What you can do about stress

What is stress

• Stressor: any physical or psychological event or condition that produces physical and emotional reactions
• Stress response: the physical and emotional reactions to a stressor
• Stress: the general physical and emotional state that accompanies the stress response

Physical Responses to Stress

• Actions of the nervous system
• Nervous system consists of brain, spinal cord, and nerves
• Autonomic nervous system: the branch of the nervous system that controls basic body processes; consists of the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions
• Parasympathetic division: a division of the autonomic nervous system that moderates the excitatory effect of the sympathetic division, slowing metabolism and restoring energy supplies
• Sympathetic division: a division of the autonomic nervous system that reacts to danger or other challenges by almost instantly accelerating body processes
• Norepinephrine: a neurotransmitter released by the sympathetic nervous system onto specific tissues to increase their function in the face of increased activity; when released by the brain, causes arousal (increased attention, awareness, and alertness); also called noradrenaline

The Endocrine System

• Endocrine system: system of glands, tissues, and cells that secretes hormones into the bloodstream to influence metabolism and other body processes
• Hormone: chemical messenger produced in the body and transported in the bloodstream to targeted cells or organs for specific regulation of their activities

Physical Responses to Stress

• Physiological changes occur as the result of the release of key hormones
• Cortisol: a steroid hormone secreted by the cortex (outer layer) of the adrenal gland; also called hydrocortisone
• Epinephrine: a hormone secreted by the medulla (inner core) of the adrenal gland that affects the functioning of organs involved in responding to a stressor; also called adrenaline
• Endorphins: brain secretions that have pain-inhibiting effects
• Fight-or-flight reaction: a defense reaction that prepares a person for conflict or escape by triggering hormonal, cardiovascular, metabolic, and other changes

Physical Responses to Stress

• The return to homeostasis
• Homeostasis: a state of stability and consistency in a person’s physiological functioning
  • After stressful situation ends, parasympathetic division takes command and halts stress response
• Fight-or-flight reaction in modern life
  • Part of our biological heritage
  • Inappropriate for most modern stressors

Personality Traits & Stress

• Personality: sum of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional tendencies
  • Type A
  • Type B
  • Type C
  • Type D
• Some personality traits enable people to better handle stress

Emotional & Behavioral Responses to Stress

• Cognitive appraisal of a potential stressor strongly influences response
• Two factors that can reduce the magnitude of the stress response
  • Successful prediction
  • Perception of control

Emotional & Behavioral Responses to Stress

• Effective and ineffective responses
  • Ineffective behavioral responses: overeating; expressing hostility; and using tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs
• Somatic nervous system manages behavioral responses that are under our control
  • Somatic nervous system: the branch of peripheral nervous system that governs motor functions and sensory information, largely under our conscious control
• Cultural background
  • Clash of cultures can be a source of stress
  • Stress reactions are influenced by family; culture
• Experience
  • Past experiences dramatically influence the perception of a potential stressor
  • Effective behavioral responses can lessen stress; ineffective ones only worsen it

Symptoms of Excess Stress

Stress & Wellness

• General adaptation syndrome (GAS): a three-stage pattern of stress response
  • Alarm: Body is more susceptible to disease or injury, because it is geared up to deal with a crisis
  • Resistance: New level of homeostasis in which body is more resistant to disease and injury than normal
  • Exhaustion: Life-threatening type of physiological state characterized by distorted perceptions and disorganized thinking

• Allostatic load: long-term negative impact of the stress response on the body
  • Describes long-term wear and tear of stress response on an individual
  • High allostatic load is linked to heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and reduced brain and immune system functioning

Stress & Specific Conditions

Stress and the Immune System

• Increased levels of stress hormones are linked to decrease in number and functioning of immune cells
• Linked to increased vulnerability to colds and other infections, asthma and allergy attacks, flare-ups of chronic diseases
• Mood, personality, behavior, and immune function are intertwined

Cardiovascular disease

• During the stress response, heart rate increases and blood vessels constrict, causing blood pressure to rise
• Chronic high blood pressure is a major cause of atherosclerosis
• People who respond to stressors with extreme increases in heart rate and blood pressure may face increased risk of cardiovascular problems

Other health problems

• Digestive problems
• Tension headaches and migraines
• Insomnia and fatigue
• Injuries
• Menstrual irregularities, impotence, pregnancy complications
• Psychological conditions

Finding Balance

• As the stress level increases from low to moderate, so does performance (eustress)
• At the optimal level (the peak of the curve), performance has reached its peak
• If stress exceeds the optimal level, it will reach the distress region, where it will become excessive and debilitating, and performance will decline

Common Sources of Stress

Major life changes

• Any major change in life that requires adjustment and accommodation can be a source of stress
• Early adulthood and the college years are associated with many significant changes
• Even positive changes can be stressful
• Clusters of life changes, particularly negative changes, may be linked to health problems in some people

Daily hassles

• Daily hassles can be a big source of stress
• Can contribute to a decrease in wellness

College stressors

• Academic stress
• Interpersonal stress
• Time pressures
• Financial concerns
• Worries about the future

Job-related stressors

• When people shape how their job is performed, their job satisfaction rises and stress levels drop
• Burnout is possible if stress is severe or chronic

Relationships and stress

• First relationships outside family are friendships
• Often more stable and longer lasting than intimate partnerships
• Intimate love relationships are among the most profound human experiences
• Communication is key to developing and maintaining any type of relationship

Other stressors

• External or environmental stressors include loud noises, unpleasant smells, industrial accidents, and violence and natural disasters
• Internal stressors include pressures we place on ourselves and our physical or emotional states
• Pandemic
• Politics
• Societal Stressors

