How can stress affect your overall health? Several ways. First of all stress is linked to two very common, yet very difficult problems: Depression and Anxiety. Sometimes stress is a good thing, if it brings out the best in us. However other times when the stress is too much, which can be different for everyone because each person responds differently to things, the stress causes either fear or withdrawal, which lead to anxiety and depression.

The fight or flight feeling we get when we are sometimes over stressed causes physical symptoms. Dry mouth, increased adrenaline, sweating and sleeplessness are all common instant signs of stress, but stress goes deeper.

Did you know that stress causes a certain part of your body, your nerves to sort of cut off blood flow to organs (though not completely) that are not pertinent to fight or flight. One main organ system that gets a shortened blood supply is your digestive system. This causes poor digestion, you aren’t able to digest all of the nutrients you are suppose to, your body is not processing your food the way it is intended to. Other organs get a lower blood supply also. In effect healing and organ function suffer.

What is more is that all of this is even worse today. So many people are stressed in our fast paced, no break world. Think about it, when was the last time you didn’t feel stressed? The last time you didn’t have something important to get done now? Stress is causing way more problems than needed, and we are actually putting ourselves, our health, our digestion, healing and other organ functions on the line by not taking breaks.

It is important to remember also that taking a break is good for us mentally. Avoiding meltdowns, a mid life crisis, and anxiety and depression.

Do you know how stressed you are? Most of us do not, and most of us do not realize what it is doing to our bodies and minds. There is a stress test (scale) on wikipedia (online encyclopedia) by Holmes and Rahe. It is an interesting test scale to check, because although most of us can tell when we are stressed this scale can give us a better idea of how stressed, and what it is doing to your health. Check out the scale here.

Now that you know how important it is to control how much stress you have in your life, it might be a good idea to check out 10 Free Tips to Be Stress Free, to start learning how to keep the stress levels in your life to a minimum, and relaxation to a maximum.

Mary is an online content writer and stay at home mom. She runs her own blog at http://www.theathomer.com