Stress is body’s way of responding to an event; it can be caused by both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. The human body’s natural response to a stressful situation begins with producing chemicals and releasing them into the blood stream, these chemicals provide energy and strength to deal with the situation. Depending on the situation or an event this energy can be helpful or unhelpful. For example, if someone is facing a physical danger then the extra energy produced by those chemical will be utilized in way of ‘fight or flight’ meaning there is an outlet for this extra energy but in case of an emotional event there may not be an outlet av
What are the Stressors & some important sources of stress?
Stressors can simply be defined as something that will cause the release of stress hormones. The stressors can be divided into two main categories:
Physiological (or Physical) Stressors: are the stressors that cause the strain on human body in situations such as changes in extreme change in temperatures, injuries, chronic illness or pain. These are physical.
Psychological Stressors: are the events, situations, it can be a negative comment or a threat that someone made, or simply not being able to find time to study for an upcoming exam.
The stressors can further be defined as:
Absolute Stressors: These are the stressors that are universal and everyone exposed to them will interpret as being stressful. These are objective stressors (i.e.: Events of 9/11, a tsunami, earthquakes etc.)
Relative stressors: These are stressors that only some are exposed to and would interpret as being stressful. These are subjective and cause different reactions in different people (i.e. time pressure at work, paying taxes, traffic, writing an essay/exam).
Some important sources of stress are:
1- Life events and Change: changes brought to our daily life or routine which can sometimes be temporary and sometimes permanent.
2- Daily Hassel: Everyday occurrences that may annoy or stress some people for example, grocery shopping, traffic, paying bills etc. These can be minor stressors but over time can take a toll.
3- Conflict: it’s more like having to make a decision between two opposing desires, goals or outcomes. The basic types of the conflicts are:
(a) An approach-approach conflict: represents a win-win situation where someone is faced with a choice between two equally appealing outcomes. These are less stressful.
(b) An avoidance-avoidance conflict: refers to choosing from two unappealing or undesirable outcomes. These are more stressful conflicts.
(c) An approach-avoidance conflict: a single goal has both desirable and undesirable aspects. Faced with an approach-avoidance conflict, people often vacillate, unable to make a decision whether to approach or avoid the goal. These are the most stressful types of conflicts.
What is the life events approach, and what problems are associated with it?
Life events such a death, marriage, having a child, divorce, moving, loss of job bring change in human life and sometime time change brought by these events can be very stressful. To measure the amount of stress people experience in their life, early stress researchers Thomas Holmes and Rihard Rahe developed the Social Rating Scale, which includes 43 life events that requires some level of adaptation. Each of these life events is assigned a numerical rating that estimates its relative impact in terms of life change units.
Holmes and Rahe found that people who had more than 150 life change units within a year had a increased rate of physical or psychological illness.
However this scale was considered very useful in the beginning but later on several problems with the life events approach were identified such as:
1- The link between scores on Social Readjustment Rating Scale and the development of physical and psychological problems is relatively weak. In general, these scores are not very good indicators.
2- The Social Readjustment Rating Scale does not take into account a person’s subjective appraisal of an event, response to that event, or ability to cope with the event.
3- The life events approach assumes that change in itself. Whether good or bad, produces stress.
What advice would you give someone who is experiencing severe stress:
In my life I have suffered from stress, I believe it is not possible for anyone to be 100% stress free considering the actual definition of stress however, it is possible to reduce the effects and complication, which may be caused by stress. Below are some of the things I would advice to whomever suffering from stress.
Knowledge: Learn about what stress is and how it can harm someone’s well being, knowing about Do’s and Don’ts and acknowledging the condition will definitely help. You can’t fix a problem without having complete knowledge of it.
Healthy Life style: Adopt healthy habits, cut down or stop smoking and the use of alcohol, be conscious of diet, exercise (i.e. hike, running, long walks), and sleep.
Relaxation: Find out what helps you relax, for some people it may be praying, meditation, reading or a hobby.
Join a Meetup group:
This is social media application that allows people who share a similar interest to get together and do an activity as a group. I myself joined Hiking, Paintball, and cycling groups. There is count less different activities groups that anyone can join and take part in. It’s a great way of meeting and spending time with people for an activity everyone enjoys.
