Emotional stress is easy for all of us to relate to. Living right now can be stressful if you’re looking for a home to rent or buy. Add on to that the everyday stresses of work, kids, relationships and generally living life. Thoughts and feelings associated with these factors can apply a great deal of stress on the mind and body. These anxieties can cause your body not to function at the optimum level. Emotional stress can cause your muscles to become tighter, result in higher blood pressure and cause subluxations within the spine. (source)

You may be experiencing the effects if you recognize any of the following 6 signs of emotional stress:

Difficulty making decisions or solving problems
Becoming more emotional than usual
Feeling overwhelmed or on edge
Difficulty remembering or keeping track of things
Using alcohol or drugs to relieve stress symptoms or forget about stressors
Avoiding situations that cause you stress, such as skipping classes or avoiding particular people
As the effects of chronic stress take their toll on your health, you may be aware of several physical symptoms.

Some of the physical symptoms of emotional stress include:

Heart palpitations or chest pain
Frequent jaw clenching
Frequent colds or infections
Depression or anxiety
Fatigue
Significant changes in eating habits, with weight gain or weight loss
Sleeping more or less than usual for you
Tension headaches or migraines
Chronic back pain
Shoulder or neck pain
Gastrointestinal disturbances (diarrhea, constipation, or pain)(source)
WHAT TREATMENTS ARE THERE?
Stress isn’t a medical diagnosis, so there’s no specific treatment for it. However, if you’re finding it very hard to cope with things going on in your life and are experiencing lots of signs of stress, there are treatments available that could help. These include:

talking treatments
medication
ecotherapy
complementary and alternative therapies
To access medication, the first step is usually to talk to your GP. (source)

When the body has accumulated stress and the nervous system learns a pattern of prolonged stress responses, the only outcome can and will be a state of imbalance and eventual disease. The majority of the diseases that affect most people are caused by the stress response, not a lack of medicine or pills. Does chronic “Fight or Flight” sound like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, depression, ADHD, etc…? When you are “running from a tiger” does your body care about immune function? So why do we have more people than ever taking medicine for high blood pressure, hypertension, mental disorders, diabetes, cancer, ulcers and the list goes on? We have become a nation that attempts to treat disease instead of detecting and correcting the cause.

NEUROLOGICALLY BASED CHIROPRACTIC CARE CAN HELP:

As chiropractors, stress is one of the most common causes of subluxations (nerve dysfunction) in the spine that we care for on a daily basis. Stress is often carried as tension in the back and neck areas. This constant strain will actually cause your spine to become misaligned, which can lead to many other problems. When your spine has subluxations it negatively affects the way your central nervous system responds to your body, and weakens your immune system. It is important to meet with your chiropractor when you are trying to manage your stress. By the time you feel your stress needs to be better managed, subluxations may have already occurred in your spine. (source)

Dr. Isaac Mooberry is a Denver chiropractor and has worked with kids, teenagers and adults that have battled stress. We have gentle and effective options for care. Please reach out with any questions.