Stress has become a daily component of our lifestyle. Work demands, family and care demands, the immediacy with which we seek results make many of us live stressed.
So much so that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers the chronic stress as a global epidemic.
As if that were not enough, the current coronavirus pandemic has further increased the dose of stress at which We are subjected, due to the uncertainty about the future and the social isolation that it generates, among other things.
But although it may be one more component of our lives, living with too much stress affects our health.
Therefore, when the stress we are subjected to is too much, our body sends us “signals” to tell us that we have to stop.
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“The body, which is very wise, sends signals, and these signals do not s should make us reconsider that we are not doing something right and that we are exposing our body to levels of suffering that are not healthy and that are going to take their toll, ”Celso Arango, president of the Spanish Society of Psychiatry (SEP).
And what are these signals? In addition to fatigue, headache, muscle tension and difficulty sleeping, there are others that you may not have associated with stress.
Here are some of them:
– Palpitation of the eyelid: when suddenly one of your eyelids begins to produce small spasms involuntarily. The eye muscle produces those involuntary contractions or myokymias when it is subjected to situations of tension, anxiety, fatigue and lack of sleep. They can last several seconds and become very annoying if repeated in short periods of time.
– Eczema: Eczema is a very broad that encompasses various disorders caused by inflammation of the upper layers of the skin causing itching, irritation and sometimes excoriation. The manifestations of stress on the skin are common, explains Dr. Arango, because in the uterus, the central nervous system and that of the skin come from the same part, the ectoderm, and that is why there is such an important relationship between the skin and the central nervous system. Another manifestation of stress on your skin can be acne breakouts .
– Trismus dental: trismus or dental lockjaw occurs when the muscles that are responsible for chewing undergo an involuntary contraction. This causes difficulty opening the mouth . Generally it manifests itself mildly but in some cases, the contraction of the muscles is so intense that you cannot separate the teeth, preventing for example from being able to eat or speak normally.
– Bruxism: it is an involuntary habit that causes patients to clench the jaw strongly or grind the teeth, rubbing or sliding them, without any functional objective. Often the pressure on the jaw and teeth takes place while you sleep , while you are concentrating on something or when you are stressed. Although bruxism is not a dangerous disorder, if it is not corrected it can cause permanent dental damage.
– Cloudy vision: stress can also affect to our vision, although it is usually in passing episodes. Some of the possible explanations for why this occurs are related to changes in blood sugar levels and an increase in blood pressure due to stress.
Listen to the body and stop
These are often the initial signs of continued stress that is higher than what the body can bear, a threshold that is different in each person.
“When the body is subjected to a demand that puts it in a situation of maximum vulnerability , before the body gives up, this type of phenomenon appears ”, explains Arango.
“ People should listen to their body. ”
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There are strategies that we can u sar to reduce the consequences of stress, such as physical exercise, improve our diet or meditate .
“It is a moment in which a person You should think: ‘I have to lead a healthier life, increase my sleep hours, I have to dedicate myself to things that are not work, I have to do mindfulness 
, I have to spend more time with my family. ‘”
In any case, if these phenomena persist, Arango recommends seeking help and going to a doctor, because after these milder signs, other more serious ones may appear .
“The body in one way or another, through the trembling of the eyelid, through eczema or trismus, what it is saying is something is going wrong, what it is telling you is’ stop, reconsider and try to do the things of different way ‘, because if not at the end it explodes ”.
And what in the end can explode, according to the specialist, is a myocardial infarction or a psychosis.
“If we are subjecting the body to excessive pressure that will work against it,” concludes Arango.
