The Psychology of Stress - Essay Example

The Psychology of Stress Stress affects individuals’ lives in many ways including the way they feel, think, and behave and also the way their body operates since mind and body constantly interact. Any life situation that poses a challenge to wellbeing is stress and some people believe that stress is very important in everyday lives and that without any stress is boring and pointless. Many aspects of life are likely to cause stress including work-related issues, bereavement, financial or relationship problems among others. People not only feel stressed because of difficult or negative events but also some positive situations like job promotion among others. This essay focuses on stress with the first section exploring the meaning of stress and the second part covers how it affects individuals’ health. More so, it discusses the body response to stress and lastly the hypothalamus gland and its processes. Arguably, stress can be defined as a normal physical response to any threatening event or situation. According to Gregson (2000, p.6), stress refers to physical and mental reaction to feelings, situations, or places among others. In most cases, stressors are associated with negativity or difficulty like an exhausting work schedule or a rocky relationship, but anything that has high demands or forces an individual to adjust can cause stress. Such situations include positive events like getting married or receiving a promotion among others. In some cases, stress is considered normal like being stressed about exams and it is keeps individuals alert and protect them when they are in danger or when they are need to act or think quickly. Even though lack of stress is a reflection that the body is under-estimated, extreme or protracted stress stimulates the body to discharge stress hormones over an extended duration and this in turn increases the risk of health problems like high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack among others. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death globally and stress has been noted the number one cause of these diseases (Hjemdahl, Rosengren and Steptoe 2012, p.2). In addition, long-lasting stress can lead to increased vulnerability to infections, allergy and other diseases (Brodal 2010, p.454). Moreover, individuals suffering from chronic stress are at a greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome that includes diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. Chronic stress is linked to heart disease and high blood pressure and it leads to elevation of arterial blood pressure (Oxington2004, p.45). Chronic stress can be described as the ongoing stress caused by events such as death or divorce (Gregson 2000, p.10). Nevertheless, the manner in which individuals perceive or react to stress also affects their lives significantly. For instance, those individuals who strongly believe that their stress is really affecting their health are more likely to have a heart attack after some time. Some of the effects of stress on individuals’ body include tendency to sweat, hypertension, obesity, headache, difficulty in sleeping, heart disease, low immunity against diseases, and muscular aches among others. More so, it leads to anger, anxiety, forgetfulness, depression, irritability, and restlessness among others. Apart from health and wellbeing, stress also affects individuals’ behaviour in that it leads to social withdrawal, substance abuse, and relationship problems among others. Some of the common mental illnesses triggered by stressful situations include depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia among others. Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness which makes individuals to interpret reality in an abnormal manner. It simply refers to a disruption of the normal balance of emotions and thinking. This brain disorder leads to hallucinations and delusions among others. Therefore, schizophrenia affects individual’s way of thinking, behaviour and emotions. Some of the symptoms of schizophrenia in clued delusions which are false beliefs that are not based in reality; hallucinations which involve seeing or hearing things that do not really exist. Others include disorganized thinking or speech, abnormal motor behaviour, and negative symptoms which basically refer to reduced ability to function normally. Basically, diagnosis of schizophrenia involves identifying and ruling out other mental illnesses and determining that the symptoms do not result from substance abuse or a medical condition. Additionally, a person has to have some the schizophrenia symptoms most of the time in a month. In addition, there are some complications that schizophrenia may cause including suicide, depression, substance abuse, and social isolation if not diagnosed accordingly. Another mental disorder is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is caused by a traumatizing situation. An individual may have PTSD after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying situation that will cause flashbacks and nightmares. PTSD symptoms lead to significant problems in individuals’ social relationships. The symptoms are generally categorized as first, intrusive memories that include symptoms like recurrent and unwanted memories of the traumatic event or upsetting dreams about the event. Secondly, the symptoms