TOP drugs against nervous system exhaustion

Stress can be destructive to our health. The consequences of frequent experiences affect the functioning of all organs and systems.

For example, the skin may become dry and pale, with a yellow tint. The risk of cardiovascular disease also increases significantly. Cystitis, incontinence and much more can occur due to nervousness. And most importantly, stress accelerates the aging process - both external and internal.

Therefore, it is important for modern people to know the signs of stress in order to prevent its consequences or eliminate them as early as possible.

Signs of stress

According to statistics, in Russia women are more susceptible to stress due to their increased emotionality and sensitivity. In 2021, people of all professions experienced strong negative experiences, but especially teachers, entrepreneurs and, of course, doctors.

This year has been difficult for many, so the number of people with chronic stress has increased many times over. At the same time, people began to consider their depressed state as the norm. But even in the most difficult times, it is important not to let the situation get worse and fight back the disease.

Stress changes the entire body, so you should pay attention to different symptoms.

Behavioral signs of stress:

• conflict;
• aggressiveness;
• irritability;
• loss of interest in life, friends, appearance;
• decreased self-esteem;
• suspicion;
• frequent attacks of anger and feelings of helplessness.

Lifestyle changes:

• sleep disturbance;
• the emergence of bad habits;
• increased fatigue;
• decreased performance.

Intellectual traits:

• poor concentration;
• excessive distractibility;
• decrease in attention.

Changes in thinking:

• decreased creativity and memory;
• violation of logic;
• common spelling errors.

Physiological signs:

• frequent headaches;
• cardiopalmus;
• decreased immunity;
• sudden weight loss or, conversely, rapid weight gain;
• deterioration of organ function.

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When is it time to sound the alarm?

“If the process of falling asleep lasts more than 20 minutes, and this situation lasts a week or more, this is a reason to consult a doctor,” says Gleb Lutokhin, a somnologist at the Semeynaya clinic. — If a person tosses and turns for a long time before going to bed, often wakes up during sleep and then cannot fall back to sleep for 5-10 minutes, this is a reason to think about it. Especially if these processes are accompanied by anxiety and obsessive thoughts.”

Insomnia has many adverse effects. The body does not have time to recover, the functioning of almost all systems and organs is disrupted. The nervous system suffers the most; the cardiovascular and endocrine systems, as well as the kidneys, work under stress.

“About 40% of my patients have a sleep disorder,” says GMS Clinic neurologist Sergei Makarov. — In young people, insomnia is a consequence of anxiety disorders or disruption of the daily routine. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, many people work from home until late and then sleep until lunch. And due to overexertion and lack of personal space, insomnia occurs. In older people, sleep disturbances can be caused by diseases of the heart, lungs, other internal organs, or chronic pain.”

So a young girl turned to Doctor Makarov. During the interview, it turned out that in addition to bad habits - smoking and drinking alcohol - she suffered from an incorrect daily routine. At night on weekends, the girl “hanged out” in bars and discos, sleeping off during the day. It is not surprising that the work week was difficult for the patient. The body did not have time to adapt to the daily routine when the weekend came again and history repeated itself.

Types of stress

Conventionally, two types of stress can be distinguished.

1. Eustress is “good” stress that does not harm a person. Without it, we would always feel calm, at ease and would not want to achieve anything. We feel eustress when we need to get out of our comfort zone and change something in our life. A simple example: you have undertaken to create a large-scale project that requires a lot of time, effort, intellectual and physical expenditure. It’s difficult for you, you’re nervous, but at the same time you feel that in the end you’ll get a pleasant feeling of pride in yourself, you’ll be praised, and all your efforts will not be in vain. Thus, eustress motivates us not to give up and move forward despite difficulties.
2. Distress is harmful and occurs when stress reaches a large scale: it lasts for a long time and has several foci of occurrence. For example, when a person has to cope with several difficult and unpleasant tasks at once: a change of environment, joining the army, lack of sleep, financial losses.

