Stress causes mental disorders?

Always wondered whether our stressful and unnatural modern lifestyle has increased the amount of mental disorders since a lot of people are on anti-depressants these days. Could it also be that there just being more of us on the same limited resources and space unconsciously elevates this stress factor even though additional personal stress factors may not be at work? According to some lab tests, crowding in an otherwise social colony of organisms creates more aggression and abnormal behavior in the individuals of that colony.

Here seems to be the scientific proof of that.

reply to post by TatTvamAsi


Stress is driving me mental. Stress would or seem to do that.

Edit. I posted before I looked at the study. Interesting.
I wonder if stress permanently damages the brain neurons? If the stress goes away would it repair itself?

Stress is a mental illness, it is about knowing how to deal with it, If you don't it can lead to more severe mental illness.
Learn how to cope and release that stress and you will be fine.
(I get drunk...not the best way but it works for me).

boymonkey74
Stress is a mental illness, it is about knowing how to deal with it, If you don't it can lead to more severe mental illness.
Learn how to cope and release that stress and you will be fine.
(I get drunk...not the best way but it works for me).

I know a guy who used to do that.

He went completely mental and now he's stranded on an island plotting to destroy the land of the midgets.

Plus everyone told him off.

he isnt have a nice year, it seems. "nice year? nice year? what the hell are you talking about." I heard him screaming.

that was just before he cracked open a bottle of sweet apera and took photos of a statue.

never mind, it's a nice night for rain.

For many years I have felt that at least a large minority of those suffering mental health issues are suffering because we are not built to live the way we do.

we have control over many things that just two hundred years ago, were not within our control. Food supplies are a great example. However, the flip side of the coin is that in exchange we have many other things to organise, another example of that is our finances. Instead of regular out goings consisting of saving to pay taxes, buy seed etc, we have monthly out goings of gas, electric, landline, mobile, car tax, mot, car insurance, buildings insurance, contents insurance, community tax, internet, life insurance, these are just the ones I can think of there is bound to be more! If you are living on a budget which most of us are, just organising these bills alone can be hellish, if one bounces, or is paid late, there are financial penalties.

When you factor in all the other pressures of modern living, no wonder people can't cope.

That's the point of modern society--to keep everyone so stressed-out and compartmentalized in the little bubbles of their little lives that they can never find the free time or motivation to challenge the existing power structure.

You can find evidence of this in Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, which states (in pertinent part):

Diversion Summary
Media: Keep the adult public attention diverted away from the real social issues, and captivated by matters of no real importance.

Schools: Keep the young public ignorant of real mathematics, real economics, real law, and real history.

Entertainment: Keep the public entertainment below a sixth-grade level.

Work: Keep the public busy, busy, busy, with no time to think; back on the farm with the other animals.

Stress is a biological mechanism that depletes mental energy and drains the body of will. Having to constantly obsess and worry over a slew of real and imaginary pressures will siphon off the mental energy you could have used for other tasks. Why do orgs like AA tell individuals to avoid dating (or making any major life changes) for a year when beginning the program? Because it takes a LOT of mental energy and willpower to break addiction, and any added stress can tip the balance so the person can no longer find the inner strength to resist temptation.

That's essentially the weapon TPTB are using against us--overloading our bodies so we go neurotic and don't have the reserve will to do much else but plod through life like machines.

So what's the solution? Calming and relaxing exercises like yoga, taiji (tai chi), and Qigong can help you settle the mind, become resistant to stress, and improve your health and willpower. One or more (or all!) of these ancient disciplines should be part of your daily routine to keep you healthy and sane.

A healthy mind produces a healthy body. But sadly, a lot of people neglect their inner state.

Don't fall into that trap.

Ive spent years suffering from extreme stress, at first for good reason, but I discovered that the subconscious seems to change the way it works while suffering long term stress. you end up waiting, just waiting all the time for the next bad thing to happen, which compounds the problem.

I am hoping in time to buy a property in a poor country, somewhere rural where I can get on with my own life, in the way nature intended. I know I will have to deal with stresses of things like electric generators, feeding animals in the snow at 6am etc, but to me, that is a tolerable type of stress.

I do however appreciate that the only reason I have that option, is because I come from a wealthy country, £100 per week here is nothing, but in eastern Europe for instance, that's a bloody good wage.

I am very much hoping that I will be able to employ some locals to help me, spread the wealth lol.