in avoidance category include characterized by trying to avoid thinking about the traumatic event. Third, negative changes in thinking and mood and some of the symptoms include negative feelings about self and others, feeling emotionally numb, difficulty maintaining stable relationships, and hopelessness among others. Lastly, changes in emotional reactions with symptoms such as irritability, self-destructive behaviour, trouble concentrating, and trouble sleeping among others. Normally, the diagnosis of PTSD requires exposure to a traumatic event either by experiencing, witnessing, or realizing someone close experienced the traumatic event. The body’s response to stress regulates itself in that, as the hormone levels fall, the heart and blood pressure returns to normal. When individuals are stressed, they experience heightened state of alertness, increase in blood pressure, rapid breathing, reduced digestive and immune systems, increased heart rate, and tensed muscles among others. More so, when an individual recognizes a danger, the nervous system reacts by producing many stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol that prepares the body for disastrous action. As a result, the heart beats faster, blood pressure increases, senses becomes sharper and this will in turn enable stressed individuals to speed their reaction time and enhance their focus so as to effectively deal with the stressful situation. Some researchers have suggested that depression and immune system are related though the secretion of cortisol. They argue that there is suppressed immune functioning and increased cortisol secretion among individuals suffering from depression (Plotnikoff, Murgo and Faith 1991, p.5). Stress engages the nervous system and triggering behavioural and psychological response patterns like defence and defeat reactions (Oxington 2004, p.45). Ideally, stress hormones present in blood combine to form the fight-or-flight response. This response refers to individual body’s nervous system operating together to stressful event. This concept was developed to describe biological and behavioural response to any form of threat (Hjemdahl, Rosengren and Steptoe 2012, p.2). General adaptation involves three phases of response when an individual is exposed to stressful stimuli. The first stage is alarm phase where there are many alterations in the regulatory processes interfering with some important processes like blood circulation. Secondly, in resistance phase there is production of many hormones to help cope with stress (Hjemdahl, Rosengren and Steptoe 2012, p.3). Exhaustion is the third phase in which adoption or resistance may be lost in this phase (“Stress and Mental Health” 2008). Stress triggers the production of many hormones in the body to help in fighting the situation. For instance, whenever the body senses stress, the hypothalamus responds to this by triggering the body to secret beneficial hormones including adrenaline and cortisol. These two hormones play a leading role in helping individuals to successfully deal with any threats and this is referred to as fight-or-flight response. When individuals are stressed, their bodies activate necessary resources to offer protection either to face or get away from threat. The hormone adrenaline assists in increasing pulse, raises body pressure, raises alertness, and provides extra energy among other functions. Accordingly, cortisol hormone also plays a leading role in increasing energy by stimulating the release of glucose into individual’s bloodstream. Therefore, the two hormones assist in protecting individuals in a threatening or challenging situation. There are two main ways to reduce stress, that is, biological and psychological approaches. Biological approach mainly focuses on ways of reducing and managing the body’s alarm reactions to combat stress. The kind of medication that might be used includes anti-anxiety drugs to minimize general arousal and anxiety levels, and beta-blockers to minimize levels of physiological arousal, heart rate and blood pressure. More so, biofeedback is another biological approach and it needs an individual to measure pulse and blood pressure then practice relaxation techniques to reduce the level of arousal hence reducing the effects of stress. Conversely, psychologists have provided various ways to help individuals cope with stressful events. The most commonly used psychological approaches to manage stress include relaxation technique that help in reducing physical tension and meditation technique to minimize anxieties. Another psychological approach is cognitive-behavioural approaches. These approaches mainly concentrate on training individuals and teaching them new different ways of thinking and behaving. Meichenbaum came up with the concept stress inoculation training (SIT) as a preventative measure of reducing stress levels. Here, individuals present all possible sources of stress in their lives and think of their previous coping mechanisms and then they are given skills training and asked to practice. In their research aimed at finding the effect of personality levels on stress levels, Friedman and Rosenman came up with Type A personality idea. They argued that a person with ‘type A’ personality is competitive, workaholic, time conscious and gets frustrated easily and so such a person is more likely to engage in risky behaviors