Posted by med_empowered on December 6, 2005, at 2:09:45 [reposted on December 7, 2005, at 2:33:15 | original URL]
In reply to Re: can stress set off mild mania (hypomania), posted by Jakeman on December 5, 2005, at 20:37:00
stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, even "good stress" can cause problems--for instance, sometimes soon-be-to-married women will start losing hair rapidly b/c of the stress of their upcoming wedding. If you look at bipolar and schizophrenia, a lot of the chronically ill patients have experienced *extreme* stress-there are pretty high rates of child abuse, sexual abuse, etc. in psychiatric patients. Same goes for depression and anxiety. Plus, some people just can't handle stress quite as well as others can naturally. So, yeah--stress can definitely set the stage for illness or an "episode" in a pre-existing mental condition. Psychiatrists usually recommend that patients learn to manage stress better when they have to deal with emotional problems; it makes handling life much, much easier.
poster:med_empowered
thread:586352
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051206/msgs/586356.html