bones become thinner, which leads to fractures, and the constantly elevated hormonal background disrupts the metabolism, genitourinary system, gastrointestinal tract and nerves.

In order to prevent this from happening, it is necessary to give an outlet to stress. This is possible in the presence of a muscular or emotional load. If you do not accumulate it, but get rid of it, then it can even be useful for the body.

The essence of a hormonal attack is to activate all the systems necessary to cope with the situation. Since these days, increased effort is usually not required for this, the way out can be given through an emotional or muscular response. Subsequently, the body, faced with a similar problem, no longer reacts to it so sharply, but quickly finds a solution already embedded in memory cells.

If stress occurs only occasionally and is not destructive, then it can be beneficial to health. This happens when his action does not exceed the danger of the situation or the person knows how to cope with it. The main thing is that the problems do not become too frequent and strong. Otherwise, the body will simply stop fighting them.

At first, headaches begin to appear. Then there will be an arrhythmia, an increase in blood pressure. After a short time, these pathologies become generalized and become chronic.

It is very important not to try to cope with stress with alcohol, smoking or drugs. In addition to a strong blow to the psyche, the influence of such substances will significantly worsen the state of health. The consequences may be delayed. That is, at first a person will experience relief, and then a serious illness will gradually arise that can even lead to death.

How stress affects human health

Then a state called distress manifests itself. It negatively affects health by damaging cells and tissues. It is subdivided into:

  1. nervous;
  2. short-term;
  3. chronic;
  4. psychological;
  5. physiological.

Therefore, stress can affect a person in a variety of ways. You should not think that for a significant impairment of health, too strong a nervous shock is required. Small, but constantly recurring nervous situations are no less dangerous. Gradually, they merge together and pose a direct threat to health.

It can manifest itself abruptly, under the influence of a specific negative situation, or accumulate day after day in a traumatic environment.

Then stress can create serious problems. This is due to the fact that its flow is subject to a certain logic. The body's response is aimed at helping a person adapt to the unfavorable situation.

Therefore, stress goes through three successive periods of time, consisting of anxiety, the stage of adaptation to specific conditions and exhaustion, if this did not happen.

Anxiety and adaptation are the normal course of this reaction, leading to positive results. But in the case when there are a lot of stressful situations and the body does not have time to adapt to them, or they are repeated so often that the adaptation loses its strength, then the stage of exhaustion begins. It is usually followed by the development of any disease.

They can manifest themselves in the psyche, nervous system, metabolism and the functioning of the internal organs of a person. If he already suffers from any disease, it may become exacerbated and even degenerate into a malignant tumor. Most often, an excess of stressful situations leads to:

  • ischemic heart disease;
  • heart attack;
  • stroke
  • hypertension;
  • angina;
  • cholecystitis;
  • duodenal ulcer;
  • gastric colic;
  • dermatitis;
  • urticaria;
  • neurodermatitis;
  • neurosis.

Stress brings considerable harm to the nervous system and psyche. It becomes more and more difficult for a person to cope with ordinary everyday situations, he ceases to believe in himself, it is difficult for him to force himself to do something, he does not believe in the success of the work begun. Gradually, he develops depression and even suicidal thoughts.

A completely healthy person may first start to catch a cold. Then suffer from minor ailments, and later find that he has developed a serious illness.

Stress is very bad for women. Under its constant influence, they age, the skin ceases to be fresh and elastic, and the hair begins to thin.

Thus, a person should be able to cope with such situations or, if this is not possible, avoid them. If you live in a state of constant nervous tension, this can end in very serious consequences.

Under the influence of chronic stress, the human body simply wears out, the resources of his psyche and nervous system are depleted, and internal organs cease to cope with their load. The individual falls ill and is not always able to recover. As soon as one disease recedes, another immediately begins. The overall life expectancy is also reduced.

