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The impact of stress in people's lives
The impact of stress in people's lives
What are the impacts of stress on mental and physical health
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Everyday life can make people feel a range of emotions. Passing an important exam may make one feel happy, whereas receiving a speeding ticket from a police officer may make a person angry. These are just two events that can happen any day, at any time. What emotion was the person feeling while studying for that important exam? How was the person who received the ticket feeling? Studying for an exam and receiving a traffic ticket can cause stress. Stress is something that people have almost every day and it can even affect people’s health and psychological state (Pietilä & Rytkönen, 2008). Usually when people undergo stress, they can sweat or possibly even become short of breath. Inside of the body, the heart will pound and stress hormones are released (de Kloet, 2008). These symptoms of stress can occur when feeling both types of possible stress, distress or eustress.
When people think of stress, they usually think of all the times they were put on the spot and felt anxious, e.g., when they were late to an exam or late to pay their bills. However, eustress is what is known as “good stress.” It is the effect of positive reactions within a person related to stress that people need to promote their health and well-being (O'Sullivan, 2011). For example, when having a baby, it can be very stressful but exciting time in one’s life. Then, there is distress which is the effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors. Nevertheless, people rarely feel eustress day to day. Distress takes the cake because it is felt much more often than eustress. Stress, in general, could come from many places, such as dealing with difficult college work to going through a family crisis.
In this day and age, people are usually concerned for their mental ...
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...en young adults who attend college and those who do not attend and their levels of stress were all looked at. To examine this, participants were given a survey revealing about what is happening in their lives and asking questions on stress. A simple T-test was used to examine the data and it was a between-subject design. It was hypothesized that young adults who attend college experience more stress than young adults who do not attend college. The null hypothesis would be that both groups of young adults experience the same amount of stress. Lastly, my hypothesis could be wrong if it was discovered that young adults who are not in college experience more stress than young adults that to go to college. In this experiment, economic backgrounds of the participants were not looking into, so that could be a variable that could possibly change the outcome of the research.
Everyone everywhere has experienced stress with something they have dealt with in life. Whether it is school, paying bills, managing a busy schedule or work, stress affects everyone. Although everyone experiences stress, many people don’t actually know what stress is. Stress is the physical response of the body to harmful situations that threaten someone’s well being. When someone says “stress”, the word is automatically associated with a negative effect on people but small doses of stress can benefit a person, if used to correctly. Everyone’s stress level is different and the amount of stress that can be handled varies from person to person but a stress overload will not benefit anyone. “When you feel threatened, a chemical reaction occurs in your body to allow you to act in a way to prevent injury” (“Stress Management Health Center”). The chemical that is released when stressed is known as cortisol, also known a stress hormone. “Cortisol is like a long-term form of adrenaline, produced in the adrenal gland when the body is under pressure” (“The Effects of Stress on Your Reproductive Health and Fertility”). Adrenaline is also released to send the body into, what is known as, emergency action (“Stress Symptoms, Signs and Causes”). This emergency action speeds up reactions preformed by the body and the mind. This is a way of protecting the body. While in emergency action, this stress caused by threatening situations can save your life. In emergency situations, you are given “extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on your brakes to avoid a car accident” (“Stress Management Health Center”). Signs of being in this emergency action are a racing heart, blood pressure rises, quickening of breath and tigh...
The term ‘stress’ was generally thought to have been a concept created by Robert Hooke in the 17th century. He worked on the design of physical structures, such as bridges; his concept of stress came from how much pressure a structure could withstand. However, Lazarus (1993) pointed out that the term ‘stress’ has been used as far back as the 14th century, when it meant hardship or adversity. Back then it referred to the external stressor, such as the death of a spouse or financial worry; in the 20th century, there are many different schools of thought on this area. Hans Selye (1956), brought together the work of Cannon and Bernard and devised a comprehensive system of physiological stress; which he termed the ‘General Adaptation Syndrome’, and is a 3-stage process. He theorised that a certain level of stress called ‘eustress’ (Cox, 1978) could actually be beneficial to our overall performance. Later In 1976, Cox & Mackay devised another model called the ‘Transactional model’. This model takes into account the individual differences in the perception of the amount of stress experienced by the person. The main difference between these two models is that Selye’s model only accounts for the physiological side of stress, whereas Cox’s model takes into account both the physiological and psychological aspects of stress. Therefore, both models will have slight similarities and differences in their explanation for how stress occurs in individuals, which is the main focus of this essay.
1. Summary: From small incidences, we can distinguish two types of people: the ones who sigh in frustration out of small mistakes and those who promptly deal with them without uttering any more than a single complaint or sigh. According to Michael D. Robinson(PHD at North Dakota State University), how we cope with these most dull incidents can reveal a lot about us as humans and our temperaments. In fact, this small deviation in behavior can prove detrimental to our health long term. Just as significantly stressful events can cause stress hormones to flood throughout our body, these small incidents can harm us according to Nancy Nicolson(associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at Maastricht University). Furthermore, Nicolson points to a 10-15% increase in cortisol levels for such small annoyances, which may be small compared to the 100% increase that we usually experience from greatly stressful events such as tests, but when accumulated over time, can lead to a bad combined effect. Carmen Sandi further states that feeling chronically stressed can weaken the immune system and increase heart disease. Rosalind S. Dorlen adds on, claiming that mental strategies can be practiced to help us exercise the brain region responsible for reasoning as long as we train ourselves to deal with this persistent tissue. Next, the article lists 5 signs of stress and how to deal with them. Often, we feel inconvenienced about a situation such as when a bus comes late and view our waiting of it as a “waste of time”. Perhaps, Dorlen concludes, we should try to see why the bus may have been late and take the issue from their perspective such as a maj...
