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Pharmacy Links

STRESS BREAKDOWN AND VIOLENCE

14th December 2010

There is no doubt that breakdown due to excessive environmental stress is associated with physical violence. Studies have demonstrated a relationship between poverty, environmental stress, and violence. Gil (1969, 1970) found that family violence in poor families with high levels of stress from socio-economic deprivation was more frequent, less restrained and more lethal than family violence occurring in middle-class families under less stress.
It might be argued that poor people are more violent because of some factor other than that of increased stress, but other research supports the relationship between the stress level itself, as measured objectively, and the tendency to violence.
A lot of the violence associated with stress occurs in the second stage of stress breakdown, which can be easily identified and prevented. When drugs have been used as a means of staying in the stressful situation without feeling the discomfort of anxiety symptoms, violence is even more likely. I think it is quite probable that simple education on stress breakdown might help to prevent some of the violence in our too-busy society.
I would hope that the reader has understood the following points:
•    Anxiety is an alarm reaction triggered when the nervous system is failing to process incoming information adequately.
When a person experiences anxiety, there are five questions to answer. These may point to the cause of the anxiety.
•     Anxiety can be caused by excessive stress – an overload of the nervous system. Anxiety is thus the first sign of overload, that is, stage one of stress breakdown.
•     By ignoring the warning of anxiety symptoms, people experiencing anxiety under stress may use up their inhibitory and will-power reserves, and develop the symptoms of stage two -loss of emotional control and inability to motivate the self.