For many people, stress and anxiety is simply a normal part of day-to-day life. It doesn’t always have to be a negative thing. In some cases, it can help keep people on their toes and in the right mindset to tackle whatever kind of hurdle life throws them. However, for others, stress and anxiety can become quite unmanageable and can actually take a major toll on overall health.
We know that unmanaged and out-of-control stress can be very detrimental to overall mental health, often leading to an increased risk of anxiety and other mental health disorders like depression. However, one aspect that is often not discussed commonly enough is the impact of unmanaged stress on one’s physical health. If an individual is experiencing prolonged or chronic episodes of stress and anxiety, it can take its toll on the body. Both stress and anxiety can impact a multitude of physical health conditions, including heart health, breathing quality, and even joint and muscle pain.
In an effort to prioritize full-body wellness, it is crucial to understand how stress and anxiety impact each aspect of the body and overall physical health. It is also extremely important to learn useful stress management techniques to keep both stress and anxiety in check. This includes healthy practices everyone can implement into their daily life, as well as alternative treatment methods that may be recommended by a medical professional.
Fortunately, in today’s age, there are a multitude of new treatment methods that can help to effectively relieve stress and anxiety. At our facility, Wisconsin Wellness, we utilize one of these treatment methods called biofeedback. Biofeedback is a unique form of therapy that can help reduce pain and tension caused by stress and anxiety. It has been known to many to lead to long-term results.
Understanding the Connection Between Stress and Anxiety
While stress and anxiety mean two different things, many people often use these terms interchangeably. The term stress typically refers to the human response to some sort of outside demand or potential threat. Stress can manifest itself in both mental and physical ways. For many people, anxiety is a reaction to unaddressed stress.
It is important to note that avoiding stress altogether would be very difficult to do. Also, just about everyone experiences some degree of stress from time to time. However, when that stress is not addressed and begins to manifest itself in negative ways, it can become very unhealthy.
In general, anxiety is a feeling of worry or fear. While it is often a reaction to stressful life events, it doesn’t always have a clear cause or trigger. The symptoms of fear and anxiety are often quite similar. This is why it can sometimes be difficult to identify which of these two you are experiencing.
Some of these common symptoms include:
- Increased levels of irritability
- Stomach discomfort or digestion problems such as nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
- Trouble sleeping
- Muscle pain or tension
- Trouble concentrating
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Changes in appetite
- Chest pains or high blood pressure
- Always feeling tense
Determining Whether Your Stress and Anxiety Levels Are Normal or Something More
A lot of people deal with unhealthy levels of anxiety and/or stress but don’t take any action to get any outside help. This could be for a variety of different reasons. Perhaps they don’t realize the toll that these things are having on their overall health and well-being. Or perhaps they don’t realize that there are treatment methods out there that can help them find relief.
Still others, however, might simply believe that stress is an unavoidable part of life and something that they merely deal with. Therefore, they may shrug it off and simply accept. What they might not realize, though, is that the longer they do this, the worse their condition can become. Before long, they will likely see anxiety manifesting itself in more ways than they ever before thought possible.
When stress and anxiety reach a point where you are no longer able to live your life to the fullest in the way that you deserve, it is time to consider reaching out for outside help. It is important to do this before your physical health begins to suffer more significantly.
The Effect of Stress on Heart Health
When experiencing a stressful situation in the past, you’ve probably noticed that your heart began pounding at a faster pace than normal. You might have even noticed this beginning in the moments leading up to the stressful incident. However, when it comes to temporary stresses, your heart rate will typically go back down to normal when the perceived threat passes. At that point, you’ll typically begin to feel both your body and mind calming down.
When it comes to long-term stress that is not addressed, however, it is a different story. Your heart rate may stay at a near-constant rate of elevation. For example, you might feel your heart pounding even during times when you should be feeling relaxed, for example, when you’re at home or at rest. This can be a sign that your overall heart health is not where it should be.
When you are experiencing a stressful situation, your body releases a hormone called adrenaline. Adrenaline is associated with your fight or flight response and helps to keep you alert in situations where there may be a perceived danger or risk. It also elevates both your blood pressure and your heart rate. When too much adrenaline is released over an extended period of time, this is when you’re most at risk for potential heart damage.
In addition to high blood pressure, constant levels of stress can take a toll on the heart in other ways as well, including:
- Chest pain
- High blood sugar
- Irregular heart rate
- High triglycerides
- Increased chance of stroke
- High cholesterol
The Effect of Stress on Breathing Quality
Think back to that moment when you’ve experienced a stressful situation in the past. In addition to your heart rate increasing, you likely noticed a change in your breathing as well. When someone is stressed, they will typically take more short and shallow breaths using their chest instead of their full diaphragm. This is another part of the fight-or-flight response.
Good breathing quality is very important because it ensures that your body is absorbing the oxygen it needs and getting rid of excess carbon dioxide. When you’re not breathing properly, likely due to increased stress, your body cannot calm itself down. This is why you may continue to experience a prolonged sense of anxiety.
Additional ways that stress may impact your quality of breathing and, as a result, your overall health include:
- Depleting your physical energy
- Making it more difficult to catch your breath
- Elevated blood pressure and heart rate
- Unbalanced levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood
- Increased lactic acid build-up
- Decreased ability for one’s immune system to function properly
- Increased levels of stress hormones in the blood
The Effect of Stress on Joint and Muscle Pain
After a particularly stressful day or even a stressful week, have you ever noticed your muscles feel tight and even painful? You might particularly experience this tension in your neck, shoulders, back, and even your joints. While it is often not commonly discussed, stress can impact your body physically in these ways as well. This is typically due to inflammation.
