When people go through the many challenges of electronic aggression, one of the most immediate and common responses is an overwhelming fatigue. It is important to give this subject its own article. The fatigue is caused by the individual constantly been pushed between flight or fight 24 hours a day. The individual is on high alert, they become highly sensitive to light, sound and environment, often removing themselves from places or people where they believe they are not safe.

We all have the fight or flight mechanism within us. It is only functional if we perceive that we are in danger, where the body uses higher than normal levels of its own resources, hormones, fats to stay safe. Sometimes a person who has experienced electronic aggression is in an almost constant fight or flight mode, and this is when the body and mind can be badly affected. The individual can’t switch on or off, finds it hard to sleep, may have recurring nightmares and wakes up tired and goes to bed tired.

In these situations because of the constant flight or fight experience the body goes through a range of symptoms similar to other illnesses such as the common cold, even influenza, ear, nose and throat infections and phantom limb pain. This can lead to other long term conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, possible impotence, poor libido, and in extreme cases problems with the nervous system function. One physical indicator of the stress caused by electronic aggression is the reduction in how digestive and immune systems can stop working normally.

Cortisol, a steroid hormone has a wide range of important functions, made in your adrenal glands, its functional in the normal workings of metabolism, blood pressure and the body’s protective inflammatory response. You have more of it in the morning and less at night, and is known as the stress hormone, because when you are on high alert it changes the body after prolonged exposure. When people are in the flight or fight experience due to electronic aggression, their cortisol levels make them on higher states of alertness causing them poor health as a result. High exposure to Cortisol can sometimes create the following unhelpful side effects:

1 Impaired cognitive performance.
2 Suppressed thyroid function.
3 Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia.
4 Decreased bone density.
5 Decrease in muscle tissue.
6 High blood pressure.
7 Poor immunity and inflammatory responses in the body resulting in slow wound healing.
8 Increased abdominal fat.
9 Cortisol in prolonged high doses can damage brain cells.
10 The hippocampus becomes adversely affected , which is the centre for flight and fight.

The process to becoming well again is often slow and gradual as the individual learns how to put their life back into a new order. If you want to know more please go to http://www.christopherhansard.com.

By Christopher Hansard

Related articles

• Electronic Aggression (Part 1) (christopherhansardinternet.wordpress.com)
• Electronic Aggression (Part 2) (christopherhansardinternet.wordpress.com)
• Electronic Aggression (Part 3) (christopherhansardinternet.wordpress.com)

I have not had a good few days diet-wise…I have eaten probably everything I shouldn’t have. I ate half a cheesecake (family-sized) on Thursday, then another quarter of the cheesecake yesterday for my tea. I ate a full box of Cadburys Chocolate Fingers yesterday, and tried to hide them from my husband (who was off from work). We had nachos and cheese with a dip for lunch yesterday, which I stuffed into my mouth so quickly (just in case my husband ate them all and I didn’t get any). It’s like I’m scared that the food will disappear, and I’ll go hungry. I have to eat everything so quickly “just in case”.

So this morning I woke up, and decided today was the day to start taking my medication, and to tell my husband once and for all what has been going on. I chose the worst possible time to tell him (five minutes before he left for work) but it felt like such a weight (pardon the pun) lifting off my shoulders. It was only a brief conversation, but we’ve agreed to talk about it properly tomorrow and make a plan as to what we’re going to do.

So I had my first lot of tablets at 8:30am, and then had a bowl of porridge for my breakfast. That’s my Healthy A and Healthy B gone, so I’m going to make something nice for lunch and dinner that are both free on Extra Easy.