STRESS AND HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

What is stress? Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional, or psychological strain. Stress is your body’s response to anything that requires attention or action. Granted in life we all need a little push here and there to reach our own personal potential. However, too much of anything is never good news. When it comes to stress we want to be able to respond to life’s twists and turns in a instinctively balanced way. As opposed to finding ourselves in risk of diseases and mental instability when navigating our daily lives. Stress can build from dynamics in relationships, the way we treat ourselves and others, lack of awareness in dealing with mental health, substance abuse, financial instability, etc. As they say “the devil is in the details” and these details of how we function through our days begin to add up. Such as painting a picture, if one were to skip all the details and layers of creating a painting or not put as much effort into the details; the painting wouldn’t be what one expected. Much like times that we catch ourselves acting out of character or physical health issues from a build up of missing the details of how we have been treating ourselves. The relationship between psychosocial stressors and disease is affected by the nature, number and persistence of the stressors as well as the individual’s biological vulnerability; genetics, constitutional factors, psychosocial resources and learning patterns of coping. Pyschosocial interventions have the proven useful for treating stress-relate disorders and may influence the course of chronic diseases. The maintenance of life is dependent on keeping our “internal milieu constant” in the face of a changing environment. Also known as homeostasis. The term “stress” is to represent the effects of anything that seriously threatens homeostasis. A threat to an organism is the “stressor” and the response to the stressor is called the “stress response”. Severe, prolonged stress responses can lead to tissue damage and disease. Our central nervous system tends to produce integrated coping responses rather than single, isolated response changes when in a perceived threat. In a variety of situations, individuals can show stress response with active coping, whereas other tend to show stress responses associated with aversive vigilance. The most widely studied stressors are in children and adolescents exposed to violence, abuse (sexual, physical, emotional or neglect) as well as divorce/martial conflict. Exposure to intense and chronic stressors during the developmental years has long-lasting neurobiological effects and puts one at a higher risk for anxiety and mood disorders, aggressive dyscontrol problems, hypo-immune dysfunction, medical morbidity, structural changes in the CNS(Central Nervous System) and early death. Other consequences of stress that could provide linkages to health have been identified such as smoking, substance abuse, accidents, sleep problems, and eating disorders. To better cope with stress, one can minimize factors that make it worse. Having a routine is good for development and health. Maintaining a sleep routine despite sleep issues that maybe be caused by stress, avoiding caffeine afternoon and creating a relaxing sleep environment. Organization strategies to help manage a workload, for example each day create a list of tasks to accomplish which will help make things not seem so overwhelming. A list also gives a clear end point reducing the feeling that the brain is being bombarded. As well as allowing some foresight when you are likely to be stressed as one would go about their lives. Reaching out for help can also help one become more resilient and better able to manage stress. Changing our attitudes towards stress is also a major factor in many cases starting from stress. In better words, rather than striving for no stress, the point is to strive for healthier responses to stress.