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3: Stress Management

Last updated

Apr 30, 2021
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- 2.25: Spiritual Health
- 3.1: Chronic Stress

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Stress is a feeling you get when faced with a challenge. In small doses, stress can be good for you because it makes you more alert and gives you a burst of energy. For instance, if you start to cross the street and see a car about to run you over, that jolt you feel helps you to jump out of the way before you get hit. But feeling stressed for a long time can take a toll on your mental and physical health. Even though it may seem hard to find ways to de-stress with all the things you have to do, it's important to find those ways. Your health depends on it.

3.1: Chronic Stress
This page discusses how stress impacts individuals differently, highlighting triggers like public speaking and first dates. It notes that while short-term stress can be motivational, prolonged stress may lead to health issues, including depression and heart disease. PTSD is mentioned as a severe stress-related condition. To effectively manage chronic stress, it emphasizes the importance of addressing root causes, suggesting counseling and medication as potential management options.
3.2: The Effects of Stress on the Body
This page explains that stress is not inherently negative, as it can prepare animals for survival. The body's stress response enhances alertness and immunity in the short term. However, chronic stress has harmful effects, leading to reduced immunity and issues with digestive and reproductive systems. Prolonged stress after a threat can disrupt normal bodily functions.
3.3: Stress and the Brain
This page explains that stress arises from challenges surpassing coping abilities, shaped by cognitive and environmental factors. It affects brain functions, particularly memory, with urban populations, the elderly, and women being more vulnerable. Major stressors include natural disasters and everyday hassles. Mindfulness practices like meditation, social support, cognitive behavioral techniques, and medication are effective in alleviating stress and enhancing resilience.
3.4: Your Bodies Response to Stress
This page discusses the "fight-or-flight" response, a concept by Walter Cannon linked to stress. It describes how this response prepares our bodies for confrontation or escape through the sympathetic nervous system. In modern scenarios, such as taking tests, the absence of an escape route contributes to heightened stress, as individuals have to face challenges head-on instead of fleeing.
3.5: General Adaption Syndrome
This page discusses Hans Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), which outlines three stages of stress response: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. His research began with hormone injection experiments in rats, uncovering stressors as health-affecting stimuli. The alarm stage triggers immediate reactions, resistance involves adapting to stress, and prolonged stress can lead to exhaustion, burnout, and health decline.
3.6: Distress may be Destructive to Health
This page discusses Hans Selye's research on General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), emphasizing the negative impacts of chronic stress from modern pressures like work and relationships. While humans can cope with short stressors, prolonged stress can lead to health problems and stress-induced illnesses. The page also notes that enjoyable activities, despite causing "flow," can require breaks to prevent strain.
3.7: Eustress
This page discusses Hans Selye's definition of stress as the body's response to challenges, introducing the concept of eustress as an ideal stress level that varies among individuals. Selye sought to highlight the positive aspects of stress, though the dominant perception still tends to focus on its negative effects, primarily arising from unpleasant stressors. Positive challenges, when enjoyed, can lead to beneficial outcomes without negative stress-related symptoms.
3.8: Burnout and Stress Relateed Illness
This page discusses burnout syndrome, a work-related psychosocial condition first identified by Herbert Freudenberger. It includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal achievement. The Maslach Burnout Inventory is the standard tool for assessing burnout. It results from chronic stress and inadequate coping resources, creating a perceived imbalance between effort and reward, ultimately leading to worker dissatisfaction.
3.9: Common Causes of Stress
This page discusses stress, defining it as a reaction to perceived resource shortages in coping with life's demands. It distinguishes between short-term stress, arising from minor incidents, and long-term stress from significant issues like finances or work. Positive events, such as marriage or childbirth, can also cause stress. The page lists common stressors, including the death of loved ones, divorce, job loss, personal illness, marital separations, retirement, and incarceration.
3.10: Common signs and symptoms of stress
This page discusses how stress impacts individuals in diverse ways, highlighting symptoms such as appetite changes, forgetfulness, headaches, and low energy. It also notes issues like trouble focusing, low self-esteem, irritability, and physical discomfort, which can be indicative of depression or anxiety stemming from prolonged stress.
