Stress and Alcohol

‘She drove me to drink’ used to be a popular phrase. Its essential meaning is that stress induces people to consume alcohol. While it’s true that stress can be an incentive to drink, it’s equally true that heavy alcohol consumption causes stress.

Moderate alcohol intake, to be sure, can have beneficial effects. Research suggests that small amounts can even improve mental functioning and increase performance in problem solving while stressed. But, there are also studies that demonstrate that large quantities, particularly when consumed for long periods, actually worsens stress.

Large alcohol consumption stimulates the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands. One result is an increase in the amount of cortisol produced within the body. Another is an increase in adrenaline. Both those, while they don’t alone cause stress, play a large role in the symptoms.

Extreme stress makes it more difficult to concentrate. One of the obvious effects of high alcohol intake is to produce that exact effect. Thus, heavy drinkers get a double whammy just at the moment they need mental clarity most.

Other studies suggest that chronic drinkers have symptoms similar to those seen in children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Children of those drinkers, this research concludes, have a higher incidence of actual ADHD.

So, it may also be true that as much as the stress of parenting may lead to drinking, adult drinking may encourage the circumstances that incent the parent to drink. It may be a factor in producing children’s symptoms that lead to adult stress.

Exercise is known to help relieve the symptoms of stress. Unfortunately, one of the additional results of excessive alcohol consumption is decreased exercise. Few inebriated people want to go a few rounds on the weight machine.

Similarly, high alcohol intake suppresses appetite. Thus, at the same time alcoholic drinks pour in the calories, they decrease the incentive to maintain a healthy diet. Once again the drinker experiences a doubly negative reinforcing effect.

Those who drink excessively to escape stress motivated by money concerns find it more difficult to cope with the problem that caused the stress in the first place. Even simple tasks like balancing a checkbook are clearly more difficult when drunk. But beyond such minor details, the cognitive functions needed to develop long term strategies are impaired. Drinkers literally can’t think their way out of the problems causing the stress.

In all these cases there is a vicious cycle established. Stress encourages heavy drinking, which makes it more difficult to deal with the internal and external factors that led to stress in the first place. Though the specific numbers will vary from person to person, when the average individual drinks more than the equivalent of two or three shots of whiskey per day, the results are inevitably bad.

The key to breaking this vicious cycle is to seek alternative methods for dealing with stress. Both the symptoms and the underlying motivators are subject to change in almost all cases. Proper exercise and diet is a good beginning. A realistic attitude about life’s inherent challenges can go a long way, as well. But, as with any psychological problem, admitting it exists is the first necessary step.

               

Link Between Stress and Frequent Headaches

By Kristi Patrice Carter

The link between frequent headaches and stress is a serious one and needs to be thoroughly understood to be avoided. Stress can be caused by many things: physical, environmental and emotional factors all play a part. Stress causes tension which causes pain, and all too often that pain comes in the form of a stress-and-tension-induced headache.

Physical stressors include hunger, cold, extreme tiredness, atmospheric conditions created by change in the seasons and remaining in the same physical position for too long at a time, as well as walking or standing in the hot sun for long hours, eye strain due to lots of reading and watching TV for too long at too close a range. Most of the time we can control these, yet too often we don’t. So if you forget to take your allergy meds, or you’re bent on studying all night for a final, dropping those extra few pounds in too much of a hurry, or just plain determined to finish the project before you without a respite, you’re setting yourself up for physical stress—and probably a stress-caused headache as well.

Inhaling cigarette or fireplace smoke or otherwise being in a room with insufficient oxygen and spending time outside when pollen is active are all good examples of environmental stressors.

Emotional tensions such as an argument with your spouse, dealing with a teenager bent on doing something you are equally bent on not allowing or suffering the loss of a loved one are all excellent examples of emotional stress.

Of course, there are many other stressors in all three categories. The point here is that the root cause of the stress is also the root cause of the headache, so the degree to which you can reduce or eliminate the stress in your life is the same degree to which you will reduce or eliminate your stress headaches. Get rid of the stress and you will get rid of the headache.

Any kind of stress can create a headache, though the dividing line between stress and headaches is so thin that it can sometimes be difficult to ascertain whether stress is the cause of the headache or the headache is the cause of stress. Whichever it is, having a headache will increase your level of stress, which in turn makes your headache even worse.

Caffeine can be a major inducer of headaches. Although we reach for a nice cup of hot coffee or tea believing it will boost our energy, the caffeine in coffee and tea actually drives our adrenal glands to produce stress hormones that are still our blood for as much as 18 hours later. Caffeine boosts the “fight or flight” response nature provided to help save our lives when every bit of energy was required to survive.

A shot of caffeine may be helpful to increase your speed when escaping from physical danger; however, most of the time we ingest caffeine at our desks, in our cars, or sitting down and eating, which is why caffeine can create a chronic state of stress without a way to relieve it. So the next time you find yourself in line at your favorite coffee bar, go for a walk instead. Exercise raises circulation, spirits and lowers stress all at the same time.

Learn more about stress and Frequent Headaches at www.frequent-headaches.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristi_Patrice_Carter