Stress is not an indicator of mental acuity, per se, but it can cause things to go haywire enough where that acuity is compromised.
Amongst many other mental factors and things that could cause issues.
The stress accumulating within my own life has caused me severe distress to my mental state. I mentioned here before on Medium how my Dad developed cancer, and subsequently had a stroke and fall accident that almost killed him in the span of six to eight months. Everything just came hurling down in a barrage of incidents that seemed very unreal to happen to one person in such a short span of time.
About two or three months ago, the pressure was so much on me. I helped him rehabilitate through physical therapy that was coming to our apartment at the time for the last month from now. There was multiple people in and out of my home everyday for 4 weeks. Everyone from nurses to occupational therapists to physical therapists; the whole gamut of physical rehabilitation.
The stress destroyed me in the form of severe anxiety and extreme depression. I started to lose my hair in chunks and having Schizoaffective disorder, my psychosis was breaking through. It slowly became a fight for my life. Seeing my dad in severe pain and going through different treatments and testing for him was a nightmare to witness. I feared anything new with him, myself, or my family after awhile.
I went from being on two psychotropics to being on three, having to add a second anti-anxiety medication because my anxiety had become so intolerable and severe to deal with. I had started taking a daily maintanence pill for my anxiety and an as needed emergency benzodiazepine.
We generally know that stress shortens our lifespan, makes me physically and mentally ill, and causes various heart issues and way more than I could probably personally list. The list is truly exhaustive, I’m sure, when you factor in all the ailments, disorders, and diseases that could manifest from stress just by itself. Not to mention it affects everyone around us and who we are involved with, from spouses to parents to our kids, our work life and interpersonal life.
Have I found a happy medium that dissipates the amount of stress I encounter on an overall basis? Not completely, but I believe I am close enough.
When you think of anything that makes you destress, even lets say, food, for example, you become mentally distant from the overall factors that contribute to your mental decline, even if for a second. It pulls you away. If I can find that medium or thing or thought that can singularly pull me away and expand on it to where it’s a healthy coping mechanism, I believe I can grasp ahold of the stress that’s blistering my mental state.
Isnt that what It’s all about in the long run?
There’s a happy medium somewhere, and I’m going to find it.