Inflammation is yet another reaction associated with your fight-or-flight response. It can also help with a variety of other important bodily processes, such as your immune system. However, in the case of chronic stress, too much inflammation can occur and lead to serious damage. It can begin to tear down your muscles and joints, causing long-term pain and stiffness.
Over time, the effects of chronic stress can lead to more debilitating conditions such as arthritis.
Understanding What Biofeedback Is and What It Is Used to Treat
Clearly, there is no shortage of ways that chronic stress and unaddressed anxiety can affect your overall physical health and well-being. This is one of the many reasons that learning to manage stress effectively is so important. Of course, this type of management may seem easier said than done. After all, many people try a variety of different ways to find relief from stress before deciding to reach out to a professional for help.
The good news is that many effective treatments can help not only reduce your symptoms of stress and anxiety but also improve your overall health. One of these ways is through biofeedback, a therapeutic technique that can help you to better understand the connection between your body and mind. By better understanding these things, you can learn how to regulate them on your own.
Biofeedback has proved to be an effective way to help find lasting relief from stress and anxiety for many people. But those are not the only conditions it can be helpful with. It has also been used to treat a variety of other physical and mental health conditions, such as:
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Depression
- Chronic pain
- Eating disorders
- Headaches and migraines
- Spinal cord injuries
- Muscle spasms
Understanding How Biofeedback Works
If you’ve never experienced biofeedback for anxiety before, it can help to know a little bit about what to expect. This type of therapy will typically follow a pretty similar format from facility to facility. If it is your first time, the first step will typically be to speak briefly with your treatment provider about what condition you’re looking to treat. This can be a great time to establish your goals for the session and for your treatment provider to explain a little bit more about the process.
Next, the treatment provider will place some monitors or sensors around your body. These are completely painless and are simply going to measure certain signals coming from your body throughout the system. Typically, the sensors will be placed around your stomach and chest area, fingertips and palm, as well as your scalp. These specific locations can depend on the particular condition that you’re looking to address through the session.
Some of the most common signals that are going to be tracked and measured include things like:
- Skin temperature
- Heart rate
- Electrical brain activity
- Sweat
- Muscle movement and tension
- Breathing
Throughout the session, this feedback will all be processed by a computer. Your treatment provider can then explain to you what each measurement means. They may also encourage you to adjust certain things, such as your breath patterns or the positioning of your body. That way, you can then see how other responses will change as a result.
For example, you can experience how making a conscious effort to take slow, deep breaths can help reduce your heart rate and help you feel more relaxed. Also, adjusting your posture or even focusing on relaxing certain muscle groups can help to reduce pain and stiffness. You will likely discover that your body is far more connected than you ever realized. In addition, you will see that you have more control over the way that your body behaves than you might have thought.
Understanding How Biofeedback Can Be Used to Reduce Pain and Tension
Biofeedback for stress can help to reduce muscle pain and tension both directly and indirectly. It can help you to have a greater understanding of where your pain comes from and what muscles are associated with it. From there, you can learn new methods for finding relief. For example, this could include certain exercises or even simply how to consciously relax certain muscle groups and adjust your posture.
Secondly, biofeedback should ideally help to reduce pain and tension by helping to reduce stress and anxiety. The less time you spend unconsciously tensing your muscles, the more relaxed you’ll be and the better you will feel.
It’s important to note that most treatment providers will recommend you come back for more biofeedback sessions as you work towards finding lasting relief. The amount of sessions you may need will typically depend on the type of condition you’re working through and the goal that you’re looking to achieve. In general, you can probably expect to attend anywhere from eight to ten sessions. However, you may begin to experience some relief after your very first session.
Additional Potential Benefits of Biofeedback
Biofeedback can be a very empowering kind of treatment because it increases your knowledge and understanding of how your body works. The better you understand your body, the better you’ll be able to properly care for it. You will get the chance to understand not only how your body and mind are connected but also how you can consciously take back some control.
Struggling with chronic stress and anxiety can be debilitating and extremely frustrating. It can be especially disheartening when you don’t understand why your body is responding this way and feel as if there is nothing you can do to stop it. Biofeedback helps you to see, in real-time, that you can change the way that you respond to stress.
Additional Methods for Stress and Anxiety Management
At Wisconsin Wellness, we believe that nobody should have to live in a constant state of stress and anxiety. We also believe that every person’s unique needs and situation look a little different. For this reason, we offer a variety of different treatment programs and psychotherapy options at our facility, in addition to biofeedback therapy. Some of these options include:
- Art therapy
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Yoga therapy and mental health
- Music therapy
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Family therapy
- Individual therapy
- Couples therapy
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Somatic experiencing and somatic therapies
- Brain spotting
- Intensive outpatient mental health therapy
A member of our team will be happy to work with you to identify which of these treatment options might be the right fit for you.
Just about everyone experiences stress or some form of anxiety from time to time. This is simply a part of life. However, when you begin living in a constant state of stress or fear, it may mean that there is a deeper concern at hand. Unaddressed long-term stress can lead to a multitude of different mental and physical problems. It can affect your overall health and your quality of life. Shockingly, it may even shorten your life span. The good news is that no matter how long you’ve been dealing this way, finding relief is possible, and our team at Wisconsin Wellness can help. Reach out to our team today at (920) 404-2100 to learn more about our treatment options.