Therefore, it should be understood that stress can arise both under the influence of an external situation (conflict, attack) and internal (anxiety, fear). Moreover, the problem does not have to be real, it can only occur in the imagination of a person. For example, a student who has perfectly prepared for an exam experiences an inexplicable horror of the teacher. Or a person who has received a new position and is thoroughly familiar with the technological process is worried that he will not be able to cope with the work.

Therefore, the manifestation of such unreasonable emotions should be controlled, since the human brain, which sends signals to the endocrine organs, does not distinguish between where the real danger lies and where the imaginary one lies.

In addition, even if a person has already developed some kind of psychosomatic illness, he must learn to properly respond to stressful situations. This can be achieved by putting your emotional reactions under the control of your mind, for example,.

If a person begins to fully realize that every traumatic problem leads to a sharp deterioration in his health, then he should think about how important it is for him to work in an unfriendly team, engage in overly stressful work, or be married to an alcoholic.

Now you know how stress affects human health. Take care of yourself! See you soon!

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Everyone is subject to stress. And besides the fact that you will feel anxiety, irritation, aggression, apathy, resentment and sadness, stress can also undermine physical health. And of course, it will negatively affect the result of training if you exercise regularly. Although there is a positive point - the same training, physical activity, sports can minimize the impact of stress. Therefore, we decided to understand the relationship between stress and training in more detail.

Despite the fact that the causes of stress can be a variety of factors, one way or another, all of them will cause us negative emotions. And these negative emotions trigger changes in the body - both at the physiological and biochemical levels. Stress can be short-term (a strong shock, fear, a sudden problem) and long-term (permanent problems that turn into one another and are difficult to solve, problems in the family or at work - all this can even lead to prolonged depression). Regardless of the type of stress and the factors that caused it, the following things will happen in your body:

  • heartbeat quickens;
  • blood pressure rises;
  • the flow of blood into the digestive system decreases, but its flow to the muscles of the whole body increases;
  • anxiety, aggression, irritability, a sharp drop in mood and even a panic attack may occur;
  • sleep disturbances and insomnia occur;
  • loss of appetite;
  • libido decreases;
  • rolls fatigue and apathy;
  • the skin condition worsens, even allergic reactions may occur;
  • stress can lead to vasospasm, dysfunction of any of the body's systems, and a heart attack.

How does stress affect physical activity?

Despite all the above negative factors, it is worth saying that stress still increases the level of endurance - due to the release of a large amount of adrenaline into the blood, the muscles become stronger and more resilient from blood flow to them, but for a short time. It also increases the level of the hormone oxytocin - the so-called attachment hormone - which makes you seek help from other people. All this is a normal defensive reaction of the body, it tries to get out of a critical situation and overcome an extreme situation by any means.

Any physical activity, one way or another, at times increases the resistance of the whole organism and the nervous system, in particular, to stress, especially if it is regular. But if the stress is strong, and you continue to exercise, the risk of heart attacks and strokes increases due to the fact that a large amount of adrenaline is released into the blood.

The hormone cortisol also plays a huge role in training progress. It is called so - the stress hormone, and its level in the blood rises every time with strong experiences. What are the negative effects of cortisol on our body?

  • There is a feeling of fatigue, even if you train at half strength;
  • there is aches and pain in the muscles, as after overtraining;
  • narrowing of the vessels, while the blood circulates at an increased speed;
  • there is an accelerated breakdown of all nutrients - proteins, fats and carbohydrates, as well as useful vitamins, macro- and microelements;
  • protein synthesis is inhibited as much as possible, and, accordingly, muscle growth;
  • muscle fibers begin to disintegrate, muscles decrease in volume;

All this leads to the fact that we are weaker, we cannot perform the entire volume of training, our muscle mass decreases, and fat begins to accumulate instead. At first, it may seem to you that you are only losing weight, but, in fact, there is a replacement of muscle mass with fat - you will increase in volume and lose the quality and shape of the body.

What to do?

