{"id":27405,"date":"2016-11-22T22:21:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T06:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=27405"},"modified":"2017-05-27T08:47:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T16:47:22","slug":"the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/p>\n

Friends:<\/p>\n

Stress as a cause of illness has been accepted by the most prestigious of institutions. Both Harvard Health and the Mayo Clinic are now on the record that an overactive stress response can increase risk for everything from heart disease to GI issues to insomnia to cognitive decline.<\/p>\n

The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the\u00a0earth long, long ago — it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat,\u00a0or flee the threat, to preserve the species.<\/p>\n

The problem is that our modern brains can\u2019t tell the difference between real \u201ctigers\u201d and \u201cemotional tigers\u201d — the same kinds of physiological responses\u00a0occur in our bodies \u2026 and if we don\u2019t learn to self-regulate our stress-response, we can develop chronic pain.<\/p>\n

So what are the 5 signs you may be suffering from a stress related illness?<\/p>\n

1) They Can\u2019t Find Anything WRONG!\u00a0This is actually the title of a book by my friend Dr. David Clarke that I highly\u00a0recommend. Dr. Clarke is a well-respected physician and educator who, over the course of his career, successfully treated 7,000 patients with stress-related illnesses. One of the common themes with his patients is test after diagnostic test turns up \u201cnegative\u201d — because these tests don\u2019t measure stress\u00a0and its effects on the body.<\/p>\n

2) Your Pain Moves Around: In my personal experience with persistent back pain, I found that the pain would move around to different locations in my\u00a0back. Sometimes it was my low back, sometimes the sides of my back, sometimes my mid or upper back. I recall one episode when I was up at the crack\u00a0of dawn to leave for a business trip and the whole right side of my back seized up leaving me writhing in pain on my bathroom floor. Does your pain\u00a0\u201cmove around\u201d?<\/p>\n

3) You Experience Tension Elsewhere in the Body: Those of us blessed with the \u201cperfect-storm\u201d of Type A personalities, lots of emotion, and lots of\u00a0stressors in life (on the flip-side it\u2019s what makes us driven to achieve and succeed), tend to experience tension in several places. Examples would\u00a0be headaches, stomach issues (\u201cnervous stomach\u201d), tightness in the chest, and many more. These are all signs that you may be suffering from stress.<\/p>\n

4) You\u2019re Not the Best Sleeper:\u00a0When your mind is on overdrive, and your body is on high-alert facing down the \u201cemotional tigers\u201d of your day-to-day life\u00a0— Sleep doesn’t come easily. According to NPR, 60 million Americans will be afflicted with a sleep disorder this year(!). If you find it hard to quiet down\u00a0from your day and fall asleep easily, it\u2019s a sign your parasympathetic nervous system (otherwise known as the \u201crest & digest\u201d response) needs some\u00a0attention.<\/p>\n

5) You Have Trouble Concentrating: You have to try extra hard to really focus on the task at hand, or what\u00a0your beautiful little child is trying to tell you when you come home from work, or the point your colleague at work is trying to make during the meeting \u2026\u00a0you get the picture. What may be going on? When your brain and body are in the stress response, you are focused on \u201csurvival\u201d not the\u00a0subtleties of what may be happening in any given moment.<\/p>\n

If these signs resonate with you it\u2019s actually good news. Why? You can take action to boost your parasympathetic nervous system through a range of techniques from meditation to deep breathing to negative writing.<\/p>\n

\n

Jon Slavet<\/a> is an executive and advisor to high growth consumer companies. He is also the\u00a0GM of We Work.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago — it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":45688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[33,24,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago -- it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago -- it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-23T06:21:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-27T16:47:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-22-at-12.05.18-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1014\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"681\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Falconer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-22-at-12.05.18-PM.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-22-at-12.05.18-PM.png\",\"width\":1014,\"height\":681,\"caption\":\"5 Signs That You Are Suffering From A Stress-Related Illness\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/\",\"name\":\"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-23T06:21:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-27T16:47:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5\"},\"description\":\"The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago -- it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5\",\"name\":\"Erin Falconer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Erin Falconer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/author\/erin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness","description":"The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago -- it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness","og_description":"The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago -- it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/","og_site_name":"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pickthebrain","article_published_time":"2016-11-23T06:21:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-27T16:47:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1014,"height":681,"url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-22-at-12.05.18-PM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary","twitter_creator":"@pickthebrain","twitter_site":"@pickthebrain","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erin Falconer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/","name":"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-22-at-12.05.18-PM.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-22-at-12.05.18-PM.png","width":1014,"height":681,"caption":"5 Signs That You Are Suffering From A Stress-Related Illness"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/","name":"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-11-23T06:21:52+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-27T16:47:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5"},"description":"The stress response is the modern version of the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago -- it\u2019s the brain-body process that keeps us on \u201chigh alert\u201d for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-5-signs-you-are-suffering-from-a-stress-related-illness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5","name":"Erin Falconer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Erin Falconer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/author\/erin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}