Ways to Manage the Health Implications of Financial Stress
Money can either make or break you. If you don?t have a problem with money then you are happy. But, let say you have a bad credit report or a low credit score, you are overwhelmed with debts and loans. What happens if these take a toll on your health? Thus, find out more in this article is meant to educate you on how you improve your health when challenged by financial stress.
Financial Stress
Stress refers to any stimuli that cause you to react towards that stimulus in a distressful manner. This stress stimulus is called a stressor. There may be a lot of stressors because you are bombarded with a lot of stimuli. That is why it is really how we perceive those stimuli that initiate stressful reactions. But stress is either negative or positive. It is categorized depending on the event and which neurotransmitter is triggered to be released. When it is a negative one, it is called distress and the body experiences the release of cortisol, enabling a person to experience anxiety and mood-related symptoms. Whereas if it is positive, which is called eustress, dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins are released making you feel happy, lively and enjoyable.
Consequently, financial stress roots from the stimuli brought by the problems related to handling your money matters. This include may be business finance, unpaid loans, low credit rating, bad credit report, and so on. Of course, a lot of people is affected tremendously by these.
The Impact of Financial Stress
Negative stress can heavily impact your health like the following:
- Sleepless nights – unpaid debts would leave you with a hard time sleeping at night. The preoccupation keeps running in your head making it more difficult to induce yourself to sleep. If you were able to sleep, it?s less quality to the point that you can be easily awakened.
- Anxiety – the preoccupations drive you crazy to the point that you might be anticipating more catastrophic events such as unable to pay your debts would lead to your getting grave illnesses, bad image, and worst, untimely death.
- Depression – having negative thoughts to ruminate in your mind also leads to depressed mood. You might be thinking that your problems have defeated you and you can?t do anything to solve it.
- Low Nutrition Intake – it follows that when you suffer from anxiety and depression, it may also affect your eating habits. More so with depression, it gives you the feeling of disinterest even to take care of yourself. This makes you avoid eating and receive lesser nutrition for your body.
- Lifestyle Diseases – moreover, when you?re stressed, you?re susceptible to catching lifestyle diseases. It?s more likely that when you release a high amount of cortisol in your body, it will trigger the sudden shoot up of your blood sugar, blood pressure, shortened breath, and tensed muscles. These might lead to heart attack, hypertension, and diabetes.
Managing your Financial Stress
You can?t get rid of stress but you can manage it by doing the following:
- Be Financially Wise – prevention is better than cure, so before making a shopping spree, make sure to use prudent financial management by observing a fluid cash flow. Don?t fall into the bad habit of increasing your expenses without increasing your income.
- Have a Healthy Lifestyle – plain and simple, you eat good food rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, avoid food that is high in fat and sugar. Likewise, have regular exercise and do your hobbies. Through this, it lowers the cortisol in your body and increases your happy hormones.
- Consult Experts – make sure you have someone to consult with regards to your finances and at the same time with your health. In doing this, you avoid letting your finances destroy your health
Generalization
Financial stress is manageable. Just make sure you are prudently managing your finances. And likewise, you are also taking good care of your health in a holistic approach.
