Carlini Institute for Therapy, Research and Transpersonal Education

 When you are feeling, irritated, frustrated, angry and emotionally upset most of the time, this puts your sympathetic nervous system into overdrive.  When you are under this kind of stress, it is like driving a car with one foot on the pedal (sympathetic nervous system) and the other foot on the brake (parasympathetic nervous system) at the same time.  This causes extra wear and tear on the body and on the nervous system.  It depletes your energy and affects your ability to think

 

The brain creates a pharmacy of chemicals and when you continually run anger, you can literally become addicted to this chemistry — just as you would any other drug.   This happens because the rush of cortisol  from feeling angry creates a rush of constant stimulation and this creates your emotional set-point.

( Each emotion creates its own body chemistry.)

 

Chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system makes it harder to get calm, and or slow down when you need to.  This creates the risk of heart problems or deveoping Fybromyalgia.

 

When persistent emotional upset keeps your sympathetic nervous system in overdrive, it can lead to nervous system exhaustion.  It can also cause hormonal imbalances, such as chronic elevation in cortisol, the stress hormone, and a reduction in DHEA, the “vitality” or “anti-aging” hormone.  Over time, a chronic elevation of cortisol resets the body’s thermostat to keep producing cortisol even when you are no longer angry.

 

Too much cortisol production over a long period of time also creates excessive build-up of fat around the middle of the body, impairs immune function, decreases bone and muscle mass, impairs memory and learning and destroys brain cells.

This material is copyrighted.  © 2010,2013 Heather Carlini www.carliniinstitute.com