STRESS-BIG CITY ILLNESS

No-one is going to argue that civilization has given mankind a lot of benefits which we are actively using today. However, although "smart" machines make the life of modern people much easier, we have got new diseases together with scientific achievements and progress in all spheres of life. These are the so-called diseases of the civilized world, i.e. stress, the chronic fatigue syndrome and as a result, depression.

These diseases are typical of big cities, because metropolises and cities that claim this "title" do not give their residents even a little break with all their hectic life. While provincials, or villagers, live in a more or less eco-friendly situation and enjoy the silence (in any case, they have their own problems as well), a townsman who chokes from the lack of oxygen in a smoggy city is lost in a flow of information he gets from all sides.

The endless noise of transport, a large number of entertainment establishments and glowing advertisements - all this provokes so-called sensory overloading and a townsman can never end up in "an information silence". As a result - the brain and the whole body are overloaded. If you add here permanent difficulties like problems at work, the lack of money and health problems, you can find the formula of stress.

"Negative" and "positive" stress

All people know about stress regardless of their social status and age group. We encounter dozens of problems that emerge in connection with the modern lifestyle, and it seems to us that there is always a shortage of time. We end up in thousands of stress situations at work, at home, while watching television and while traveling. When you go to bed, you don't know what will happen to you tomorrow. This is the tough reality of our life. We do not live and do not fight for the right to live in a war of nerves. Someone withstands these crazy attacks, while someone loses their temper, and then a person ends up in a condition that psychologists describe with one short but tough word - stress.

Doctors identify stress as a nonspecific general reaction from the human body to strong pressure, be it physical or psychological, as well as a relevant condition of the nervous system. The term "stress" was first used by the well-known psychologist Hans Selye in his book "Stress without distress". Initially, Selye looked on stress only as a destructive negative condition. However, later the psychologist introduced such ideas as "positive stress" - eustress, as well as "negative stress" - distress. According to Selye, "eustress" has two meanings - first, this is stress caused by positive emotions and second, this is weak stress that mobilizes the body. As for distress, this is the negative type of stress which the body cannot overcome independently. It destroys the moral health of a person and can even lead to serious psychiatric diseases up to schizophrenia.

Psychologists point out that under stress, the concentration of adrenaline in blood increases and breathing, heart beating and metabolism become more intensive. When unpleasant events happen one after another, a person loses control of himself and often does not do anything to step over the "black line". At such moments, stress settles inside us, making us make mistakes and turn into angry and constantly tired people full of negative energy.

The author of the stress theory could not probably imagine how topical this problem would become in the third millennium. Unfortunately, a lot of upheavals and experiences happen in life that are capable of "knocking us out of the saddle" for a long time. Daily routine itself causes a lot of problems!

The results of the latest surveys show that on average, more than half of leaders experience at work even stronger stress than several years ago. Incidentally, experts of the Grant Thornton consultancy company have drawn similar conclusions. They have published a report on their research which involved more than 7,000 business leaders from 30 countries of the world. Taiwan heads the list of countries with the highest level of stress as 89 per cent of business leaders in Taiwan said that the level of the stress they experienced had increased in comparison with the previous year. It is followed by China and the Philippines which took second and third places, where his indicator is 87 and 76 per cent respectively. Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia took fifth, sixth and seventh places. The only non-Asian country among the seven leaders is Botswana which takes fourth place. Russia takes 12th place with an indicator of 60 per cent, neighbouring on Japan (60 per cent) and Mexico (58 per cent). Sweden was recognized as the quietest country for businessmen.

Prevention is the best means of combating it

According to a doctor who specializes in stress, Tahmina Nacafova, the problems of the overwhelming majority of people who seek medical assistance begin with stress. Statistical figures show that 90 per cent of all diseases are, to this or other extent, related to nervousness and stress. Our interviewee observed that every year more than 1.5m people die of diseased caused by stress in Europe. Strokes and heart attacks are among these diseases.

"Cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and sexual diseases are very common because of nervousness and frequent stress situations. It was established a long time that ulcer is often caused by nervous diseases, which is why gastroenterologists prescribe them anti-stress medicines as this treatment will not yield positive results without anti-depressants. Unfortunately, there is not a single person who could boast that he is not afraid of stress, because its causes are both in the environment and inside us. The problems that we encounter every day - traffic jams, low salaries and conflicts at work and at home are all external factors. The internal catalysts of stress situations are high self-criticism, the high requirements that people set to themselves and an exaggerate sense of responsibility which have a negative influence on the nervous system at some point.

"Men suffer from stress more than women, and for this reason, men die of heart attacks and strokes more often than women. The reason is that men hold back their emotions and prefer keeping their problems inside, while women, on the contrary, release all their negative emotions, which is very helpful.

"This problem has long been in the centre of attention in the West. Some European countries practice Stress Management training in order to prevent stress. This includes a number of physical exercises and offices have a certain layout with quiet music being played. In order to overcome stress, it is necessary to move about, practice sports and take anti-depressants based on vegetables. In our country, there is no proper attention to the problem of stress yet because we have not realized the whole danger of this problem, but it is about time we did it," our interviewee stressed.

A state that no-one is insured against

We often talk about stress without thinking about its astonishing ability to find a point of least resistance in a person and deal a blow. According to the psychiatrist and candidate of medical sciences, Svetlana Asgarova, strange as it may seem, the population of industrially developed countries is more inclined to stress. Azerbaijan is no exception. In our country, the number of people subjected to stress is steadily growing. As a rule, it is the residents of the capital that are inclined to it.

"My medical experience shows that stress can affect anyone from a child to a very old person, but the risk group usually includes people aged from 30 to 50. Unfortunately, there is no statistical information as to the percentage of our people subjected to stress because no serious sociological surveys have been carried out in this sphere. Someone can naively think that stress affects only people in a bad financial situation who are only thinking how to make their living, but this is not always true. Quite wealthy patients have repeatedly asked me for help. Based on my experience with them, I can firmly say that they are subjected to stress even more than average statistical citizens of our country. Big money is big stress which is caused by a concentration of efforts and the fear of losing what you have. For this people, the loss of their fortune can lead to a great psychological stress that will cause various diseases, including diseases that are difficult to cure. We cannot say that stress can be seasonal as it appears depending on situations that a person encounters," the expert concluded.

Stress is a condition that is characterized by the fact that after an emotional upsurge, a person loses interest in life and becomes indifferent to what surrounds him or feels sad and desperate. In stress situations, low self-rating, a lack of confidence, a pessimistic view of the future, sleep disorder and loss of appetite are very common.

Psychologists and psychiatrists point out that not a single person has been able to avoid stress yet, but the main thing is to learn to live and control your stress without approaching the critical line. Ability to "lay off his steam" allows a person to control his physical and mental state and extend the youth of his soul. There are many ways of overcoming stress. You do not have to list and describe each of them. Someone uses a punch-bag to overcome negative emotions while somebody else watches a fish tank with gold fish and someone else swims a long distance in a swimming pool. You can overcome any difficulties if you have the desire…