Stress and Anxiety

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Overview & Considerations

Stress is a normal part of life. In small quantities, stress is good -- it can motivate you and help you be more productive. However, too much stress, or a strong response to stress, can actually harm your mind and your bod over time. This can set you up for general poor health as well as specific physical or psychological illnesses like infection, heart disease, or depression. Persistent and unrelenting stress often leads to anxiety and unhealthy behaviors like overeating and abuse of alcohol or drugs.

Anxiety is an emotion often accompanied by various physical symptoms, including:

• Twitching or trembling
• Muscle tension
• Headaches
• Sweating
• Dry mouth
• Difficulty swallowing
• Abdominal pain (may be the only symptom of stress especially in a child)

Sometimes other symptoms accompany anxiety:

• Dizziness
• Rapid or irregular heart rate
• Rapid breathing
• Diarrhea or frequent need to urinate
• Fatigue
• Irritability, including loss of your temper
• Sleeping difficulties and nightmares
• Decreased concentration
• Sexual problems