Everyone suffers from different levels of stress. Many people have extremely busy, hectic lives, filled with worry and anxiety. Add to that a little depression, and it’s not a pretty picture. Now, throw some kids into the mix, and it can be downright disastrous from time to time. So how does all this stress and anxiety affect your children? Other than the obvious emotional damage it does, research has proven it can do a whole lot more than that- it can actually make your kids sick, too. Nice. With all your problems you really needed that guilt trip! But unfortunately, it is true.
A study at the University of Rochester found that overly-stressed parents make their children more vulnerable to sickness. Sickness levels were found to be significantly higher in children whose parents suffered from excessive stress or anxiety. It also found links between stress and immune system activity in the children. While most of us know that stress causes all kinds of illnesses, it was not known until now that children’s immune systems can suffer by way of the parent’s stress and emotional state.
The results of the study were recently posted in the Brain, Behavior and Immunity Journal. The research followed parents of 169 children for 3 years, who were exposed to extreme stress on a regular basis and found that ” the total number of illnesses was significantly higher in the children of parents with higher levels of ‘emotional stress.’” So does this mean that we are doing irreparable harm to our kids? Are we ruining them for life because of our stressful lives? Well, don’t panic quite yet, parents.
According to Dr. David Jessup, a researcher in stress and health at Bristol University, he thinks the answer is “not so much”, and says: “I believe that children are highly resilient, and their systems are sufficiently robust to cope with this.” He goes on to comment that, “Although it is a good study, parents should not let it worry them unduly.” So, the lesson for the day is: Calm down people. Try some yoga, meditation, or some kind of therapy for heaven’s sake, but whatever you do, don’t let your children see you stressed out or anxious all the time! Get a grip so that they don’t get sick.