STRESS MANAGEMENT Part-2

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO STRESSES:

A) When exposed to stress in our environment, we generally experience many physiological reactions. Initially your blood pressure soars, your pulse races and you even begin to sweat. These are part of general pattern of reactions referred to as the ‘fight-or-flight syndrome’, a process controlled through the sympathetic nervous system, which is prepares our bodies for immediate action.usually, these responses are brief and soon return to normal level.

B) When we are exposed to chronic sources of stress, this reaction is only first in a longer sequence termed by Hans selye (1976) the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), consists of three stags, they are,
1) Alarm reaction
2) Resistance
3) Exhaustion

1) Alarm Reaction

In this stage the body prepare itself for immediate action. Arousal of the sympathetic nervous system releases stress hormones that help to prepare our body to meet threats or danger. This is also known as fight-or-flight response. In this there are more bodily response than the mental.

The hypothalamus in the brain signals the adrenal gland. The adrenal gland in turn releases adrenaline into the blood stream. The adrenaline increases the heartbeat and breathing become shallower. Blood flows from skin and *viscera to muscles and brain. The blood takes nourishment like (blood sugar) to the parts of the body, which are in need of extra energy to respond to the danger. Due to this redistribution, we look pale and our hands and feet become cooler. Physiologically the person who turns white, are more prepared to fight, than who are red in the face. That does not mean that the latter will be cool. They are just not in the best physiological state to do so! Blood pressure is raised and the capillaries of the skin and viscera are narrowed.

Foot notes: *Viscera -Internal organs collectively (especially those in the abdominal cavity)

It is these sensations that we feel immediately in our body. However we don’t feel all that is going on. Other hormones also are released. For instance ACTH (Adreno Corticotrophin Hormone) activates the adrenal glands. This enables the release of corticoids into the blood stream, which carry massage to other glands and organs.

The spleen, for instance is mobilized to release more red blood cells into to the blood stream. These carry oxygen and nourishment that are needed to provide for the extra demand of the body during this alarm stage. The ability of blood to clot is increased, in preparation for damage resulting from fighting.

The liver releases vitamins such as B and C and sucrose and it is carried to the muscles by the redistributed blood. The stomach released hydrochloric acid (Hcl), which is only does normally to digest food.

Another response is muscular tension especially of the lower back, shoulders and neck. This may lead to what is known as tension&headache.this tension remains even after the other changes due to alarm reaction decrease. As a result, people believe that the tension is the main indicator of stress. Becoming aware of tension and dealing with it can be the first step in gaining control.

Nor-adrenaline is another hormone, which is sereated.this brings with, feelings of *euphoria and satisfaction what can be termed positive stresses.

2.Resistance

If stress is prolonged, however the resistance stage begins. During this stage, arousal is lower than the alarm stage, but the body continues to draw on resources at an above-normal rate in order to cope effectively with the stresses. Continued exposure to the same stresses or additional stresses drains the body resource like like nutrients and vitamins and that lead to the third stage exhaustion.

Foot note: *Euphoria: - A feeling of great (usually exaggerated) elation

3.Exhaustion

In the above resistance stage the body can remain only for short duration. When the pressure remains beyond that, new symptoms begin to emerge. These are similar to those of alarm stage. as aresult,the body becomes increasingly vulnerable to disease and organic dysfunction.

In our life situation we cannot avoid stress completely, but to some extend we can mange or avoid or at least see that it is not collapsing us. Certain situation we will be exposed to a sudden tragedy, that may cause so much of physiological excitement, it is possible by reduce the frequency or intensity of the alarm stage, but cannot eliminate entirely. Nor we should try to; it is a normal protective mechanism. We should also try to reduce the resistance stage. The reason is that when stress occurs too often or for too long, the body has no opportunity to recover. The body needs time to re-build the lost or depleted resources. When there is no opportunity to happen this. The body enters the stage of exhaustion. The repeated exhaustion has to be prevented to protect the life.

A quick review of physiological stress

Feeling “stressed out” is not just a state of mind. High levels of stress can have severe consequences. The hormones overload. Such as adrenalin and cortisol are produced in excess, they can cause many physiological changes.
For e.g. major trauma such as love failure, divorce, family/occupational conflicts, lack of control over situation, pollution etc.

These above leads to the fallowing body changes,
1.memory loss
2.increased insulin levels leading to higher fat deposits
3.high blood pressure
4.bone loss/weakness
5.weakened muscles/tensing of muscles
6.stunted growth
7.weakened immune system
8.arteriosclerosis
9.depression
10.shallower, quicker breathing
11.excess production of adrenaline
12.faster heart beat
13.reduction of blood supply to hands and feet
14.increased blood flow to the muscles
15.sharpening of all senses
16.reduction of tension in bowels and stomach functions


COGNITIVE APPRAISAL OF STRESSES OR PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF STRESS:

When confronted with the same potentially stress-inducing situation, some person experience stress, where as other do not. Why?

It involves individual cognitive appraisals, stress occurs only to the extent that the persons involved to perceive

1) that the situation is somehow threatening to their important goals and

2) that they will be unable to meet, or cope with, these dangers or demands (lazarus&folkman, 1984;largarsetal 1985). To understand the nature of stress, it is necessary to consider the emotional and physiological reactions it involves the external conditions that produce it and the cognitive processes that play a role in its occurrence.

