Can You Worry Yourself Sick?

As we approach finals week many of us are probably going to double the amount of stress we are already under by worrying about how we’re going to do on our finals and if we can narrowly escape our classes with C’s. I have always worried about anything and everything and I was always told that I would worry myself sick. Is this actually true? Can someone actually stress themselves out to the point where they become physically sick?

While researching for this topic I came upon two articles that suggested that this was true in two different ways. The first article from mentalhealthy.co.uk suggests that people can worry to the point where they develop Generalized Anxiety Disorder. This disorder is described by the National Institute for Mental Health as “[worrying] excessively about a variety oworry-shadowf everyday problems for at least 6 months.” This disorder affects 3.1% of American Adults and the average age of onset is 31 years old.

On the other hand, an article on Huffington Post suggests that these health problems may be more than just mental. This article suggests that toxic stress hormones can accumulate in the blood stream “which can affect the glands, nervous system, and the heart, and can lead to stomach ulcers, heart disease, and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke”. It seems from the information here that stressing too much can quite possibly kill you, which is a very scary thought.

Now to look at these articles one by one, first of all neither of the articles had any type of experiments or data to back up their claims. So these claims could be true but they could also be somewhat untrue or just plain false. The connections between the stress hormones and the number of health problems mentioned in the Huffington Post article could be caused by a third variable. Also, if this was actually studied there is a chance that these people were already at an increased risk for these health problems to begin with. With both of these articles it is possible that correlation which may have been found in a study which neither of them have may not equal causation.

When it comes to finals week the stress levels go through the roof, but don’t let them go too high. While these articles have no scientific proof that stress causes health problems I believe that the severity of the outcomes is enough for me to try to reduce my stress levels.

5 thoughts on “Can You Worry Yourself Sick?

  1. Nicole Glass Post author

    Kaitlin, I think you would be interested in the article which I just commented. In response to the rest of your reply I can see how some of the studies I have mentioned could possibly be victims of the Texas Sharp Shooter Problem since they are looking at so much information.

  2. Nicole Glass Post author

    After I finished this post I was talking to my boyfriend about how I have constantly had a cold ever since I have started at school and he suggested that this might be because of stress. I have done some research and have found that stress can also weaken the immune system. In this article, http://www.apa.org/research/action/immune.aspx, there are several studies which suggest that this thought is true.

  3. Olivia Yvette Noble

    Really good post! I can somewhat agree with this. Stress, anxiety are very terrible factors to go through. These things can lead to many other bad aspects such as depression, anger etc. I think finals and college overall can lead students to go absolutely crazy. I think taking nice breaks in between and taking a good breather is always a good way to not make yourself sick with these things. Organization of time and studies is also very key. I would like to read up on more studies about these things, because this topic is very interesting. Overall really good post!

  4. cmh5996

    I am the exact same way! I always worry about anything under the sun and even my parents think it can have a big affect on the situation. For example, when taking a stat quiz that I knew I needed to do really well on to receive a decent grade for the class; I had a panic attack. I started sweating, my head was pounding, and it seemed like all the pressure of the necessity to do well on this quiz was crumbling right in front of me. I felt broken and could not stop crying no matter how many times I told myself to take a deep breathe. Even though I knew I fully prepared for the quiz, the stress that was brought on corrupted my ability to do well. Looking back, I recognized all the material and knew I would have been fine if I had just relaxed. So yes, I completely agree that the stress and pressure of the need to do well on something can affect one’s ability to do so.

  5. Kaitlin A Kemmerer

    I found this article very interesting because during the first part of this semester I was extremely stressed and extremely sick but I just assumed it was new germs I hadn’t been exposed too. It could be very possible that the research from these articles is part of the sharp-shooter problem or just soft endpoints and we’re missing the bigger picture. I did some researching on my own and found an article form the Washington Post that I think you’ll find interesting. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/can-stress-really-make-us-sick/2014/05/05/a1af9dd2-d074-11e3-937f-d3026234b51c_story.html

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