Distress has an extremely negative impact on the human psyche and physiology. He stops being happy, receiving positive emotions and is constantly dissatisfied with his life. Signs of distress include sudden changes in mood, physical weakness, poor performance, and the emergence of negative thoughts.

Types of distress

• Emotional. It is associated with a person experiencing a very strong emotional state (both positive and negative). For example, the birth of a child, a promotion at work, a new trip, or, conversely, a breakup, the death of a loved one.
• Physiological. Directly affects body tissues. It can be caused by climatic (cold, heat, thunderstorm), chemical (deficiency or increased oxygen content in the air) or physical factors (overexertion, injury). These triggers do not go unnoticed. Even after everything has returned to normal, a person experiences apathy, overwork, and constant fatigue for some time.
• Chronic. This is a long-term adaptive reaction of the body to negative influences from the environment. It is the most dangerous type of stress. It can arise from overwork at work, as a result of family quarrels, etc. The consequences can be a change in the size of the brain, its structure and work in general. Leads to various types of diseases (neurosis, heart disease, vascular disease).
• Nervous. Characterized by excessive stress emotionally and physically. A person cannot control his emotions and behaves aggressively and hot-tempered.

Who's at risk

Statistics of visits to doctors show that middle-aged and elderly people experience insomnia much more often than young people. According to somnologist Gleb Lutokhin, the two main categories of his patients are men and women 60+, as well as women 40-55 years old. There are also many men over the age of 40 who are prevented from falling asleep by sleep apnea.

In the elderly, insomnia is often caused by vascular lesions of the brain and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease. Women almost always experience sleep problems at the onset of menopause. In addition, problems with falling asleep and quality of sleep often plague anxious people with increased responsibility, and these are often women. Men go to the doctor when the symptoms are so severe that they interfere with normal work and life.

Among people of various professions, those who work on irregular schedules with alternating day/night shifts have the most problems with sleep: dispatchers, train drivers, airplane pilots. Therefore, the departmental clinic of Russian Railways has its own staff of somnologists. According to the observations of Gleb Lutokhin, lawyers disproportionately often experience insomnia.

Neurologist Sergei Makarov notes that people who are engaged in intellectual work usually sleep poorly. Physical labor is the best cure for insomnia. When a person is physically tired, he falls asleep soundly and sleeps for a long time.

Stages of stress

• 1. Anxiety. A person is scared, a signal is sent to the hypothalamus - there is an active production of adrenaline, cortisol, norepinephrine. As a result, the pulse and breathing increase.
• 2. Adaptation. The body is trying to bounce back and normalize its functions. If it doesn’t work out, then it goes to the third stage.
• 3. Exhaustion. The body does not have the strength to fight on its own, so nervous breakdowns, depression, and other diseases develop and manifest themselves. A specialist should be involved in getting out of this state.

Chemistry of stress

The body's response to stress is controlled by the hypothalamus and adrenal glands. When detecting a stressful situation, the body releases certain hormones. Adrenaline and norepinephrine are produced in the adrenal glands at the first sign of danger. It increases during anxiety and shock, causing the heart rate to increase and the pupils to dilate.

Norepinephrine is released in any shock situations. Its action is associated with an increase in blood pressure.

Cortisol levels rise during extreme situations or physical activity. In small doses it does not affect the body. But long-term exposure to this hormone causes damage to the brain, literally shrinking it in size. High amounts of cortisol cause a loss of synaptic connections between neurons and a shrinkage of the prefrontal cortex, which regulates concentration, decision-making, judgment and social interaction.

Prolactin especially affects women whose target organ is the mammary glands. In a situation of severe stress, the release of this hormone begins, as a result of which metabolic problems begin.

Corticoliberin activates the center of fear and anxiety, causes anorexia, and increases blood pressure.

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When is sleep disorder especially dangerous?

