Chapter 17. Stress and Health

Stress is the arousal of one´s mind and body in response to demands made upon them. There are different sources of stress including frustration, daily hassles, life changes, and conflict. Not all stresses are bad. Positive stress is called eustress and negative stress is called distress that is intense pressure of anxiety that can have severe psychological and physical effects.

Stress has different sources, the first one is frustration. This is one of the most common sources of stress that means that we are being blocked from obtaining a goal. Examples of this is being delayed from keeping an appointment, lacking enough money to buy an object we really need or want, or forgetting something important. Daily hassles is another source of stress and this are the everyday frustrations we all experience. Life changes: such moving, serious illness or a death in the family. Conflict is another source of stress, this is being pulled in two or more directions by opposing forces or motives. An example of a conflict is when we are applying to a college. Let´s say that we have been accepted in three colleges, and we have the pressure on deciding to which are we going to go. There are three types of conflict approach-approach conflict that is the least stressful type of conflict because the choices are positive. Avoidance-avoidance conflict is a single goal that can produce both avoidance and approach motives. And multiple approach-avoidance conflict is that each alternative courses of action has its advantages and disadvantages.

General adaptation syndrome has three stages, and alarm reaction, a resistance stage and an exhaustion stage. The alarm reaction is initiated when a stressor is perceived. This reaction mobilizes the body for defensive action. The resistance stage happens if the alarm reaction mobilizes the body and the stressor is not removed. During this stage people attempt to find a way to cope with the stressor to avoid being overwhelmed by their negative reactions to the stressor. And the exhaustion stage happens if the stressor is still not removed. At this stage the adrenal and the other glands activated by the fight-or-fight reaction can no longer continue to secrete hormones. When people have stress they are more common to have a great variety of disease causing organisms. The immune system prevents disease by producing white blood cells that destroy these.

There are several ways to cope stress. Defensive coping is one way to reduce the immediate effects of a stressor, but it is probably, but it is probably not the most desirable way. Defensive coping may give people time to gather their resources, but it does not eliminate the source of stress or improve the effectiveness of one´s response to stress. Substance abuse is that some teenagers use alcohol, tranquilizers, and other drugs to try to reduce feelings of stress. Aggression is used by some people that use violence to cope with stressful situations. Suicide happens when people feel so much stress that they just kill themselves.

Stress can have many consequences in our lives, some big and other small. We fight against stress in our daily basis and everyone has their own kind of stress. Stress can cause many physical conflicts such as losing hair, biting our nails and much more.