DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....DR. FARRELL.....PSYCHOLOGIST.....

 

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STRESS

 

 

Okay, test time.  What's the "mind-body connection" really called in medicine?  It's psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) and it refers to how stress robs your body of its ability to ward off disease and illness.  Allow stress to build up and you can not only develop a physical disorder, you can make one you already have worse.    Yes, it may actually all be in your mind in that how you live and what type of lifestyle you lead, in other words, how you approach life, may lead to physical illness.  Skip a vacation, forget about keeping joy and laughter (one of the best medicines) in your daily life and you've begun the journey to dancing on a wire between health and illness.

One word of caution, however.  Stress comes from both the good things in our lives and the bad ones.  So, everything is stressful, but it's the way that we learn to manage it and put it in perspective that helps us survive it.  Try this test and see how stressed you are:  The Holmes-Rahe Scale.

 

A recent National Geographic documentary discussed the topic of stress.  What we learn from this documentary is that stress causes real, possibly permanent, damage to the body.  It attacks a vital area of the DNA in our bodies, makes us vulnerable to disease and stress-related disorders (the autoimmune disorders), clogs our arteries, shrinks our brains (the vital memory centers), causes fat to deposit around the waistline (an indicator of potential cardiac problems) and can shorten our lives.  The one problem with this excellent documentary is that it doesn't do enough to tell us how to reverse these problems or what major or small steps to take right now to, literally, save our lives.  I think they need to do a part 2 of this to offer meat-and-potatoes solutions we can all implement.  So, it's left to you, the reader, to search the internet, look at the links below and begin to make a life plan that does mean "life" in the truest sense of the word.  Begin today and concentrate on your real life's work and that is to save your life so that you can enjoy it with those you love and doing the things you love to do.  Got a hobby?  Go to it.  Haven't got one?  Find one because it's one step you can take immediately.

The Baboon in All of Us

Dr. Farrell on Blinkx

2008 American Psychological Association Stress Survey

Self-help resources (doc.)

Stress a Major Health Problem in the US Warns APA

Enhancing Worker Well-Being (stress doc)

Does Stress Cause Disease?  It Doesn't Help, Reviewers Say

Stress statistics

Breast Cancer:  What Psychiatrists Need to Know

Results of Mind-Body Meditation Study

Risk of a Second Heart Attack Doubled With Chronic Job Strain

Scent of Warm Cookies Can Ease Stress of Chemo

Inborn Stress Response Triggered by Carbon Dioxide

Less Power=Less Ability to Get Ahead (study)

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Stress clinical trials

Psychological stress and related disorders

Stress in early life

Managing stress in school

What to do if you don't like school

5 Tips for coping with grad school

Job Stress Network

Stress at work

Job stress, burnout on the rise

Mind, body, health:  Job stress

Managing job stress

Job stress raises blood pressure

Surviving job skills

Protecting the heart

From family stress to family strength

Family stress management

Farm and ranch family stress

Family stress test

Helping your family cope

Family stress and autism

State Missing Children Clearinghouse

Stress Management (WebMD)

Children and Stress

Caring Strategies to Guide Children

Are You Pushing Your Child Too Hard?

Helping Gifted Children With Stress Management

Children and Stress:  Understanding and Helping

Children and Trauma:  Reflections on the WTC Disaster

Stress During Pregnancy

Abuse During Pregnancy

Abuse Disclosure in Privately and Medicaid-Funded Pregnant Women

Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Children of Battered Women

Predicting Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Children After Traffic Accidents