Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Response to stress and stressors
Chapter 5: Stress and physical and mental health
Psychological aspects of stress
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Response to stress and stressors
Final Action Plan Author Affiliation Stress is a body's method of reacting to a challenge. According to the stressful event, the body's way to respond to stress is by sympathetic nervous system activation which results in the fight-or-flight response. In humans, stress typically describes a negative condition or a positive condition that can have an impact on a person's mental and physical well-being. Physiological or biological stress is an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition or a stimulus. The term "stress" had not been used before the 1920s. It is a form of the Middle English destresse, derived via Old French from the Latin stringere, "to draw tight." The word had long been in use in physics to refer to the internal distribution of a force exerted on a material body, resulting in strain. In the 1920s and 1930s, biological and psychological circles occasionally used the term to refer to a mental strain or to a harmful environmental agent that could cause illness. Walter Cannon used it in 1926 to refer to external factors that disrupted what he called homeostasis. Stress is an explanation of lived experiences that is absent from both lay and expert life narratives before the 1930s. Physiological stress represents a wide range of physical responses that occur as a direct effect of a stressor causing an upset in the homeostasis of the body. Upon immediate disruption of either psychological or physical equilibrium the body responds by stimulating the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. The reaction of these systems causes a number of physical changes that have both short and long term effects on the body. After taking the Holms and Rahe self-assessment my results were 277 which meant t... ... middle of paper ... ...erals. I am likely to do this as my wife has already paid the gym membership. Since my wife will be going to the gym as well I am very confident this can be a goal that will be achieved. In doing so I expect to be happier, feel better, look better and minimize my stress level to the point to where it will not be as damaging as it is now. References Khansari, D. N., A. J. Murgo, et al. (1990). "Effects of Stress on the Immune System." Immunology Today 44:26 170-175 Dantzer, R. and K. W. Kelley (1989). "Stress and Immunity: An Integrated View of Relationships Between the Brain and the Immune System." Life Sciences. 44(26): 1995-2008. Jones MD, Daniel W (2012) 24:923-947. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Advance Care Hall PhD, John E (2012). Planning: Identifying Subgroup Patterns and Obstacles. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Blood Pressure.
Aldwin, C. M., Levenson, M. R., & Spiro, A. ( 1994). Vulnerability and resilience to combat exposure: Can stress have lifelong effectsPsychology and Aging, 9, 34– 44.
What is stress? Physiological stress represents a wide range of physical responses that occur as a direct result of a stressor causing an interruption in the natural balance of a human body. When such a disruption occurs, either psychological or physical, the equilibrium in the body responds by stimulating the central nervous system, the endocrine system, and the human immune system. The reaction of these systems causes a number of physical changes that have both short and long term effects on the body. Members of the healthcare and Allied Helping Professions have devoted the last three decades to researching the specific short and long term effects of stress and the effects on the human body. This has led to highly specialized stress appraisals and the development of sophisticated coping techniques in all disciplines of the healthcare industry. Recent innovations have focused on the fact that stress impacts everyone in different ways, and that individual differences must be factored into the treatment milieu. Research continues to explore the correlati...
To a great extent, stress can be a helpful response, especially for prehistoric humans. During this era, our species needed to react quickly to outside stimuli through a response of “fight or flight”. Through stress, certain hormones are released to help the individual resist the stressor, which may have meant running away from a natural predator. Thus, stress is a positive response that ensures the survival of the species. However, stress over a prolonged period of time causes exhaustion in the individual. Consequently, although stress can be helpful for individuals today, many often experience chronic stress, inflicting varying degrees of damage to their bodies.
The last Stage number three, the stress has been going on for awhile now. Generally, this means the immune system, and the body's ability to resist disease, may be almost totally eliminated. Those who experience long-term stress may have heart attacks or severe infections due to reduced immunity.
The purpose of this paper is to define stress and how it effects the body's physiological systems. This paper will include the normal functions and organs involved in the following five physiological systems, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory, immune and musculoskeletal. This paper will also include a description of a chronic illness associated with each physiological system and how the illness is affected by stress.
Stress, as defined as a reaction to a stimulus that breaks our physical and mental harmony, is ubiquitous. However, stress has two sides – the bad and the good, in which the latter is mostly overlooked as most people suffer from the affliction of the former.
Stress does not directly causes infections or ill-health to a person. Instead, the products produced in the process of stress interfere with the usual operations of the immune system. Numerous studies have proved that stress has an immunosuppressive effect, which means the functions of the immune system is reduced when an individual is experience stress (Gross et al., 2008). Corticosteroids are initially produced during the alarm stage of the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), they do not usually cause any harm to the immune system. However, if the presence of corticosteroids is prolonged in the blood due to chronic stress, they can interfere with the production of the antibodies leaving the body vulnerable to harmful virus and bacteria (Gross et al., 2008). As described in the G.A.S model by Selye, individuals might experience drastic changes in their body such as high blood pressures and heart rates in order to cope during the stressful situations. If these changes are prolonged, this could lead to permanent damage to the body (Bailey et al, 2008).
Dr Hans Selye (1974) defined stress as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it" He has categorised those responses along a continuum ranging from positive stress or "eustress" to negative stress "distress". Eustress is the emotional reaction experienced when struggling for the creative performance in athletics or in seeking solutions to various events in our lives, which may also be manifested in emotions of happiness, such as your best friends wedding. As stress increases, performance follow...
Soloman, G. Psychoneuroimmunology: Interactions between the central nervous system and the immune system. J Neurosci Res 18:1-9 (1987).
Stress is defined as “any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 72). Stress is a natural event that exists literally in all areas of one’s life. It can be embedded in the environment, culture, or perception of an event or idea. Stress is a constant burden, and can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. However stress can also provide beneficial effects; it can satisfy one’s need for stimulation and challenge, promote personal growth, and can provide an individual with the tools to cope with, and be less affected by tomorrow’s stress (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 93).
Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, stress is helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. Stress could give a runner the edge he or she needs to persevere in a marathon, for example. This good kind of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, stress is often not helpful and can even be harmful when not managed effectively. Stress could make a salesperson buckle under the pressure while trying to make a sales pitch at an important business meeting, for example. Moreover, stress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. This bad kind of stress is called distress, the kind of stress that people usually are referring to when they use the word stress.
“A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.” https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/stress
First, stress is defined as an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well being (Patel, 14). Stress is a universal feeling to everyone but the word stress means different things to different people. Some people define stress as events or situations that cause them to feel tension, pressure or negative emotions such as anxiety or anger (Patel, 15). Other people may view stress as a process involving a person’s interpretation and response to a threatening event. In any case, stress has many facets of how one perceives and responds to the certain predicament that is ailing them.
Suppression of the Immunity System: stress causes the immune system of the body to be weakened because it fights of the stress from the stressor. This makes the body even more vulnerable to certain infections, like multiple sclerosis and arthritis. It has been discovered that stress slows the body’s rate of recovery from infections.
"Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to both good and bad experiences which can be beneficial to your health and safety." (8 Ways Stress Is More Dangerous Than You Think) Everyone 's body responds to stress by releasing hormones, also, you brain receives more oxygen. Stress starts to occur when we become worried about a task or responsibilities we face. Major stress is called chronic stress. It can cause symptoms that can affect your health in a larger way. Some people may say that they succeed more under stress, but sadly, that’s rarely the case. Research has shown that "stress makes a person more likely to make mistakes" (Stress Symptoms, Signs, & Causes). For most people, stress is extremely normal for them that they don 't see it as anything but ordinary. However, stress can motivate someone while under pressure and even get you through a tough or dangerous