We all more or less know how the effects of stress look like. The heart beats faster, breath becomes faster and shorter bringing, the digestive system is shut down as the body concentrates on giving us the best chance in the fight or run. Muscles tighten and get ready to rapid movement, but at the same time secondary body functions such as talking and eating suffer. The "dry mouth" effect typical for stressful situations is caused by the fact that blood is directed to muscles and lunges rather than to mouth, causing troubles with talking. The fact that stomach shuts itself down makes it extremely hard to swallow anything, and even harder to digest the food. This may lead to serious stomach problems such as cramps.

While stress effects can help you in a fistfight, in our present world they often do much more damage than good. While short-term stress is neutral for health, prolonged periods of being stressed pose a serious threat to one's body and mind. High blood pressure increase chances of a heart stroke. Stopped digestion means severe stomach problems including cramps. A lot of adrenaline in bloodstream causes difficulties in sleeping. If you add to that depressions (typical after high adrenaline secretion), feeling of loneliness (stress-affected brain tend to think only about itself) and anxiety (the brain looks out for trouble in order to respond to it), the final outcome is clear. Long-term stress is fully capable to ruin your entire life and kill you in the end.

Personal relationships and family life are also seriously endangered by long-term stress. As people living under stress tend to be easily irritated and get angry even with anyone and for any reason, it is extremely easy to make others avoid you or even resent you. It is doubly dangerous in case of a family, as family members are usually the first target of stressed person's anger. Fortunately, it is still possible to cope with such problems, however only if people around show enough hel p and understanding for stressed person's problems.