There are some useful tips and tricks that will help you make your workouts effective even when stressed, and moreover, will help you overcome it faster.

  1. Do not transfer problems to the gym - abstract from them during the lesson, fully concentrating on the training process.
  2. Increase your daily calorie intake (by about 15%), but not at the expense of carbohydrates or fats, but at the expense of protein foods.
  3. Do not overwork in training: let their number remain the same, and the time of the session itself decrease (no more than an hour).
  4. Eat more vitamin C - it will give energy to your body and will stimulate you to do more and better.
  5. If you don't have the energy for strength training, do cardio, such as light jogging, or go for yoga, Pilates, stretching.
  6. Be sure to recover between workouts, make sure that at least a day passes between classes, get enough sleep and do not skip meals.
  7. Watch your diet and do not try to “seize” stress with something harmful and sweet.
  8. Try to compensate for stress with something pleasant: meeting friends, going to the theater or a concert, watching your favorite movie or book, going to nature, etc.

Each of us has experienced stress at least once in our lives when preparing for exams, before public speaking, at competitions, before an interview or after being fired - there are a lot of reasons. However, many do not attach importance to this, forgetting what dangerous consequences of stress can overtake them a little later. We will remind you of them.

How stress affects the body

Short-term stress is sometimes useful, for example, to increase efficiency and productivity. But when you experience stress too often or for too long, it becomes chronic and begins to not only affect the brain, but also harm your body directly.

The physiology of stress is such that when entering this state, an important paired organ of our body, the adrenal glands, is actively connected to work. They secrete special hormones: cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Moving through the body along with the blood flow, these hormones enter the vessels and the heart, in particular, adrenaline makes the heart beat faster and increases blood pressure.

In fact, the adrenal glands are responsible for the "second wind" that opens up in a person in a critical situation. But if this situation drags on, then the adrenal glands continue to work without stopping, without even having time to recover. Let's take a closer look at the effects of stress on our body.

Dangerous effects of stress

  • A stressful state loosens the human nervous system and overloads it, exhausting the adrenal glands, and a regular increase in blood pressure causes hypertension. All this increases the chances of a heart attack or heart attack. The hormone cortisol released during this can disrupt the functioning of the endothelium - the first step towards the development of atherosclerosis.
  • The effects of stress also include irritable bowel syndrome and heartburn. When your brain feels stressed, it relays the stress message to the enteric nervous system, which controls the smooth muscles in the gastrointestinal tract. This disrupts the natural rhythmic contractions that move the food eaten, and increases susceptibility to acid. Through the enteric nervous system, stress can change the composition and functioning of intestinal bacteria, which impairs digestion and the health of the whole body.

Can you die from stress?

There are three stages of stress: anxiety, resistance, and exhaustion. At the first stage, the body produces stress hormones and prepares for protection, at the second stage, it throws all its strength into resisting stimuli, trying to adapt to the current situation.

And if the stressful state continues, and it comes to the third stage, then exhaustion sets in: the body's reserves can no longer be mobilized, which leads to the emergence of physical diseases and psychological disorders. And since serious illnesses are also included in the consequences of stress, if they are not properly treated, they can really lead the patient to death.

It turns out that you, fortunately, will not die from stress as such, but the lingering consequences caused by it can lead to anything. Therefore, we advise you not to let things take their course and start fighting stress so as not to trigger its consequences - we already wrote how this can be done in the article “ Anger Management: Effective Stress Management Methods”.

The following video will help you find out the symptoms and causes of stress:


Take it, tell your friends!

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The nature of the processes occurring in the body and leading to the appearance of acne has not yet been thoroughly studied. That is why this nasty disease is so difficult to treat. Among the causes that lead to the occurrence of rashes, stress sometimes appears. But the direct relationship between the emotional state and such skin manifestations has not yet been scientifically substantiated.