Stress is generally associated with negative and unpleasant emotions. is there any difference between stress and emotion?

Stress may be consider as an appraisal of situation in which a threat exceeds one’ resources. The result of this stress appraisal is emotion. The most common stress related emotions are fear, anger and sadness.

Psychological stress and physical stress are not the same. They are related. To call a condition as stress the psychological appraisal as stress is important. That is the prescription that some event is stressful is important. It is the psychological stress that generates physical stress in many situations.


A quick review of psychological stress
The mental/emotional changes occurs are
Of course all those above physiological changes also have an effect on the brain and this can cause an alert mental state, leading to:
1. Faster activity of the brain
2. Improvement of decision-making
3. Short-term judgment
4. Improved memory powers
5. Sharper focusing of attention

A quick general review of stress

Over all let us look how stress affects or making changing within oneself. And what are the medical or scientific terms involved in it, as a bird eye view:
*These fallowing are the steps in the stress reaction:
Step-1
When a person faces a stressful or threatening situation, cells in the brain can secrete a CORTICOTROPHIN releasing hormone or CRH.
Step-2
CRH signals the brain’s pituitary gland to produce ADRENOCORTICORTROPHIN hormone. Or ACTH.
Step-3
Scientists suspect that CRH also affects behavior directly by acting on certain brain regions.
Step-4
ACTH, meanwhile, passes through the bloodstream and causes the adrenal glands –located just above the kidneys –to produce CORTISOL, the best known of the stress hormones.
Step-5
CORTISOL increases the amount of glucose available to fuel the body’s cells, prevents the immune system from overreacting to injuries, and also ensures that the brain dose not secrete too much CRH. That keeps the stress response from spiraling out of control.

*(SOURCE: SCEINTIFIC AMERICAN; ULTIMATE VISUAL DICTIONARY; ESTHER STERBERG, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH; MARK SMITH, DUPONT MERSK; MARY DALLMAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN FRANCISCO.)

Stress as a positive sign:
Stress is good, it is necessary for anybody for a healthy living, many among us think that stress is negative, it is not so, stress which is beyond our manageable limits cause some negative effect in us, on the same time stress which is under our manageable limits help us to live a better life, so stress that are under our control are the positive sign.

For- e.g. -1
Stresses protect us from many of our life situation.

When one is on the road, about to face or expect an accident that is going to occur certainly, in such situation the stress act as a natural intelligence to protect us from great damage, that time the whole body and mind function as a whole, and our system is instantly ready to face the consequences, this stage is called resistance stage.

In the resistance stage, there is a surge of hormones like cordisol, aderenaline and noradrenaline, your arteries harden and your blood suddenly has more clotting power to prevent blood loss in the event of an injury.

e.g. –2
Stress is needed in a situation like, sports, making speeches and taking examinations etc.
The stress response puts people on their mettle, increases alertness, improves sight, strengthens muscles and reduces reaction times. More importantly the stress response increases our ability to stand and fight to turn and flee and to mobilize all our resources to archive what ever we decide to do.

Another positive is the zest. That stress adds to life by stimulating the senses and the passions. Many people need challenge in their life and would be unhappy without it.

Stress only has positive effect if one is tactfully managing it or keep it under control.


Negative impact of stress.
The stress causes so many negative signs among the individual level. When a person allows the stress to remain the body or mind, when there is no chance to take a necessary steps or managing techniques to release the stress out of the system, that time the stress responses are remain within our system, be it mind or body and slowly start producing negative reaction in various levels. So one need to act at once than and there to release the stress and get rid of the negative symptoms by adapting a suitable or most appropriate methods.

The negative impact of stress in the individual, can be of three levels,
1.undesirable or unsuitable behaviors
2.potential difference in energy and performance levels
3.weakening of the health. Mind and body wise.

The most important stresses that will produce a long negative impact on us are a) acute stress b) chronic stress. These are the stresses that can be more damaging. In general the negative stress tends to be cumulative, it feeds on itself. If the stress is not released today it cumulate itself for the future course of time.

We can see the connection between stress and disease. The chronic stress cause so many negative impact like heart attack, high blood pressure etc.

Because cholesterol is a hormone released under stress. It now seems quite likely that high cholesterol levels, with their accompanying higher risk of heart and blood vessel disease, reflect too much distress (negative stress) rather than our diet –says Montgomery and Evans

According to recent research at university medical centre, Chicago, people who worry a lot are more likely to develop Alzheimers.high levels of stress hormones may damage regions in the brain for memory. There is also evidence to show that severe stress can derail the immune system.

CAUSES OF STRESS
What factors contribute stress?
A wide range of conditions and events seem to capable of generating such feelings. Amongst the most important of these are major stressful life events, such as the death of a loved one or love failure or a painful divorce; the minor hassles of every day life; conditions and events relating to work; and certain aspects of physical environment such as noise, crowd, culture, family etc. and it is also comes from within such as our beliefs, racial, attitudes and expectation about the world, isolation.

The part-3 will be posted soon