Because Stress can cause widespread damages to the body, it’s vital for one to know his/her limit. But how much is too much? This really depends on the people who deal with it; it differs from person to person. Some people favors high level of stress and seem to thrive on the excitement and challenges it brings. People’s ability to tolerate stress depends on many factors, including the health of the relationships they are in, the general outlook appearance of their life, their emotional intelligence, and family genetics. (Help Guide)
Stress and the anxiety may manifest as physical changes like increased heart rate, fast breathing, stomach aches, headache, muscle tension, and constantly feeling tired etc. Learning to recognize these signs of stress and anxiety can help us to be less afraid of it.
There are different ways in which one can experience stress and it is important to remember that stress is an essential part of life. Not all stressful situations are negative. Receiving a promotion at work, the birth of a child or taking a trip can all be stressful but are not threatening. The reason why one may see these situations as stressful is because they may feel unprepared to deal with them. To eliminate confusion and misuse of words Hans Selye gave names to the different types of stress one may experience, he described damaging or unpleasant experiences as distress and pleasurable or satisfying experiences are called eustress (Rice, 2012).
“All of us have a personal relationship with stress, but few of us know how it affects us.” In the film “Stress- Portrait of a Killer” by National Geographic, Robert Sapolsky is researching baboon’s to find a link in stress and potential health risks in humans, Carol Shively is also researching macaques for that reason. Sapolsky is an american neuroendocrinologist that went to Africa “on a hunch” to study non-human subjects to test his theory, this experiment actually got Robert Sapolsky “MacArthur Foundations Genius Fellowship”. He did this by darting the baboons with anesthetic to put them to sleep, to make for easier blood samples. In the samples Sapolsky is measuring the levels of stress hormones found in the blood, he devoted thirty years of his life to this study with the help of his wife Lisa Sapolsky. This experiment relates to sociologic analysis, because Sapolsky’s study happens to draw a conclusion between economic activities and how it genuinely affects the quality of life. Some of the sociological themes we’ll be discussing are how “stress impacts our bodies and how our social standing can make us more or less susceptible”.
Stress is a condition that affects both genders and all age groups. It is a condition that is inevitable to live without in our society. However, the human race has exhausted the use of stress. Originally, stress initial purpose was to actually save us from life threatening situations. For example, when an animal senses a predator or comes into contact with it. The animal triggers its stress response, allowing the animal to burst into energy and trying to get away from the predator. Once the predator the animals' stress levels for example a zebra’s stress levels go down and return to normal. However, that is sadly not the case for humans who can't seem to shut off their stress response, but only know how to trigger it. Therefore, our high
Eustress In understanding stress, it is also important to identify the aspects of good stress, also known as, eustress. Stickle and Scott (2016) described eustress as a psychological response that is positively related to a stressor. Social workers can have a positive experience within the workplace that can give them the drive and encouragement to keep moving forward. Galluch, Grover, and Thatcher (2015) also described eustress as a positive stressor that an individual seeks outs, such as being excited, learning, and even exercise can bring positive experiences personally and professionally.
The first type of stress is eustress which is a positive stress. Positive stress may enhance the good feelings of stressors. According to Meenakshisundaram (2012), eustress is an interesting stress and keep us more essential. Indeed, this type of stress can energize, motivate and raise stressors up in difficulties instead of improve their health. For example, events such as getting married, having a child may increase the motivation of the stressors to the pleasureable.
At a college dorm, a student by the name of Alyssa had a panic attack, also known as an anxiety attack. The first stage was nausea. Her heart began beating too fast she thought it might explode and when her arms began shaking, she thought she was going to die. When her boyfriend broke up with her, the result was this anxiety attack. Many people suffer from anxiety attacks every day through overwhelming stress, immense pressure, or even being scared. A study showed about fifty-four percent of college students report feeling overwhelming anxiety. Anything can trigger an anxiety attack even something as small as a breakup. Philip Meilman, a professor of psychology at Georgetown University stated that “Problems are more urgent than ever” also
Stress is in our everyday lives. We allow things such as the way we live, school, work, family, relationships etc to stress us out. Some people deal with stress way different from others. Some may know how to cope with stress better than others. We allow stress to take a major toll over our lives when we are suppose to fight it, but a lot of people can’t do that. Stress makes you act and do things that are not like yourself. Stress is a negative word; it comes in all different shapes and forms.
Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, stress is helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. Stress could give a runner the edge he or she needs to persevere in a marathon, for example. This good kind of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, stress is often not helpful and can even be harmful when not managed effectively. Stress could make a salesperson buckle under the pressure while trying to make a sales pitch at an important business meeting, for example. Moreover, stress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. This bad kind of stress is called distress, the kind of stress that people usually are referring to when they use the word stress.
Stress is defined as “any circumstance that threatens or is perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 72). Stress is a natural event that exists literally in all areas of one’s life. It can be embedded in the environment, culture, or perception of an event or idea. Stress is a constant burden, and can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. However, stress can also provide beneficial effects; it can satisfy one’s need for stimulation and challenge, promote personal growth, and can provide an individual with the tools to cope with, and be less affected by tomorrow’s stress (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 93).
First, stress is defined as an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well being (Patel, 14). Stress is a universal feeling to everyone but the word stress means different things to different people. Some people define stress as events or situations that cause them to feel tension, pressure or negative emotions such as anxiety or anger (Patel, 15). Other people may view stress as a process involving a person’s interpretation and response to a threatening event. In any case, stress has many facets of how one perceives and responds to the certain predicament that is ailing them.