Sudden acne before a first date, wedding, graduation, graduation photo or other event at least once annoyed everyone. But a stressful situation is not necessarily reflected in skin rashes. It is impossible to predict the body's reaction to nervous tension, but it is impossible to deny the relationship between the state of the skin and emotions.

"All diseases are from nerves!" - a cliché based on scientific justification. The body, being in a state of emotional discomfort for some time, fails. The functions of organs are oppressed.

  1. First of all, the organs responsible for the production of hormones suffer. In a crisis situation, adrenaline is released, cortisol production increases. These hormones start a chain reaction, which results in an increase in the secretion of the sebaceous glands. The skin does not have time to cope with excess fat, becomes oily and covered with acne.
  2. The effect of adrenaline on the liver is an increase in glucose levels, which affects the formation of acne. And the liver itself in a stressful situation does not cope with the elimination of toxins, exacerbating the problem.
  3. Nervous strain becomes an impetus for the awakening of chronic diseases (gastritis, ulcers, and others). The connection of which with the appearance of acne is scientifically substantiated and beyond doubt. Rashes on certain areas of the face and body are read by a doctor as a map of pathological changes in the body.
  4. Prolonged depressive states are treated both with hormonal medications and folk methods with the help of herbs. An allergic skin reaction in the form of rashes is possible on individual components of drugs.

Thus, the direct relationship between the condition of the skin and stress has not yet found a scientific justification. But nervous tension catalyzes processes that directly affect the epidermis.

Other reactions of the body to stressful situations

In addition to the physiological connections that are described above, there is also a human factor, a problem.

  1. Trying to get out of a depressive state, men increase the number of cigarettes they smoke, women sometimes try to "seize" stress. Buns, chocolate, alcohol and other products come to the rescue, to which the skin reacts unambiguously - with rashes.
  2. Depression, nerves, fear, excitement cause uncontrolled nervous movements, a desire to endlessly fiddle with objects in your hands (phone, button, handkerchief, keys) or scratch your skin. The result is literally on the face.
  3. What are the sleepless nights spent in understanding the situation that caused depression. Hours of thinking over a way out of the current situation do not give the body a good rest. This causes a weakening of the immune system, inhibition of organ functions. The skin, which lacks the necessary nutrients, also suffers, becomes thinner, loses its ability to resist microorganisms.
  4. Hygiene in a stressful situation, it happens, fades into the background. Two sleepless nights spent by a teenager studying for exams leave no room for skin care. Not having received the necessary cleansing, the pores become clogged, becoming a beneficial environment for the formation of comedones.
  5. The stress of acne that has already appeared forces you to resort to decorative cosmetics in an attempt to hide inflammation and disguise blackheads. This is a mistake that leads to an increase in clogged pores and aggravates the situation. A vicious circle closes: depression grows, acne appears on a nervous basis.

The processes that occur in the body at the cellular level during emotional disruptions create fertile ground for the appearance of acne. And a person, having lost control over the situation, aggravates the problem with spontaneous and thoughtless actions.

How to stabilize the psycho-emotional state

It is useless to fight acne that has appeared as a result of nervous breakdowns without eliminating the root cause. Therefore, the right decision is to make efforts to achieve emotional balance.

  1. No matter how hackneyed it may sound, it is important to abstractly look at the problem, to find positive aspects in it. If you cannot do this on your own, do not hesitate to consult a doctor.
  2. It is pointless to spend the night thinking about the problem and re-experiencing stress in this way. Talk to your doctor about choosing sedatives to help you sleep. It is not necessary to take medications, medicinal herbs are also suitable for this purpose.
  3. Replace meaningless pastime with sports. This step will have two positive effects at once: it will distract and saturate the body with oxygen, which will have a beneficial effect on the condition of the skin.

Psychological problems should not be left to chance. The common belief that time heals is a misconception. The problem hides, "falls asleep" in order, under favorable conditions, to remind of itself with a vengeance.

