I
hope I don’t disturb the happy undertones of this blog too severely by
posting this, but I thought providing a personal perspective on the
destructive capabilities of stress would be very relevant.
My little sister has a panic disorder.
Usually, the majority of her days will be completely normal: she’ll
go to classes, hang out with friends, turn from a kind sophomore Mogwai
to a fierce little Gremlin in water polo games, eat dinner and watch TV
with the family, and go to bed. However, from time to time Anna’s life
is sharply and painfully interrupted by bursts of irrational panic about
everything from homework to her self-image. After two years, her
troubles persist.
My
sister’s anxiety relates to stress in both cause and effect. She had
her first panic attack as an eighth grader in the spring of 2011. The
spring of 2011 was hard for my family, but especially for my sister.
Anna was the lead in the school play, Annie,
and was also anxiously awaiting the decision on her admittance to the
Glenbrook Academy. Then, in the week before the acceptance letter came
and opening night of the play, our grandpa died after losing a three
week battle with pneumonia that began after a year-long war with a rare
bone disease. This was especially painful for our family because he had
been living in our house for the previous two years, and we had all
grown very close since the passing of my grandma. The emotional shock
combined with the social stress brought by the play and the academic
stress brought by the upcoming Academy decision overwhelmed my sister
and launched the first of several waves of extreme anxiety, to the point
where she was unable to attend school for several weeks.
As
the reader can easily imagine, a panic disorder often creates a vicious
cycle in which the stress of having said disorder only worsens the
symptoms. Anna is now unable to attend most of her classes because of
the stress of her situation and her anxiety. Interestingly, this
problem with academics doesn’t translate into the rest of her life:
exercise and hanging out with friends quickly takes her mind off of the
many issues plaguing her.
For
two years now, Anna has fought stress to keep it and the accompanying
panic attacks at bay, while being careful not to create stress while
trying to keep it out. She walks a balancing act with stress, and
continues to face the challenges that come with it.
Very interesting, Tim. This post makes me realize the extent to which stress can affect a person. We all feel stress to some extent, but some experience stress much worse than others. When a person has a diagnosed stress disorder, they are obviously struggling more than the average person. It is very sad to hear that your sister is struggling so much with a panic disorder, and I wish there was something which could be done to help her. Although Anna experiences stress to a greater extent than most, the way she balances stress can be a lesson to us all. It is crucial to learn how to keep stress out of certain parts of our lives, like Anna does, in order to keep us sane.
ReplyDeleteNot neccissarily. A person diagnosed with a stress disorder should theoreticaly be treated for it. It is those people that metaphoricaly fall through the cracks. These people who walk around undiagnosed struggle just as much if not even more than the people who are diagnosed.
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