How Our Bodies React To Stress

It is amazing what our bodies can tell us if we would just take time out to listen. Physical ailments don't just happen for no reason.

There is almost always an underlying issue somewhere.

How many of us don't even notice what the constant stress we are under, is doing to our bodies? It’s obvious that stress affects us mentally, but at some point it starts to go deeper. 

It wasn’t until this past year that I truly realized how stress truly affected my physical health.

A few years before that I had pieced together that an autoimmune disease I have, Vitiligo was also caused from a very stressful situation in my life when I was just 12 years old.

It had started out as a really bad sunburn....and had slowly started to show that it was truly vitiligo.

My dad had suddenly and tragically passed away.  But because of this and other situations, I developed this auto immune disease from the severe stress That I was under in my life.

Then later on in my adult life in therapy when I was discussing timelines in my life, I began to piece together that it was caused from all the stress in my life at such a young age. 

Fast forward to this past year I again was under more stress than I could handle.

I work full time, went to school full time, have a family to take care of and for some crazy reason I decided to train for a full marathon!

I’m an enneagram 3 if you can’t tell! I like to achieve ALL the goals and overwhelm myself obviously! 

Anyway, as if that stress alone was enough, I had also made the decision during this time to get off of birth control.

This just sent my body over the edge.

My hair started falling out in clumps, worse than my post partum hair loss. I also developed severe eczema on my arms neck and face.

My muscles knotted up.

My hormones were also freaking out along with the large amount of stress I was under. 

Then as if nothing else could go wrong, I had a really bad fall on a trail run one day with some friends. I had hurt my ankle pretty bad. But, it turns out, It was honestly a blessing in disguise.

It had forced me to stop and realize what I was doing to myself and my body. 

During this time I really started to realize how much our bodies really do respond to stress. I had always ignored it in the past.

I felt like I was falling apart.

Since then I have become so in tune with my body and I really do listen to it. It tells me to slow down a lot. 

I know what my body is capable of and I also know what stress does to it and I want to try to do what I can to keep myself healthy and happy. 

It’s so important to TRY to handle our stress in a healthier way.  I know, easier said than done. I’m a work in progress myself.