What to do to relieve skin manifestations caused by stress

Even after eliminating the source of the problem, do not expect acne to disappear on its own. Comprehensive help to the skin in the fight against rashes, strengthens the body and improves well-being.

  • Don't pop inflamed pimples. This leads to the spread of infection (and acne is nothing more than an infected pimple) on the surface of the skin.
  • Increase your fluid intake. Pure water speeds up the metabolism, helps to remove toxins, replenishes the disturbed water balance of the epidermis. A healthy body needs two liters of water per day. Clean, except for tea, coffee and entrees. Coffee, by the way, is better to exclude from the diet.
  • To eliminate comedones (black dots), use steam baths based on chamomile, sage, calendula. These herbs reduce irritation and help fight bacteria. After steaming, use a gentle scrub. Finish off with a nourishing cream.
  • Eels cannot be steamed. And not a single inflammatory process in the body can be exposed to elevated temperatures. The meaning of the fight against such rashes comes down to drying pimples, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory point effects. To solve these problems, clay-based masks with the addition of aloe, calendula, and juniper are suitable.
  • To help the skin, do not be too lazy to follow a diet. Add foods of plant origin, exclude fried, fatty and spicy. Drink a course of bifidobacteria, which normalize bowel function.

Acne and blackheads resulting from psychological problems are a temporary phenomenon, but this is no reason to ignore their formation. They signal problems in the body that stress has caused.

How to prevent the problem of acne on nerves

It is impossible to predict when and for what reason nerves will fail. Therefore, “laying straws” will not succeed either. But following measures to keep the body in shape will help prevent the occurrence of acne.

  • Cleanse your face and body properly. Choose skin care products that suit your skin type. Remember that she needs cleansing, toning and nourishment. Do not neglect these procedures. But do not abuse them, because excessive cleansing thins the top layer of the skin, which makes it vulnerable and irritated.
  • Carry out procedures that strengthen the immune system. Drink a course of vitamins, restore the intestinal microflora with the help of lactobacilli. Walk more often in the fresh air and go in for general strengthening sports: yoga, fitness, running, swimming.
  • Increase stress resistance. Take specialized courses, download video tutorials or books. Do not be too lazy to invest time and patience in developing your own qualities. This will affect the general condition and will be useful in psychologically difficult life situations.
  • Rest. A night at a computer or even a smart book is stressful for the body. The body needs sleep to recuperate. A weakened body is not able to deal with stress. The number of hours of sleep needed for a good rest, individually. But the generally accepted norm is 7-8 hours a day. If you feel tired during the day, then take half an hour to sit with your eyes closed and relax.

Fighting fear, anxiety, depression requires energy and fortitude. To help the body survive in a stressful situation, daily care, nutrition and regimen help. A prepared body endures emotional stress steadfastly and without serious consequences.

How Stress Affects the Skin

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Remember how it was. Spring, love, session. Then the level of the stress hormone - cortisol in your blood must have gone through the roof, but this was the norm. Unless it happened, having learned all the tickets, you came to the exam and understood: your head is empty. The effect of stress on memory has long been proven. Once he improves it, under other circumstances - like an eraser erases information from the brain. But until now, scientists do not understand how to use this connection to your advantage.

SCIENTISTS SAY OUR GRAY STUFF CAN SURVIVE THE HIGHEST LOADS

Memory device

Going to a scheduled appointment with a gynecologist, 29-year-old Anya could not imagine that she would leave the doctor's office in an ambulance. But it turned out that our heroine needed an urgent operation. In the hospital, Anya (don't worry, everything ended well) they began to ask about what tests she had already taken, how long she had been examined ... Questions rained down in a prickly hail, she could not concentrate at all. But at some point, she “turned on” and remembered everything.