That's another story

reply to post by therealguyfawkes


I can definitely agree with you on the reasons behind this stress buildup and also with the methods that
relieve the buildup. Who would have thought there are physical changes as well, though doesn't most addiction manifest in physical changes? Can one be addicted to stress hormones? Suppose it is also harder to break that circle if there are any physical changes that should ultimately also be reversed to cure the addiction. Thank you for the good input.

reply to post by TatTvamAsi


Absolutely people can get addicted to stress hormones (and the situations that cause them). Look how many people enjoy their morning caffeine rush, and all that's doing is provoking a massive dump of stress hormones from the adrenals .

But seriously, people get trapped in self-destructive routines all the time. Whether it's an abusive relationship or an unsatisfying job or simply an existence that long-since began to lack intrinsic value/meaning, there are literally BILLIONS of people still caught in a cycle of habit that continues to propel them down self-destructive paths.

What's the answer? Eastern "religions" (religions in quotes because they're more like psychologies) like Taoism and Buddhism are tailor made towards teaching the individual how to liberate themselves from the chains of habit. For Buddhism, The Sutra of Hui-Neng is an accessible volume that describes Buddhist thought. For Taoism, Vitality, Energy, Spirit and T aoist Meditation are both fairly digestible for the beginner.

But even if you're not interested in going down that rabbithole, simply taking time out of your day (via structured meditation or simply quiet reflection) can help. Always examine the habits you exhibit and the behaviors you show, and discard ANYTHING that serves you no longer. Regardless of if that means getting out of a relationship, job, house, or city, unless you've got some seriously compelling reason to continue putting up with the stress the troublesome situation generates--DON'T.

At times we can be our own worst enemies, sticking to unproductive habits that hold ourselves back from achieving real happiness. Making the choice to finally break free from those chains can be difficult at first, but typically end up being some of the most rewarding and liberating experiences we can have.

Nothing reallly natural about modern life. Then again, I"m not sure anything has ever been natural. Is starting a fire natural? Is a tool natural?

But things do chagne. Can't compare today to 500 years ago. Too many changes. Obviously this won't stop us from making those comparisons and adjusting our lives. In all reality, our control over our lives is uncertain and the future is extermely hard to predict. Saying things are uncertain is not like wsaying we can't hit a target, but don't expect a bullseye or become arrogant.

reply to post by therealguyfawkes


Totally agree with you, it is just not so simple in real life with all decisions. Sure, I can be a laborer, if I get fed up, I become a private entrepreneur. Just tell me, for instance, how to avoid paying taxes in the modern world as both guys in this example will or get in trouble sooner or later. Didn't intend on becoming a hobo...

Maybe there should be a mass movement of 'everyone sensible' who would simultaneously renounce citizenship together and forever? I, for instance, did not ask for sociological, political or religious dogma, yet I have been slammed with it. I have been assigned a social security number like cattle being ear-tagged and required to defend my country against those who have not wronged me. Feeding someone that BS already causes mental disorders if they swallowed the bait. Some food for thought anyway.

TatTvamAsi
reply to post by therealguyfawkes

 

Totally agree with you, it is just not so simple in real life with all decisions. Sure, I can be a laborer, if I get fed up, I become a private entrepreneur. Just tell me, for instance, how to avoid paying taxes in the modern world as both guys in this example will or get in trouble sooner or later. Didn't intend on becoming a hobo...

Maybe there should be a mass movement of 'everyone sensible' who would simultaneously renounce citizenship together and forever? I, for instance, did not ask for sociological, political or religious dogma, yet I have been slammed with it. I have been assigned a social security number like cattle being ear-tagged and required to defend my country against those who have not wronged me. Feeding someone that BS already causes mental disorders if they swallowed the bait. Some food for thought anyway.

Go live with the Kyrgyz in Afghanistan. There're some 1000+ of them and they roam around in a small area without a modern government, led only by an elected Khan. They go back almost 2000 years ago as a nomadic people in central asia. In a recent National Geogrpahic issue, one of them says "We are untamed humans". An astouning number of woman die during child birth. More than 50% of their children die by age 5. They've no modern medical care. Some 50% of them are opium addicts. They apparently live up to 14,000 feet - above the treeline - and scrape by enough food. Life is hard, but somehow they find a way to keep going.

their currency is sheep! 1 sheep = cell phone. They use those for music and photos, ; they charge the cellphones using solar power and car betteries. Obviously there' sno cellphone service. 10 sheep = 1 yak. Yak carry a lot of their stuff. 50 sheep = 1 horse. 100 sheep = wife. Camels are luxyr.

Tehy fuel their fires and stoves with yak dung; no wood. They drink lots of tea which they boil over the fire. Thye mix it with yak milk and salt.

They eat mostly milk yogurt and cheese and unleavened bread. I am not sure if they make the bread - i think they grow a special grass thouhg.