3.11: Do women react to stress differently than men?
This page reveals that a survey suggests women may report physical stress symptoms more than men, although this does not apply to all women. Women's stress management often involves caregiving and seeking support, whereas men tend to use a "fight or flight" response, opting for relaxation or distractions.
3.12: Can Stress Affect My Health?
This page explains how the body responds to stress by releasing hormones that increase blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar levels. It highlights that prolonged stress can result in a range of health problems, including mental health disorders (depression and anxiety), obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeats, menstrual issues, and skin problems like acne.
3.13: The Effect of Stress on the Immune System
This page discusses Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) and its examination of the interplay between psychological, behavioral, and social factors with immune and neuroendocrine responses. It emphasizes how chronic stress, especially among caregivers for dementia patients, adversely affects immune function, leading to slower wound healing and heightened infection risk, thereby underlining the significant influence of mental health on overall health outcomes.
3.14: Does Stress Cause Ulcers?
This page discusses the causes of peptic ulcers, identifying Helicobacter pylori and NSAIDs as primary contributors. It mentions that rare tumors may also lead to ulcers and clarifies that stress and spicy foods do not cause ulcers, though they can worsen symptoms. Moreover, it notes that smoking and alcohol can aggravate ulcer conditions and impede healing.
3.15: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
This page discusses post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder triggered by traumatic experiences like violence or disasters. Symptoms can manifest immediately or years later, including nightmares, flashbacks, and feelings of guilt. The page notes that women are more susceptible to PTSD and that ongoing stress can increase the risk of developing the disorder.
3.16: Stress is in the Eye of the Beholder
This page discusses Lazarus's appraisal theory, which highlights how interpretations of situations affect stress levels by distinguishing between threats and challenges. Coping resources, both problem-solving and emotion-focused, influence stress experiences. The interaction of appraisal and coping can shift perceptions of threats to challenges and vice versa.
3.17: Managing Stress
This page offers strategies to manage stress positively and prevent illness: cultivate a problem-solving mindset, practice flexibility, and prioritize tasks for organization. It emphasizes relaxation techniques, ensuring personal time for enjoyable activities, and maintaining health through sleep, nutrition, and exercise.
3.18: Coping with Stress
This page discusses effective strategies for managing accumulated stress, including seeking professional help, maintaining health care, connecting with supportive individuals, recognizing stress symptoms, prioritizing tasks, acknowledging achievements, avoiding fixation on problems, scheduling relaxation, exploring coping programs, and exercising regularly. Implementing these strategies can significantly alleviate stress and enhance overall well-being.
3.19: Exercise and Stress
This page discusses how exercise benefits both physical and emotional well-being by challenging individuals, invoking a state of "flow." Activities like mountain climbing and racing increase life satisfaction. It also presents the Physiological Toughness Model, which posits that regular exposure to stressors through exercise enhances psychological coping and emotional stability while promoting physiological changes that improve performance and resilience to stress.
3.20: Meditation and Health
This page discusses meditation as a calming practice that promotes psychological balance and wellness through techniques like focused attention in a quiet environment. Though only 9.4% of people practice it for health reasons, its effects and specific benefits are still being studied, especially by the NCCAM for conditions like stress and asthma. While generally safe, it is advised to consult a healthcare provider for individual medical concerns.
3.21: Relaxation Techniques
This page discusses relaxation techniques like progressive relaxation, guided imagery, and deep breathing, which promote the body's natural relaxation response and may help alleviate stress, blood pressure, pain, and sleep issues. Although generally safe and self-teachable, their effectiveness varies, and long-term studies are needed. Caution is advised for individuals with certain health conditions, and these techniques should not replace conventional medical care.
3.22: Resilience
This page discusses resilience as the ability to cope with adversity, adapt to challenges, and turn unfavorable situations into growth. It emphasizes that resilience can be cultivated through behaviors, connections, and a positive self-view. The process is influenced by one's environment, varies among individuals, and serves as a defense against stress, aiding in emotional management and preparation for future challenges.

Thumbnail: A man expressing stress with both hands on his head. (CC BY-SA 4.0; Phee - Pixabay)

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