“I was distracted from my diagnosis, and the events themselves stood before my eyes,” Anya said. It is important to make a small digression here. The human brain weighs an average of 1.3 kilograms and is made up of millions of nerve cells called neurons. Do you think you memorize poetry when you reread lines a hundred times? In fact, it's all about the ability of neurons to communicate with each other. Imagine the scheme of any subway - the interweaving of branches. Some of them are called axons, others are called dendrites, and the grafting stations are synapses.

The more actively the number of lines and their intersections grows (connections between neurons become denser), the better memories are kept in the head. What needs to be done to start this process? Neuroscientists answer - for example, survive short-term stress. When you worry, the sympathetic nervous system releases cortisol and epinephrine into the blood, which give an impetus to the launch. There is one “but”: stress should not be so serious as to cause trauma to the psyche.

Girl's memory

True, we women do not fit into the framework of research. American neuroscientist Larry Caill found that short-term stress always improves memory in men, but not in women. It all depends on the phase of the menstrual cycle. Backfilling question: what does not depend on it ?!

Dr. Caill found that before and during menstruation, when estrogen levels are high, stress clouds memory. And when the amount of progesterone in the blood begins to increase, the ability to assimilate information becomes more acute. One day, our friend Anya, while loading shopping bags into the car, left one of them on the roof of the car. The package was returned to her by the valet, who noticed how something weighty slipped off the subcompact. Apparently, at that moment, estrogens in Anya's blood were celebrating the victory of femininity over scientific progress.

Warm-up for the mind

You just met your new lawyer yesterday, but today you have no idea what his name is. This would not have happened if you had known about the method of associations.

Names.
Never again will Ivan Petrovich, by your grace, become Fyodor Sergeevich. Unless, of course, you start to be more attentive to people. Next time, do not be too lazy to look at a new acquaintance. Highlight his remarkable feature and associate with the name. For example, "Ivan Petrovich looks like Gaft."

Purchases.
Most people make a list on paper before going to the store. But if you forgot to do this, try mentally spreading the products over your body. For example, pour milk into shoes, decorate your head with a loaf of bread. It sounds crazy, but such strange associations trigger verbal-logical memory. Passwords.
Not repeating passwords when registering on various sites is the right move, but it’s difficult to keep them all in your head. Our method will help. If the sale site makes you think sweet thoughts about new shoes, choose the password Louboutin, the name and date of birth of your dear recipient is suitable for email.

"Female" type of stress

Chronic stress can be summed up in one word – life. But sometimes the usual load goes beyond the reasonable. The state of "piled up" depresses more than a short-term experience. This is partly why many people prefer occasional hands-on work over time-smeared mental stress. When 27-year-old Elizabeth was offered a promotion, she immediately accepted. But they were able to find a person in her place only six months later, and all this time Liza reminded herself of a squirrel in a wheel.

Due to a serious mental injury, the brain can become 7-8% smaller than normal

At first, she tried to keep up with everything: clean the apartment, plan a vacation, iron her son's shirts, collect her husband for school ... That is, vice versa. Forces were running out. And then suddenly I realized that I was doing it. Even when the body said “stop” and billed her in the form of the flu, she did not lose heart: she lay down and got down to business with redoubled energy. No, she is still overcome by fear, one has only to open the diary, but ... her head is afraid, but her hands are doing it. By the way, Lisa's husband admits that he would not have coped with a tenth of the tasks assigned to his wife.

Dr. Caill continues to insist on the superiority of women in dealing with stress: “Few neurologists know about it, but women deal with chronic stress better than men. Hippocampal cells in women's brains are less damaged." It's strange that neurologists don't know. We have long suspected that men are good at solving global issues, and the daily routine is our part. Scientists do not trust the centuries-old experience of the beautiful half of humanity. They just want to torment the animals.

So Tsen Yang, professor of physiology and neurology at the State University of New York, conducted another experiment on rodents and, after scanning their brains, found out that the chronic stress that mice were subjected to (what exactly the professor did with them - pulled their tails or deprived them of lunch) did not known), weakens working memory, the one where short-term memories are stored. So, male rodents completely forgot everything, but females did not, thanks to the hormone estrogen.