like smoking and substance abuse among others and experience a heart attack. Type A individuals tend to be very competitive, self-critical, ambitious, and have strong achievement orientation among others (Matthews, Deary and Whiteman 2003, p.279). Friedman and Rosenman noted that type A personality have a higher risk of heart disease and high blood pressure as compared to other personality types. More so, they found that type A individuals were impatient and aggressive. Another characteristic that identifies Type A individuals is time urgency as they tend to be always aware of time and they feel frustrated to wait let us say in a queue. Moreover, Type A individuals usually find themselves in stressful and demanding jobs that can cause serious health complications. Another study on the connection between personality and stress aimed at explaining why some individuals suffer stress more easily as compared to others claiming that some individuals are hardy personality types. These individuals have personal control over their lives and they perceive life events as challenges not stresses and so they are less likely to be stressed. Stress is something that affects individuals worldwide but in a different way since different cultures vary in their stress responses because different individuals are exposed to different stressors, have different perception and responds differently to any given challenge. Ideally, cultures transmit belief systems that are likely to influence the way their members perceive and respond to stressors as well as how to cope with them successfully. Different cultural groups have different views and so they are exposed to completely different stressful events. More so, cultural norms can influence whether an event or a situation is perceived as stressful or not.In the UK, workplace, social environment as well as economic factors are important factors used to assess stress and so stressors include divorce, new job, and alteration in financial situations. However, in some places, different stressors are likely to be experienced such as natural disaster like earthquake, floods and famine while these are irrelevant in places like UK. More so, minority individuals living within a majority culture experience different stressors. For instance, immigrants in the UK are stressed by poverty and discrimination. In addition, white and black Americans experience different types of stress, for example, black Americans are more stressed by illnesses or injuries, change in living conditions or work responsibilities. On the contrary, stressors like high blood pressure mostly affect the whites.Accordingly, different cultures cope with stress differently, for instance, those individuals with religious belief system pray for divine assistance to cope with stressors affecting them. Further, the kind of lifestyle that an individual lives determines the kind of stressors they are likely to be exposed to. For instance, those from poor background are more likely to be stressed because of lack of support and financial problems. There are many ways through which psychologists can motivate individuals to live better lives. Psychologists are always concerned with practical problems in the society and their main aim is to help individuals overcome whatever difficulty they are going through. Psychologists advise individuals to fight for their happiness and try to be happy most of the time. More so, they can advise individuals to live a healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly, stay stress-free, foster close relationships, obtain adequate sleep among others. Again, they can help individuals go through challenging situation by providing necessary therapy. This way, societal members can adopt and live better lives that will motivate them to be functional and remain active in the society. In conclusion, everyone experience stress in one way or another affecting their health as well as behaviour. Stress occurs when individuals feel pressured or are forced to adjust. Both negative events like bereavement and positive situation like change of job can cause stress. Diseases such as heart disease and hypertension have been associated with stress. Normally, the body reacts to stressful situation by producing many hormones including adrenaline and cortisol that help in coping with stressful situation accordingly. More so, different cultures differ in what they perceive as stressors and how they respond and cope with these situations. Nevertheless, individual’s personality type determines whether they get easily stressed or not. In addition, culture also affects stress in that different cultures have different perception and are therefore exposed to different stressors. References “Stress and Mental Health”, 2008, The Hindustan Times. Brodal, P. 2010, The Central Nervous System, Oxford, Oxford University Press, USA. Gregson, S. R. 2000, Stress management, Mankato, Minn, LifeMatters. Hjemdahl, P., Rosengren, A., and Steptoe, A., 2012, Stress and cardiovascular disease, London, Springer. Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., and Whiteman, M. C. 2003, Personality traits. Cambridge [u.a.], Cambridge Univ. Press. Oxington, K. V., 2004, Stress and health: new research, New York, Nova Biomedical Books. Plotnikoff, Nicholas P., Murgo Anthony J., and Faith Robert E., 1991, Stress and Immunity, CRC Press. Read More