All of us feel stress to some extent, and that's completely normal. However, the way we react to stress has a significant impact on our overall well-being. Sometimes the best way to deal with stress is to change the situation. In other cases, the best strategy is to change the way we react to a situation. What is important is that we should clearly understand the interaction between stress and our body: how stress affects our physical and mental health and how our mental and physical health affects our stress levels. The impact of stress on our bodies is directly related to both its duration and its intensity.

By classifying stress according to its duration and the way it affects us, we can distinguish between short-term (acute), long-term (chronic) and post-traumatic stress. Each of these types of stress is insidious and dangerous in its manifestations: acute in its severity, chronic in its duration and post-traumatic in its unpredictability.

Let's take a closer look at each of these types of stress.

What is acute stress? It is the most common form of stress and is experienced by all of us in our lifetime. Acute stress occurs suddenly as an immediate reaction to changes in our usual life situations. In some cases, acute stress can even be exciting and exhilarating. Examples of acute stress: a job interview, an exam, a flat tyre, a first date, performing in front of an audience, a flight or a tempting ski slope. Mild acute stress can actually be helpful - it can stimulate the activity, motivate and activate you. Problems arise when acute stress builds up.

Usually, one episode of acute stress is not a problem for healthy people. However, if the acute stress event is particularly severe and intense, it can trigger mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or even a physical response such as a heart attack.

Our body's response to chronic stress is more complex than that to acute stress, and the effects can be longer lasting and more serious.

People experiencing chronic stress are in a problematic situation that is either difficult or impossible to change, and they feel “trapped” in it. Usually, one problem is followed by others, creating a cascade of problems, thus making the chronic stress more and more intensive. Chronic stress is the most dangerous type of stress because it is protracted - without any respite. Chronic stress can be caused, for example, by intense and persistent frustration at not being able to find the time to do all the things you want to do, by a divorce or failed marriage, by “toxic” relationships at work or school, by illness. Chronic stress can also be caused by the environment in which people live, such as overcrowding, crime, poor economic conditions, pollution, terrorism.

Protracted stress can cause problems with the cardiovascular system, problems with the digestive system, reduce the body's ability to resist various infectious diseases and lead to depression. Chronic stress also suppresses cognitive function, interferes with social communication and causes people to withdraw from society. Crisis causes anxiety and ill health.

Post-traumatic stress is the most complicated type of stress. Post-traumatic stress constitutes the psychological consequences people face after experiencing extreme situations, and can be caused by physical or sexual violence, road traffic accidents, natural disasters and other similar events during which a person has felt intense fear for own life or the lives of others. Mental disorders can also occur after a traumatic experience, such as the loss of a loved one. In some cases, the symptoms of the syndrome disappear within a few months, but in most cases, if not treated properly, people can develop other problems, including depression, phobias and addictions. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) should be treated early to avoid a range of serious health problems.

To reduce the impact of stress on our daily lives, three basic principles should be followed: physical activity, maintaining a social support network and getting a good night's sleep. These three principles form the essential basis of a healthy lifestyle.

For the normal functioning of the nervous system, especially in cases of tension and stress, we have created NERVOKLER, a 100% natural food supplement made in Latvia. The product, which contains magnesium, L-theanine, passiflora or passion flower (Passiflora incarnata L.) and vitamin B6, promotes physical and mental well-being under stressful conditions, helps prevent neurosis, neurasthenia, anxiety, chronic fatigue and nervous system disorders.

Learn more about the product here: NERVOKLER