The Body, Diseases and Their Relationship to Trauma and Stress

Abstract:     
When trauma strikes, it creates an emotional upset that disrupts our mental and physical metabolism; thereby, affecting our wellbeing. Often the symptoms of this disruption manifests in what we see as psychological problems in individual personality traits such as intrusion, anxiety, depression, paranoia, ADHD in children, schizophrenia and other antisocial behaviors commonly manifested from PTSD. What is not widely talked about are the devastating side effects of trauma that destroys not just the mind, but the body. (Biography, 2011; Answers.com, 2011; Roland, 2011) When the body is exposed to long term stress or trauma the adrenaline gland has a systems overload burning the wires that block cortisol. Therefore excessive amounts of cortisol are produced that cause biological malfunctions. This paper explores those unintended consequences of stress.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: cortisol, PTSD, disease, body, stress, hormones, exercise, mental illness, depression, anxiety, body, diseases, burnout

JEL Classification: I1, I10, I19, I12, J10, J20, J30, J4, J45, J63, J6, L2

working papers series