Difference Between Stress And Mental Illness

Stress is part of our life and we have to face it whether you want it or not. Stress comes in two different levels and mental illness is one of the levels. All of us deal with our stress in our own way. Being a normal human being, our mind is exposed to a possibility of a mental breakdown.

When someone has a nervous breakdown, it’s only a temporary state of mind and is often seen return to a normal lifestyle. This doesn’t mean he have a mental illness, he is just dealing with a complicated problem that isn’t a common part of his day. Therefore, no mental illness is involved. But, if you’re suffering stress that affects your daily life dramatically, then there is a possibility you might be heading to suffering mental illness. Severe stress can lead us to have suicidal thoughts, abnormal thinking patterns, health problems, impair our judgment, and even cause delusions and paranoia as well as other mental health related symptoms.

Stress affects both the body and mind and can lead to a series of problems. It forced one part of the mind against another part of the mind, compressing emotions and thoughts. This will create the person feels as though they’re losing control of their life. This will often lead them to their emotions to try to solve their problems.

When a person emotions within them that are anger or sadness, it often leads to negative thought patterns. It’s up to that person to decide when they’ve had enough and take control by doing something to resolve their problems.

If that person fails to control this decision-making process in their mind and prolong the negative emotion then he is subject to mental illness, providing it lingers for longer than a few weeks or even months. If stress changes the equilibrium in the brain and this applies pressure to the mind and the equilibrium is not reinstated, then the mind is subject to chemical imbalances, tumors, and diseases.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychological reaction that reoccurs consistently after a person has witnessed or experienced a high level of trauma. This person will suffer anxiety attacks, depression, reoccurring nightmares, night sweats, flashbacks and they tends to avoid social gatherings and triggers that will link their minds back to the tragedy. This person will also suffer abnormal stress on a daily basis.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental health issue as this person has endured extreme trauma. This marks the person as a candidate for much higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, high-blood pressure and other medical related illnesses.

In conclusion, the difference between common stress and abnormal stress is that the symptoms of stress from a common view are temporary, while the symptoms of mental illness is ongoing. Sometimes, even normal person might require medications to treat stress but most of time when a mental illness is involved, the person will need long-term medical attention.

As you can see, there’s a fine line between common stress and mental illness and stress. The levels of stress for the common society are often tolerable, while the mentally ill have to fight a million times harder to avoid stress and/or cope with stress.