STRESS

Stress: Outline and Review

Introduction

Stress is in all aspects of human life. , a pioneer in stress research, defined it as “the nonspecific response of the body to any demands made upon it” (, 1992, p. 597). It is considered to be an internal state or reaction to anything we consciously or unconsciously perceive as a threat, either real or imagined ( 1988). Stress can evoke feelings of frustration, fear, conflict, pressure, hurt, anger, sadness, inadequacy, guilt, loneliness, or confusion (, 1988). Individuals feel stressed when they are fired or lose a loved one (negative stress) as well as when they are promoted or go on a vacation (positive stress). While many individuals believe they must avoid stress to live longer,  (1976) argues that it is the salt and spice of life and that to have no stress we would have to be dead.

            Moreover, in Georgia Reproductive Specialists website stress is defined as something the “wear and tear” of our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative feelings. As a positive influence, stress can help compel us to action; it can result in a new awareness and an exciting new perspective. As a negative influence, it can result in feelings of distrust, rejection, anger, and depression, which in turn can lead to health problems such as headaches, upset stomach, rashes, insomnia, ulcers, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. With the death of a loved one, the birth of a child, a job promotion, or a new relationship, we experience stress as we readjust our lives. In so adjusting to different circumstances, stress will help or hinder us depending on how we react to it.

            Stress effects

            Like what have been established above, stress can result in physical, psychological, and behavioral responses. It has always been found that it is one of the contributing factors to physical disorders that include heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, migraine headaches, cancer, and gastrointestinal disorders. One study had it even that a company spent , 400 annually for one employee with anxiety headaches, which included the loss of productivity, doctor visits, and negative effects on coworkers (1988).

Further on, psychological disorders gotten from stress are not always readily certain, but symptoms are anxiety, depression, job dissatisfaction, maladaptive behavioral patterns, chemical dependencies, and alcohol abuse. These disorders have been recognized as one of the ten (10) most leading work-related diseases in the country today by The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ( 1990).

            There are many stress effects to human health and behavior. Feeling overload of something (like work) has been known to cause in the increase of blood pressure, ipeptic ulcers, anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability and depression ( 1988;  1988). Role conflict and role ambiguity have been linked with lower job satisfaction and higher job-related tension (1986. Stress can be categorized to different effects and into five areas: subjective (anxiety, fatigue), behavioral (alcoholism, restlessness), cognitive (forgetfulness, inability to make decisions), physiological (high blood pressure, breathing problems), and organizational (job dissatisfaction, absenteeism) (1995)). Still, burnout is still known to be the extreme case of stress. Most of the time it occurs over time and it is characterized by emotional exhaustion and negative attitudes that include boredom, discontent, cynicism, inadequacy, and failure. Burnout usually occurs when a person experiences physical, psychological, or spiritual fatigue and can no longer cope ( 1988).

            Serious Matter

            Furthermore, there’s a new research that reveals that stress has even graver effects on the human body than what experts previously believed. The research had it that stress affects the body in the same way that an allergy does. By becoming overly sensitized to stress, the body reacts in a similar allergic reaction. Psychological stress doesn’t just put your head in a vise. New studies document exactly how it tears away at every body system–including your brain. But get this: The experience of stress in the past magnifies your reactivity to stress in the future. So take a nice deep breath and find a stress-stopping routine this instant ( (1996)).

            What’s with the expansion of technology, human life’s has been getting busier and busier each passing generation. Leisure time has shrunk. Bathing-suited business men walk beaches on Sundays with cellular phones stuck to their ears, planning the next morning’s meetings. Laptop computers find their way on vacations. The family icons of the 1990s are working couples picking up their children on their way home to dinners prepared by caterers or fast food chefs. Grieving time has shrunk. So much so, stress has become so endemic it is worn like a badge of courage. The business of stress reduction, from workshops to relaxation tapes to fight and sound headsets, is booming. If ours is a culture without deep intimacy, then our relationship with stress is the exception ( (1996)).

            Moreover, human responding to stress may do like an allergy. That is, becoming sensitized, or acutely sensitive, to stress. Once that happens, even the merest intimation of stress can trigger a cascade of chemical reactions in brain and body that assault us from within. Stress is the psychological equivalent of ragweed. Once the body becomes sensitized to pollen or ragweed, it takes only the slightest bloom in spring or fall to set off the biochemical alarm that result in runny noses, watery eyes, and the general misery of hay fever. But while only some of us are genetically programmed to be plagued with hay fever, all of us have the capacity to become sensitized to stress. Stress sensitization is uncharitably subversive. While the chemical signals systems of body and brain are running amok in a person sensitized to stress, that person’s perception of stress remains unchanged. It’s as if the brain, aware that the burner on the stove is cool, still signals the body to jerk its hand away. “What happens is that sensitization leads the brain to re-circuit itself in response to stress,” says psychologist  Ph.D., of McGill University. “We know that what we are encountering may be a normal, everyday episode of stress, but the brain is signaling the body to respond inappropriately.” We may not think we are getting worked up over running late for an appointment, but our brain is treating it as though our life were on the line ( (1996)).

            Managing Stress

            Most of the time the solution to fight off stress is personal – in other words, individuals learn to manage their own stress (1988). Individual techniques include establishing goals and priorities, managing time efficiently, delegating, and learning to communicate with others, changing behaviors, exercising, relaxing, and developing a social support network of friends, family, and colleagues. As can be seen, positive stress adds anticipation and excitement to life, and we all thrive under a certain amount of stress. Deadlines, competitions, confrontations, and even our frustrations and sorrows add depth and enrichment to our lives. Our goal is not to eliminate stress but to learn how to manage it and how to use it to help us. Insufficient stress acts as a depressant and may leave us feeling bored or dejected; on the other hand, excessive stress may leave us feeling “tied up in knots.” What we need to do is find the optimal level of stress which will individually motivate but not overwhelm each of us.
Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its effect on our lives is not sufficient for reducing its harmful effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there are many possibilities for its management. However, all require work toward change: changing the source of stress and/or changing your reaction to it. First, to be come aware of one’s stressors and emotional and physical reactions – noticing distress, not ignoring it, and not glossing over problems; determining one’s events that’s cause distress; determining how one’s body responds to stress. Second, recognizing how to change or avoid it. Third, reducing intensity of emotional reactions to stress. The stress reaction is most likely to trigger by perception of danger. Fourth, learning to moderate physical reactions by breathing slowly, deeply to bring the heart rate and respiration back to normal. Relaxation techniques can reduce muscle tension. Electronic biofeedback can help gain voluntary control over such things as muscle tension, heart rate, and blood pressure. Medications, when prescribed by a physician, can help in the short term in moderating your physical reactions. However, they alone are not the answer. Learning to moderate these reactions on your own is a preferable long-term solution. Fifth, building physical reserves in the body through exercising for cardiovascular fitness three to four times a week (moderate, prolonged rhythmic exercise is best, such as walking, swimming, cycling, or jogging), eating well-balanced, nutritious meals, maintaining ideal weight, avoiding nicotine, excessive caffeine, and other stimulants, mixing leisure with work, taking breaks, getting enough sleep, and being as consistent with sleep schedule as possible. Sixth, maintaining emotional reserves: developing some mutually supportive friendships and relationships, pursuing realistic goals which are meaningful.

 

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