The Kyrgyz havne't changed (or have they)? muched but hte world around them has. They worry about the broader world taking their children away. If there're no more young adults then there will be no one to keep it goin.

I wouldn't celebrate their lifestyel. Then again, I don't despise it. Heh, even with oud modern conveneinces, we too have our vices and probelms.

Edgar Allan Poe: I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.

Yep. Stress can do that to a person. Not everyone can handle what life dishes up.

1/5 of all people on the planet will have a mental health issue at least once in their life.

It's more common then people think.

I honestly believe the change I'm seeing in my grown son is because of stress. I don't know what else it could be. I beg you to please bear with me.

His work/stress levels are over the top. I stayed with him and my d-in-law for a week to help with the new baby and their 11 month old. After the 1st day I knew something was horribly wrong with my d-in-law. I won't go into all the symptoms but it worried me so bad I talked privately with my son. I told him I think she has PPD.

Much to my surprise he said "she does, she had it with the first baby." It would've been extremely helpful to know that going in because I didn't know WTH was happening. I've never seen PPD.

My son told me they have a therapist they used after the 1st child, my d-in-law took meds for 2 weeks and was fine. I told him to take her back to the Dr, get her on meds, then take her/babies to her parents house. I only just met them and they're very nice people, I get the feeling they know what's going on. They could watch over her and the babies so my son can work/recoup. He maybe gets 3 hrs. of sleep a night. He's doing absolutely everything else except getting her professional help.

By the next day everything flip-flopped. Now it's just a difference in "parenting methods" no mention of PPD or treatment. I admit we're dotting grandparents but I know enough about early childhood development not to hover. My son says "we coddled" his first child and now his new wife won't allow it any longer.

I was confused, started thinking I was making mountains out of molehills. My emotions were running the gamut, I had to get out of there and talk to someone. I went directly to my other d-in-law who's going for her Doctorate in child psychology. We're in complete agreement and very worried. I talked to my hubby and he feels we need to alert my son's ex because our son has weekend visitation with his older daughter.

We have a very good relationship with his ex and her family. We've always been a strong family unit and my son's unresponsive behavior makes us worry all the more. He's not the same man/father we knew.

If she were weepy/depressed we wouldn't be so frightened but that's not what's happening. She's mean/angry/self-absorbed/completely disconnected and cruel with absolutely everyone including the dog. The only people that cried in that house was me and the babies and I imagine the dog because her food is being withheld. I'm not sure what's going on with that. My d-in-law yelled at me for letting the dog eat what falls from the highchair. The dog's starving but my d-in-law won't let anyone buy dog food and there's been several offers???

I've never seen such a loveless environment. No happiness/joy/interaction at all. This is the exact polar opposite from what we saw during the time my son/his ex were raising their child. Even through the divorce we've always been on the same page where our older granddaughter is concerned, she's a very well adjusted 7 year old.

Now everything has changed. What's more worrying is we've all seen bizarre behavior well before the birth of her two babies. It's possible something more is going on or her PPD was never treated properly in the first place. From what I've read 2 weeks is barely enough time for the meds to work. Left untreated it can become chronic.

We don't live close by. On several occasions I stayed at my son's/ex's house helping with their child, it was wonderful. Daddy came home to lots of hugs/kisses/laughter/playing, now that's all taboo. I've never seen my d-in-law talk directly to any of the children, except to correct/criticize the older child. When he's home my son does little more than service the children. My d-in-law keeps herself/newborn locked away in a bedroom coming out only when necessary and completely ignores the 11 month old. It breaks my heart, I can only imagine how my little granddaughters feel, especially the older child. This isn't normal for her at all.

I was given no choice but to accept this as a superior parenting method, leave it at that and respect her demands. I couldn't do it without confronting my d-in-law so I left. I'm not close to her so I felt it was best to encourage my son to get help. Right now my 7 year old granddaughter isn't having visitation with her dad because of the new baby etc.

It only gets worse. My d-in-law told me my 7 year old granddaughter goes on "adventures." She's allowed to roam unsupervised in the basement level of their apartment building/garage. The laundry room is down there, storage, pool tables, boiler room and a few apartments full of people none of us know. The garage has been broken into before, this is Denver btw.

We are very scared my hubby wants me to talk to the ex, she's a very loving mom. My son wasn't surprised when I told him about the "adventures" he knew all about it and at first saw nothing wrong. I reminded him his bike was stolen out of that garage, what about his child??? He said I was right several times but now he's convinced I simply coddle and his new wife just has different parenting methods.

