by
Carl Hampton
06/16/2008
Stress! Your body recognizes a threat to your survival and responds by releasing a barrage of negative health conditions: stress hormones, increased blood pressure, blood toxicity, muscle tension, increased heart rate, inflammation. It can also exacerbate any pre-existing conditions, and has a tendency to undermine the body's ability to care for itself or self-repair.
When drowning in debt, most people are likely to report health problems. Medical research has linked chronic stress to a wide-range of conditions: ulcers, severe depression, heart attacks, and cancer.
The body's natural reaction to stress is a "fight or flight response." This releases adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones help you react fast when faced with an emergency situation, however, if the body stays in this state for too long those chemicals wreak havoc on the immune system.
During these current, difficult economic times it is reported that the number of debt-stress cases this year has risen by 14%!
A slow economic trend causes job losses. Soaring food, and energy, prices, along with decreasing home values, and an increase in home foreclosures, is causing us to take on more debt, as times get harder. Did you know that credit card debt is up $150 billion, and that home mortgages total $10.5 trillion?
The average car loan is up $2,509.00 from 4 years ago. And, most households are paying 20% of their income towards financial obligations. It is pretty difficult not to be suffering from chronic stress.
According to an Associated Press AOL Health Poll, stress and debt go hand-in-hand.
If you are wondering how stress can lead to debt think about some of the ways you handle uncomfortable situations.
When we are feeling depressed, we usually want to be comforted so that we can feel better about ourselves, or our lives.
Some of the ways that we soothe our troubled souls range from late nights out drinking; over-eating; sleeping; shopping.
Spending money is a very popular coping strategy, it makes us feel good, and we temporarily forget about our woes, only trouble is it is extremely short-lived. Once the euphoria wears off we are back where we started, or worse off (depending on how much money we have spent).
If you want to reduce stress when reducing the cause of the stress is near impossible:
Make a list of what you owe even if you do not want to see all those terrifying numbers.
Talk to someone who can help you with a financial plan. It will be easier to control. If you can commit to a minimum payment plan, the debt will not feel like a constant out-of-control tornado, with you as a reluctant passenger. YOU will be in control NOT your debt, and NOT your stress!
Stress is your body's alarm system. This is a case of it's better to know, than not know, otherwise the threat of the debt can cause chronic stress.
Less Mess, Less Stress!
Have an opinion or a question you would like
me to answer, then write me!
http://www.CarlHampton.com
