How often have you come home from work complaining
of a severe backache or a throbbing
headache ? How often have you felt like throwing everything
out of the window and going to a quiet calm
place to gain some peace ? How many times have you
felt sorry about various things that you have done at
the spur of the moment that causes remorse and regret
later ? The cause of this is unknown to you and a large
number of visits to various doctors have failed to alleviate
your problems. It is none other than STRESS –
the hidden adversary. Stress is indeed a funny emotion.
It is not even an emotion but rather a universal phenomenon
that is ever increasing on an alarming scale.
Stress is universal and seen worldwide affecting people
in various ways and attacking all humans irrespective of
size, shape, race and colour. Stress starts right before
birth when the baby starts moving in the womb and
remains with us faithfully till we reach our tomb. The
aim of this article is not teach you about the rights and
wrongs of life, but rather to tell you about how we let
stress and stressors influence our life in more ways than
one. Let us now embark on a trip that shows us how
stress affects us in every phase of life.
The infant
Right from birth, the infant has a lot of stresses to
undergo. He is born into a large world from the dark
monotony of the womb not knowing what to expect.
For the first few years of his life he has to face the
stress of survival. There is nothing that he can accomplish
on his own. He is dependent in entiriety on his
guardian or his mother for his food and living. This
period is equally stressful for the mother as she has
to battle on one side with her household chores, her
workload and her duties as an Indian wife, while on
the other side her baby yearns for her. Failure in either
duty is faced by condemnation by various elders and
superiors and thus stress begins. Stress equally affects
the child at this stage when he finds that his meals are
time bound. He cannot demand and achieve fulfillment.
He learns to cope with his stress by smiling
and sleeping for most of the day. Remember laughter
and smiles kill stress. All the stress faced by a mother
is nullified by one sweet smile from her baby and the
baby in turn feels secure with one good hug from the
mother. As the baby grows and is now walking about
the place, he faces another form of stress as he slowly
is now taught to adjust to the norms of society. The
art of toilet training is equally streneous for both the
parent and the child. The baby like all of us is possessive
of what is his and refuses to part with his goods.
The mother and father at this stage find this refusal
hard to accept and enforce martial law on the child.