The modern world is full of competition. Everywhere you have to prove yourself. You are expected to manage home and office perfectly. The expectations of children are growing. Taking care of elderly family members and children has become a problem, as no one has enough time to spare. Scarcity of time and money can generate stress. As people are becoming more friendly with machines and computers, adjusting with surrounding people or even family members is a big problem now. Everyone wants his own space and there is no space for sacrifice or adjustment. Nagging headache, frequent forgetfulness, decreased productivity at work, chest pain, can be due to excessive stress. These could have been neglected as the side effects of modern technology and modern lifestyle which offers innumerable benefits to mankind, but as all these things are generating excessive stress, leading to so many severe health and behavioral problems, it has become an issue of major concern, all over the world. You might not perhaps realize that stress is effecting your health. Take a look at the effects of stress on physical and psychological health, evaluate the facts and situation and then give a second thought whether you are stressed or not. Effects on Physical Health

• Headache: A constant headache or repeated headaches which can make you react angrily, are an effect of excessive stress. It can decrease the productivity at work. Jaw clenching or pain is also commonly observed.
• Back Pain: You might think that back pain is due to the sedentary lifestyle or over exercise, but it may be due to excessive stress, leading to severe health problems. Neck ache, muscle spasms, foot cramps can occur due to stress.
• Heart Diseases: Job stress, driving stress or any other stress related to family matters, court matters, can lead ultimately to heart diseases. Heart palpitations, frequent blushing, sweating, cold or sweaty hands and feet are commonly observed and are to be taken care of at the right time.
• Decreased Immunity: High level of stress can force your body to give up, resulting in decreased immunity. This is one of the most negative effects of stress on health.
• Sleep Problems: Disturbed sleep, irregular sleeping times, sleep deprivation and excessive stress can lead to insomnia, resulting in severe health and behavior problems.
• High Blood Pressure: Stress can cause high blood pressure, leading to so many other problems of health. Trembling of lips, hands can be noticed commonly due to excessive stress.
• Stomach Upset: Frequent stomach upset can lead to stomach ulcers and other severe problems like indigestion, constipation related to dysfunction of digestive system. Stress is the reason behind this.
• Chest Pain: This is a common symptom of excessive stress, which may lead to heart problems.

Effects on Psychological Health Following are the effects of stress on your thoughts and feelings.

• Worry: Stress might keep you worrying about each and every minute problem in day-to-day activities. Excessive worrying will not actually solve the problems. Overreaction to petty annoyances may create problems.
• Anger and Irritability: Stress generates anger. Headache, worrying, restlessness, might lead to unnecessary anger outbursts, resulting in hurting the feelings of others, hostility, creating embarrassing situations, losing control of mind while driving, etc.
• Sadness: Excessive stress can generate sadness, strong feeling of giving up, resulting in depression. Children or people know about 'key to success', but how to handle failure is perhaps never taught.
• Insecurity: Feeling insecure is a common problem of modern age. Increased level of stress makes you feel insecure. Financial crisis, terrorism, job uncertainty, scarcity of seats available in educational institutes, may create stress leading to feeling of insecurity.
• Anxiety: If anxiety symptoms arising out of stress are diagnosed earlier, measures for anxiety cures can be considered well in advance, so as to avoid major health problems due to frustration.
• Forgetfulness: You may relate this to growing age, but it is mostly due to stress.
• Depression: Depression is a commonly observed sign of excessive stress. The percentage of people committing suicide at a very young age, has remarkably grown. Stress symptoms in men and women need immediate medical attention.
• Lack of Focus: Lack of focus which can be actually due to increased level of stress, may create further problems like losing job, hurting family members and friends etc. Parents should check whether stress is responsible for lack of concentration in children.
• Restlessness: There can be constant restlessness due to excessive stress, leading to some other problems.
• Burnout: Stress leads to making you feel totally burnt out.

Effects on Behavioral Changes

• Overeating/Under-eating: Excessive stress can make you overeat or in some cases, under-eating is observed as a sign of unbearable stress. Weight gain or weight loss are mostly due to increased stress.
• Relationship Conflicts: Increased stress levels result in relationship conflicts, leading to higher percentage of divorces or conflicts between parents and children, between friends and neighbors, employees and employers etc.
• Increased Smoking: Increased smoking is noticed in men as well as in women, which is due to increased level of stress.
• Drugs/Alcohol Addiction: Alcohol abuse and drug abuse are related to excessive stress.
• Social Withdrawal: Excessive stress may result in social withdrawal, again leading to sadness and depression.
• Crying Spells: When you are overstressed, unnecessary crying is observed. Suicidal thoughts linger in mind if there is excessive stress. Therefore, symptoms of stress should not be overlooked.
• Obsessive Behavior: Obsessive or compulsive behavior is a result of increased level of stress.
• Speech: Rapid or mumbled speech can be due to stress. Lies or excuses are used to cover up poor work.
• Gambling: Excessive buying or impulse buying and gambling can be a result of unavoidable stress.
• Loss of Interest: You might lose your interest in appearance, punctuality, personality, etc. due to excessive stress.

All these effects of stress on health and fitness, can be seen only when stress management is not considered as a useful technique. Nowadays, in corporate world, in police stations, in schools and even in management institutes, stress relief techniques are taught and are given first preference. Yoga and meditation can help you a lot in managing the stress. There are many other stress relievers available in market. Regular and proper exercises are meant for successful stress management. Vipassana meditation works great for stress management. I hope the above overview of stress related problems did not generate any extra stress for the readers.