My ex-d-in-law won't like it, I can't blame her one bit and I feel she has the absolute right to know what's going on. This must be so confusing for the 7 year old because she's not allowed to interact with her daddy the way she used to. Just to get rid of her she's sent on "adventures." Early on the step-mom was constantly correcting the older child and family members about play and all interactions. It seems we've all been walking on pins/needles from the beginning.

Should I talk to my ex-d-in-law? It could effect visitation for my son but at this point it might be best. If I don't tell her and something bad happens I'd never forgive myself and I would be just as responsible based on what I've seen/know.

I'm already on the $#%&list for questioning/refusing to take part in what I perceive to be emotionally abusive "parenting methods." We decided our other son/his soon to be Dr. wife shouldn't confront them. Instead they should remain in a supportive role, they babysit a lot. If more of the same is observed with no mention of treatment, we need to act. That could take some time and we're not sure we have that luxury???

We wouldn't be so concerned but our son isn't his level headed self, stress has eaten away at anything that once resembled our son. There's issues concerning his employment, she's never worked, their credit is in the toilet, the car is on its last leg and their home/emotional state is in a wreck. This has all happened in the nearly 2 short years since they married. He always had excellent credit/bills paid/spotless house and lots of laughter now his desk is covered in red/yellow/orange late notices and the house is like a tomb for the dead.

Sorry to hijack this thread but we're sick with worry/confusion. How do we muddle through without causing more harm and still do the right thing????

reply to post by jonnywhite



Well, you know what I mean. Back in the day they were reputedly quite civilized as well in a country called Greece.
What was it? Independent city states in each of which every man had a vote and it counted as you could not give it remotely?
At least ideally maybe or so we are told, I will not speculate on the reality of it. My argument is more that the ideal is a better playground for maintaining sanity since you are directly involved and more in control (read: position of influencing matters relating to your own life and the life of others vs. the current situation). Do you know, for instance, who ultimately owns your own mortgage? What laws were passed without you knowing about it, examples are numerous...

Stress can also bring on or exacerbate physical disease, allergies, joint pain, and digestive problems.

I at one time was totally 'stressed out' due to a combination of marital, economic and alcohol abuse.

The solution that worked for me can't be discussed on ATS. Pity....

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by TatTvamAsi


The mental health community expects an even further (potentially exponential) uptick in depression, anxiety, and even mood and personality disorders as environmental (not trees environmental, just the world outside of your head environmental), pressures on individuals continue to escalate. Also, it has been noted that when people do not have access to natural environments (and here I do mean trees and happy birds and stuff), they do not cope with stress nearly as well as people who do have access to such things. If your world is ugly and noisy it contributes greatly to you overall stress no matter what your circumstances or work load. In an increasingly urban society, that is seeing one of the greatest wealth disparities known to man where the impoverished majority are pressed more and more to live in ugly, frantic squalor it is no wonder people are seeking some sort of escape in medication. Many people see this as an aside, but I really feel like this is a big deal that is ignored.

i would say yes, and vice-versa.

TatTvamAsi
Always wondered whether our stressful and unnatural modern lifestyle has increased the amount of mental disorders since a lot of people are on anti-depressants these days. Could it also be that there just being more of us on the same limited resources and space unconsciously elevates this stress factor even though additional personal stress factors may not be at work? According to some lab tests, crowding in an otherwise social colony of organisms creates more aggression and abnormal behavior in the individuals of that colony.

Here seems to be the scientific proof of that.

It's true, if you put too many rats in a big room, and they are crowding for leg room, they will soon kill each other because of it.. I'm not sure all animals do that, but I do know that Rats, and people will do it.

I can't find the correct terminology to pull up information, but a while back stumbled upon a theory of how stress interacts with genetic susceptablilities for pathological states. It seems a little bizarre that people can't intuit the truth of this by adulthood, it's pretty well self-evident.

People have stressors from a variety of sources that can accumulte if not properly dealt with. Once a threshold is breached a change in overall state of the human being becomes apparent. It's a systemic shift from one setpoint to another. Common names for this can include depression, mania, ptsd, and so on. After the underlying causes are adressed and dealt with, releases can lead way to a reset of the setpoint to a more healthy state of well-being.

Everyone seems to have different stressors which they can handle to varying degrees. Between a group of people experiencing the same stressor, results will vary. Since we have multitudes of stressors in our modern lifestyle, some people break down over time, and others are challenged to perform their max. It just depends.

I'd suggest people focus on mindfulness and self-awareness in general. Learn to realize when you're starting to reach a breaking point, go find an activity or environmental setting that is beneficial to introspection and release. It's best to try and balance out the stress-load over longer intervals. Too little stress and we stagnate, too much and we break down.

Be wise, friends.