Stress Management Introduction

Stress is a stage produced by a change in the environment that is perceived as challenging, threatening or damaging to the person’s dynamic balance or equilibrium. It is a natural part of life but Hans Selye defines it as “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it. ” That means good things (for example, a job promotion) to which we must adapt (termed eustress) and bad things (for example, the death of a loved one) to which we must adapt (termed distress). Other individuals explain stress as a person’s physical and psychological reaction to the demands in his or her life.

Furthermore, Selye was really onto something. His research proved so interesting and important that he drew a large number of followers. One of these was A. T. W Simeons who related evolution to psychosomatic disease. He also stated that when our self- esteems to threatened, the brain prepares the body with the fight-or-flight response. People use the word “stress” in various ways: as an external force that causes a person to become tense or upset, as the internal state of arousal, and as the physical response of the body to various demands.

In other words, the body reacts to stressors - the things that upset or excite us - in the same way, whether they are positive or negative. In addition, it is further characterized as: (1) it is a product of unpleasant environment emanating from negative experience, (2) it is a person’s response to chaotic set of environment and (3) it is a gap between the requirements of a situation and the ability to meet such. Background of the study In 2008, Reynolds and Turner believed that stress is a multifaceted phenomenon that may even have beneficial effects in some cases.

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Other researchers have added to the work of Cannon, Selye, Simeons, and others to shed more light on the relationship of stress to body processes. With this understanding has come a better appreciation of which illnesses and diseases are associated with stress and how to prevent these conditions from developing. Others also helped clarify the effects of stress. Stewart Wolf demonstrated its effects on digestive function; Lawrence Leshan studied its effects on the development of cancer; Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman identified relationship between stress and coronary heart diseases; and Wolf and Wolff studied stress and headaches.

Others in fact have found ways of successfully treating people with stress-related illness. The ABC model which was formulated by Albert Ellis shows how distress is the result of our beliefs about events rather than of the events themselves. According to him, an activating event triggers people to form an irrational or negative belief about it, which in turn shapes the consequences and of the event. On the other hand, a stressor is any stimulus from internal or external environment which challenges the adaptation capabilities of an individual and places a strain upon the person resulting to a stressful reaction or illness.

It has a potential of triggering a fight-or-flight response. As far as anyone can tell, internal psychological stressors are rare or even absent in most animals but present in humans. This stressor for which our bodies were evolutionarily trained is a threat to our safety. We encounter many different types of stressor. Some are environmental (toxins, heat, cold), some psychological (threats to self-esteem, depression), others sociological (unemployment, death of loved one), and still others philosophical (use of time, purpose in life).

Now that you know what a stressor is and what stress reactivity is, it is time to define stress itself. Defining stress becomes a problem, even for the experts. Still another view of stress conceptualizes it as the difference between pressure and adaptability. That is, stress = pressure – adaptability. For our purpose, we will operationally define stress as the combination of a stressor and stress reactivity. Without both of these components, there is no stress. Dr. Hans Selye, one of the first people to study stress, divides people into 2 categories: racehorses and turtles.

A racehorse loves to run and will die from exhaustion if it is corralled or confined in a small space. A turtle on the other hand will die from exhaustion if it is forced to run on a treadmill, moving too fast for its slow nature. We each have to find our own healthy stress level, somewhere between that of the racehorse and the turtle. The key in coping with stress is realizing that your perception and response to stressors are crucial. Changing the way you interpret the events or situations – a skill called “reframing” – can make all the difference.

Physical reactions to stress are muscle tension, sweating, over alertness, dry mouth or throat, chest discomfort, sleep problems, fast and shallow breathing and butterflies in the stomach. Emotional reactions to stress are feeling under pressure, feeling tense and unable to relax, increased tearfulness, feelings of conflict, feeling mentally drained, frustration of aggression, fears of social embarrassment, being constantly frightened, increasing irritability/ complaining, lacking inability to feel pleasure and the Feeling of mentally drained.

Dealing with the effects of stress, you can minimize many of the physical effects of stress by utilizing these single self-help techniques. For headache, have a warm bath or lie down quietly for a few hours to relieve it. For palpitations, breathe deeply and slowly to encourage your heartbeat to return to normal. For loss of appetite, eat small portions of food that you find appetizing and take your time eating.

For rapid breathing, try “Breathing to Relax technique” by breathing slowly and deeply through your nose and out to your mouth, expanding your abdomen as you breathe in. For sweating, loosen tight garments and shed any extra layers of clothing. For increased urination, restrict your intake of fluid, especially tea and coffee, if you know you are going to be in a stressful situation and for reduce sex drive, explain to your partner that your loss of interest is temporary and not a rejection of him or her.

To Manage stress one should (1) Get priorities right, (2) Exercise regularly, (3) Learn to delegate, (4) Make space for leisure time, (5) Try to develop a social network, (6) Have a proper breaks for meal, (7) Listen carefully to those around you, (8) Try to keep things in proportion, (9) Get to know yourself better and (10) Enjoy yourself, and your family and friends. Statement of the Problem 1. ) Why do people need to know the effects of stress to one’s health? 2. ) How does stress arise among people? 3. ) How can people deal with stress? 4. )

How can stress be evaluated? 5. Why do college students more prone to stress than high school students? Objectives of the study This study aims: 1. ) To distinguish the different effects of stress to one’s health/being. 2. ) To explain how stress arise among people/ individual. 3. ) To discuss several ways on how people can deal with stress. 4. ) To evaluate stress levels. 5. ) To differentiate college and high school student’s stress probability. Significance of the Study 1. ) Students. It will help them particularly the higher students (the colleges) because they experience several problems, financially, love life, wrong time management and more.

Stress has a relation to their academic performance. 2. ) Workers. They experience work blues because of their doubts about their job, their co workers and more. It may be helpful to them. 3. ) Family. It will be helpful to them for different problems like for bills, foods, clothes and other things needed in the family makes the parents or the bread winner stress. 4. ) Government and other institution’s people. Since they are responsible for the welfare of the people, they are prone to stress. Different problems of the community were blamed to them, that’s why this is helpful to them.

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