The following segments will attempt to give solutions for neutralizing the effects of hypertension and/or changing behavior patterns in order to achieve “win-win” outcomes without completely eliminating or undermining the “overachiever” mentality. Goals are good; it’s just the baggage that can accompany their execution that sometimes can cause problems for us all.
Make no mistake, my intention is to “open eyes” not “step on toes.” For way too many years, we’ve generally applauded or elevated the Type A personality, often referring to it as “the shaker and mover” disposition.
Without our Type As (seemingly driven and obsessed) people, nothing would ever get accomplished – perhaps. Inventions and current modes of living may have taken a bit longer to materialize, but there would be compensations, I believe, such as collective character and disposition improvement and generally better health — physical AND mental.
Definitely there are truly pathological reasons for some tight-wound or high-strung individuals. Sometimes, it may be a congenital heart defect that can cause chronic high blood pressure, and/or it could be from a condition called pulmonary hypertension, which causes laborious breathing as well as high blood pressure. Thyroid conditions may cause Type A behavior such as irritability, impatience, etc.
Most of our hypertension causes “spin-off” diseases; one that immediately comes to mind is fibromyalgia. Let me explain the “how and why” pathway of this disease. The root cause of this disease (and many others) is hypertension. Fibromyalgia, basically, is a condition whereupon your body behaves as though it is “allergic” to itself (the same disease family as lupus). The muscles become highly inflamed and, ultimately, the organs, as well – many locations on the body are extremely painful just to the gentle touch. There are a couple of culprits responsible for this, but again, the common denominator is stress or tension with the inability to rid ourselves of these.
When our bodies remain (for an extended amount of time) in the adrenalin or “fight or flight” mode, our body will ultimately not recognize our body as “our body;” instead it perceives it as a “foreign invader.”
The same thing occurs when we are so tightly wound or preoccupied with work or relationship problems. We don’t get the deep (REM) sleep level that restores and repairs our body, so again, our homeostasis (normalcy) does not recur, thus our body is not recognized and proceeds to attack itself causing an autoimmune response, aka fibromyalgia.
In addition, being stressed compromises our immune system, and without that working, we become vulnerable to a host of diseases.
The other side of the coin would be to demonstrate how the personality of the Type A individual can cause unending pain and emotional trauma to friends, co-workers, but mostly to family members.
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