Managing Stress

Exercise

• People who exercise regularly react with milder physical stress before, during, and after exposure to stressors
• Even light exercise can have a beneficial effect, but an integrated fitness program can have a significant impact on stress
• People who exercise compulsively risk overtraining

Nutrition

• A healthy, balanced diet can help cope with stress
• Eating wisely enhances feelings of self-control and self-esteem
• Limit or avoid caffeine

Sleep and stress

• Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night
• Stress hormone levels in the bloodstream are related to sleep patterns
• Lack of sleep has the greatest impact on stress
• Extreme sleep deprivation can lead to hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms, and increase heart attack risk

Sleep disorders

• According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2013 Sleep in America Poll, adults average just under 7 hours per night of sleep during the week
• As many as 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep disorders
• More than 50% of adults suffer from at least one symptom of insomnia

Sleep apnea

Managing Stress

Social support

• Sharing fears, frustrations, and joys makes life richer and seems to contribute to the well-being of the body and mind
• One study of college students living in overcrowded apartments found that those with a strong social support system were less distressed by cramped quarters

Communication

• Good communication in relationships:
• Self-disclosure
• Listening
• Feedback

Conflict resolution

• Basic strategies:
• Clarify the issue
• Find out what each person wants
• Determine how you both can get what you want
• Decide how to negotiate
• Solidify the agreements
• Review and renegotiate

Striving for spiritual wellness

• Spiritual wellness is associated with greater coping skills and higher levels of overall wellness
• Linked to longer life expectancy, reduced risk of disease, faster recovery, and improved emotional health

Confiding in yourself through writing

• Keeping a diary

Time management

• Set priorities
• Schedule tasks for peak efficiency
• Set realistic goals, and write them down
• Budget enough time
• Break up long-term goals into short-term ones
• Visualize your goals
• Keep track of the tasks you put off
• Consider doing your least-favorite task first
• Consolidate tasks when possible
• Identify quick transitional tasks
• Delegate responsibility
• Say no when necessary
• Give yourself a break
• Avoid your personal “time sinks”
• Stop thinking or talking about what you’re going to do, and just do it

Cognitive techniques

• Changing destructive thinking:
• Monitor self-talk and try to minimize hostile, critical, and self-deprecating thoughts
• Modify expectations
• Live in the present
• “Go with the flow”
• Cultivate your sense of humor
• Relaxation response: a physiological state characterized by a feeling of warmth and quiet mental alertness
  • Heart rate, breathing, and metabolism slow down
  • Blood pressure and oxygen consumption decrease
• Progressive relaxation: involves tensing and relaxing muscles one by one
• Visualization: imagine yourself floating on a cloud, sitting on a mountaintop, or lying in a meadow
• Deep breathing: deep, slow breathing associated with relaxation
  • There are many free apps that offer guided breathing. ‘Breath+” is an example.
• Listening to music: influences pulse, blood pressure, and electrical activity of muscles

https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/student-affairs/counseling-center/clinical-services.aspx

When stress Becomes a More Serious Problem

• Problems begin to interfere seriously with school or work performance or with relationships
• Suicide is seriously considered or attempted
• Hallucinations, delusions, incoherent speech, or loss of memory
• Alcohol or drugs are used to the extent that they impair normal functioning
• Depression: a mood disorder characterized by loss of interest, sadness, hopelessness, loss of appetite, disturbed sleep, and other physical symptoms
  • Self-help apps:
    • MoodTools
    • Happify
    • Moodpath
  • Anxiety Self-help apps:
    • Breathe2Relax
    • Headspace
    • Live OCD Free
    • Mindshift
    • Sanvello-Free
    • Self-Help for Anxiety Management (SAM)
    • Panic Relief
    • Calm
    • What’s Up
    • Virtual Hope Box

https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/student-affairs/counseling-center/self-help.aspx

Getting Help

• Listen to your body
• Self-help guides are available
• Peer counseling and support groups
• Support groups are typically organized around a particular issue or problem
• Professional help
• Psychotherapy, especially a short-term course of sessions, can be helpful in dealing with stress-related problems

Body image

• Mental representation a person holds about her or his body, consisting of perceptions, images, thoughts, attitudes, and emotions about the body
• Severe body image problems:
  • Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)- Body image may bear little resemblance to fact
  • Muscle dysmorphia
• Social media impact on body image – what roll does it play?
  • Comparison

Health Vs. Appearance

• Everyone has a different body type based on many factors that we do not have control of
• Acceptance and change
• Weight management needs to take place in a positive and realistic atmosphere
• Hazards of excessive dieting and over-concern about body weight need to be countered by changes in attitude

Eating Disorders

• Eating disorder: serious disturbance in eating patterns or eating-related behavior characterized by a negative body image and concerns about body weight or body fat
• Affects up to 24 million people in the U.S.
• Classified as a mental disorder
• Anorexia nervosa: eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain body weight at a minimally healthy level and intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat; self-starvation
• Bulimia nervosa: eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating and purging to prevent weight gain
• Purging: use of vomiting, laxatives, excessive exercise, restrictive dieting, enemas, diuretics, or diet pills to compensate for food that has been eaten and that the person fears will produce weight gain
• Binge-eating disorder (BED): eating disorder characterized by binge eating and a lack of control over eating behavior in general
  • Characterized by uncontrollable eating without any compensatory purging behaviors
  • Binge eaters are almost always obese

Treating Eating Disorders

• Must address problematic eating behaviors and misuse of food to manage emotions
• Milder patterns may benefit from nutrition checkup with a registered dietitian
• If concerns about body weight and shape develop into an eating disorder, professional help is recommended

References

• Reframe Health Lab. (2018). 90:10 The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Stress.
• https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/student-affairs/counseling-center/clinical-services.aspx
• https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/student-affairs/counseling-center/self-help.aspx