Altered state of consciouness

The term stress is a very familiar concept that many people are familiar with. Stress affects the mind and the body. Physical, psychological, and social problems can all be factors of stress. Simple everyday tasks that cause anxiety or nervousness are often classified as stress. Physicians often tell patients that their illnesses are related to stress. (Gordon, 1990, p. 13)

The term stress didn't become familiar until 1936. Canadian physician and physiologist Hans Selye wrote a book on his research on stress, it was called The Stress of life. In his book his definition: "Stress is the state manifested by a specific syndrome which consists of all the nonspecifically induced changes within a biological system." (Gordon, 1990, p. 13-14 ) Selye set out to research whether there was a biological basis to the syndrome. In a series of experiments he exposed laboratory rats to extreme heat and cold and electrical shocks and they were injected with poisons and irritations to their nervous system. The stimuli created specific reactions to different areas that were consistent from one stimuli to another. Once the experiment was done, Selye had developed a conclusion and divided into three stages: (1) the alarm reaction, (2) the stage of resistance, and (3) the stage of exhaustion. First stage the levels of the adrenocortical hormones in the bloodstream rises sharply, the systems that are most suitable to handle the stress come into play. During this time the resistance stage begins, the level of adrenocortical hormones in the blood decrease. Than the resistance to the specific stress is high, but the body's ability to withstand other stresses decreases. When the stress becomes at it's highest peak the third stage comes into play. When the...

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...zes anxiety and depression and tension that are associated with stress. Acceptance versus control , willingness to accept that life presents itself with handful of situations. Working with, and not against is a good mindset to have.

Stress is part of the everyday life that can affects a persons life in many ways. Knowing the symptoms of stress and realizing how and why stress is very important. Recognizing feelings about stressful situations and being able to talk to others about these fears is normal. There are various ways in which people try to manage or tolerate stress, and figuring these steps may be helpful to reducing stress. Everyone copes with stress differently, and is affected by stress differently as well. Knowing what the body is going through while a period of stress is also helpful to learn because it could possibly help reduce some of the stress.