After just three completely sleepless nights, a seemingly healthy person may experience delusions, hallucinations, attacks of acute psychosis, and epileptic seizures. Seven days spent without sleep ends in guaranteed death. It has long been established that symptoms of insomnia are independent risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

In some cases, sleep disturbance is not even a bell, but a bell signaling a mortal danger to life. Gleb Lutokhin says:

“A strong young man, 28 years old, complains of snoring and sudden cessation of breathing during sleep. At night, the wife had to push her husband away more than 40 times an hour, restarting the breathing process. This is a case of central apnea - a pathology in which the medulla oblongata stops giving the body the command to inhale. Such situations very often end in the death of the patient. As it turned out, the patient had a congenital organic pathology in which the vertebral artery compresses the respiratory center of the medulla oblongata. We have selected the appropriate ventilation option. For the rest of his life, the patient will have to sleep with a device that will control his breathing and breathe for the owner in those moments when he stops doing it on his own. But the patient sleeps well, does not get tired during the day, and has even lost weight.”

Stress Prevention

Of course, stress is an integral part of life. But we can learn to manage it and prevent its devastating effects on our health.

For this, it is important to practice prevention. For example:

• Include foods rich in beneficial microelements in your diet. For example, magnesium plays an important role - one of the main helpers in the fight against stress; it reduces cortisol levels. Magnesium is found in nuts (peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts), sesame seeds, seeds, seaweed, dark chocolate and buckwheat.
• Limit your alcohol consumption. It exacerbates the effects of chronic stress and leads to depression.
• Limit caffeine consumption after 15-00. Especially with high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
• Contact a psychologist. If you are worried about any fears or emotional experiences, then a consultation with a specialist who will help you understand yourself and guide you on the right path will be very effective.
• Limit the flow of information from the Internet. And it is highly advisable to stop comparing your life with ideal pictures from social networks.
• Normalize sleep. It is important that it lasts 7-8 hours.
• Exercise. It helps increase activity and concentration, improves overall cognitive function.
• Don't burden yourself with many complex tasks. Good time management is the key to preventing stress.
• Try meditation practices. Relaxation techniques provide the opportunity to step back, become aware of what is happening, and choose how to respond to stress.

The most important thing is to monitor your feelings and emotions and not put them in a “distant box.”

Treatment of stress

Do not delay making an appointment with a specialist if you feel that you cannot cope with stress on your own. Based on the patient's complaints, a treatment plan is prescribed.

An approximate treatment regimen looks like this:

• Therapeutic practice with a psychologist. At the moment, there are many psychological techniques that will help you cope with stress and return to normal life. The specialist will choose the one you need based on the patient’s condition and personal characteristics.
• Collection of analyses. Since stress can affect many organs, it is important to identify the problem early.
• Drug therapy. If the stress is not prolonged, then mild sedatives are prescribed that will reduce anxiety and anxiety. In more severe cases, patients are recommended to take tranquilizers and antidepressants.
• Relaxation. Healthy relaxation techniques include breathing techniques, massage and yoga.

Antidepressants

Antidepressant drugs are used in courses (usually several months).

They do not have a quick sedative effect, unlike antipsychotics and tranquilizers. However, with long-term use, they can effectively remove attacks of aggressiveness that arise as part of depressive states (endogenous, organic, neurotic).

There are a lot of antidepressants; doctors divide them into several generations and into groups depending on their structure and mechanism of action.

Main antidepressants:

• amitriptyline;
• clomipramine;
• escitalopram;
• paroxetine;
• fluvoxamine;
• agomelatine.

Diagnosis and treatment of stress at Expert Clinics

Expert Clinics is a European-level clinic in Moscow, which fundamentally and comprehensively deals with the diagnosis and treatment of stress, as well as its consequences.

First of all, you should make an appointment. Next, based on the patient’s complaints, a treatment plan is prescribed.

It is important to understand that stress is not cured with one or two visits to the doctor. Recovery occurs in stages. It is important that this path becomes conscious for you. And correct and timely diagnosis of stress will be an important step towards a happy life.

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