Living In A World Of Stress
Being a farmer is such a rewarding job but it comes with it stresses. I understand that every job has their own stresses but farmers live on the land, they never leave the work at the end of the day, and struggle to have a good work life balance. Being a woman on the land can even have more stresses and roles they do every day. From being business owners or working for off farm income, to picking the kids up and running them to sport and then doing house duties and even through some farm work in there as well. We are wearing a number of different hats.
Farming and living rurally can be up and down, worrying when it will rain, whether the price of sheep are going to drop, and the pressures of caring for livestock. This can be very overwhelming and can become an issue when there is social isolation, working long hours and the lack of sleep can make it even more difficult. Let alone the worries of being a mum or the stresses that’s involved in their other work.
It’s important to note that everyone responds differently to stress but here are common signs that stress may be getting too much for someone
Signs of stress
Physical signs
Poor sleep
Stomach problems (gut brain axis we will talk about next week)
Chest pain
Fatigue
Blood pressure issues
Emotional
Anger
Frustration
Low self-esteem
Difficulty controlling emotions
Depression
Short tempered
Behavioural
Increased alcohol or smoking
Change in sleeping
Forgetfulness
Withdrawn from others
What happens if your stress continues for a long period of time?
Chronic stress can put your health at risk. Your body is meant to help you in protecting you against stressful situations but when your stress it high and constant it can lead to many health issues.
Your adrenal glands sit on top of each kidney. Their role is to produce hormones, including adrenaline and noradrenaline, both of which are used to prepare your body for fight or flight. When they are over worked they are constantly pumping these hormones through our body and keeping our body in that fight or flight state.
To understand the stress response when you encounter a threat for an example you’re going for a walk and a dog begins to bark at you, your hypothalamus, a small region at the base of your brain sets off an alarm in your body. Through a combination of nerve and hormonal signals this system stimulates your adrenals to release a surge of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol.
Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts your energy supplies. Cortisol, the main stress hormone increases sugars in the blood stream and enhances your brains use of glucose. Also cortisol curbs the function that would be detrimental in a fight or flight situation. It then alters your immune system, suppresses the digestive system and the reproductive system.
As your stresses begin to fall and go away your adrenaline and cortisol levels drop and your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal and your body can return to normal activities. But when stressors are always present you constantly feel under attack and the fight or flight response is staying on. If your fight and flight response is constantly on you can start to have a problem with an overexposure to cortisol and adrenaline. This then puts you at a high risk of the following health problems:
Anxiety
Depression
Headaches
digestive problems
Heart disease
Sleep problems
Weight gain
Poor memory
So basically its best to address stress early instead of letting it get to a stage of where you cannot control it. Stay tuned as I will be giving you some more tips in the coming weeks to improve your stress and look after the health of your adrenals.
Hayley x