All this wonderfully fits into the context of evolution: historically, a man is used to strong short-term stress (killed a mammoth - a week is free), and a woman is used to chronic stress (arrangement of a cave, caring for a child). While this is only a hypothesis, but quite vital.

Memorable trauma

Sergey Kozmin, clinical psychologist, lecturer at the Russian National Research Medical University. N. I. Pirogova, warns: “Very strong stress is a serious test for the psyche, after which amnesia is possible. Therefore, for example, in forensic psychological examination, a strong emotional load is considered as one of the factors of memory impairment. By erasing information from the subcortex, consciousness gets rid of negative experience so that a person cannot return to it. After all, memories, and hence sensations, are easy to resurrect - a gesture, intonation, and smell are enough.

There is still little talk about domestic violence in Russia. There are also those who follow the wretched psychology of "hitting means loving." But in the USA they are fighting it at the state level. So the case of 36-year-old Alexis Moore, who was repeatedly beaten by her boyfriend, was dealt with not only by psychologists, but also by neurologists at all stages of rehabilitation.

A few years ago, she was driving her car to the supermarket and suddenly passed out. “My mind suddenly went blank,” she said. “I had no idea who I was or where I was going.” Six years before the incident, Alexis was severely beaten by her boyfriend. “It was monstrous, the feeling of danger did not leave me for a minute,” she said. At that time, Alexis did not take off her sneakers at all - in case she had to flee.

Why women do not leave such men immediately, but continue to live with them and hope for something is a topic for a separate discussion. Alexis still pulled herself together and left the tormentor. Then she studied with a psychologist for a long time and almost recovered from everything she had experienced, but her memory is still faltering. Interestingly, on the one hand, information about the experience can only be removed surgically - all thoughts and sensations are securely hidden in the bins of the hippocampus. On the other hand, traumatic stress causes great damage to the brain, memory becomes unclear, there are gaps lasting from several minutes to several days.

“I noticed that in recent years I have become very absent-minded,” said Alexis. – Seemingly simple tasks require a lot of effort from me. Not to mention the fact that without a notebook in which I write down all the affairs and events, I'm just like without hands. So, if someone you know has experienced a serious injury, advise him to see a doctor as soon as possible. And explain that memory problems in this case are natural.

Take advantage of stress

Stress does not always and not everyone benefit. If the psychological load helps you do a bunch of things, that's great. But do not get carried away and learn to determine its optimal level.

To find your sweet spot, focus on the symptoms of psychological overload: fear, panic, feelings of emptiness, nausea, and loss of appetite. If you experience them more or less regularly, you should consult a specialist. Sometimes, however, the listed symptoms can appear out of habit: for example, you have never performed in public, and you have to sing at a corporate party in front of colleagues. I'm sick of just the thought. The ability to distinguish severe stress from fatigue will come with experience.

Clinical psychologist Sergei Kozmin believes that the beneficial properties of stress are slightly exaggerated: “Firstly, within the framework of psychology, there are many studies that contradict each other. And it is rather difficult to say unequivocally whose memory - women or men - is affected by stress more strongly. It is necessary to take into account not only the level of emotional load, but also the age of the person, his personality, the state of the nervous system. Secondly, stress is usually disorganizing. It can be theoretically assumed that some people in a state of pressure improve the ability to remember, but this rarely happens.

If we continue the theoretical part of the reasoning, stress can affect women's memory more. The first work in this area was carried out by Freud. And so he suggested that in suggestible, demonstrative people, pressure causes a serious difficulty in memory. And since there is more demonstrativeness in women by definition (so it is believed, at least), emotional stress can have a stronger effect on the representatives of the fair half. So, as the great Carlson said, calmness, only calmness. If you are not one of those for whom stress helps to remember everything, train your memory in other ways.