But stress can get out of hand and become overwhelming, so that it prevents you from coping with the very threat that has produced it. Headaches, nausea, insomnia, muscle stiffness, accidents, and inability to work all can be signs of too much stress. Severe or prolonged stress can make you vulnerable to a number of serious illnesses. To safeguard yourself and your family in the days ahead, it's crucial for you to bring your stress down to a manageable level so that you have the energy to sustain the intimate emotional relationships we all need. When we believe we lack the resources to cope with a serious problem, intense anxiety results.
People handle that anxiety in different ways.
Many distort the situation to relieve their distress. Sometimes, for example, parents will not accept the diagnosis of progressive neuromuscular disease for weeks or even months. They may get angry with the physician who made the diagnosis or with the doctors who failed to make it earlier. Their anger may be directed at a world, at a universe, in which a disease like this can be visited on a child, or even at a Supreme Being who allows such a misfortune to occur. This response channels the force of their feelings away from the actual problem in order to cut off unbearable anxiety and fear.