Aspects of Stress Essays

Stress Is the body’s way of responding to the hectic lives most of us live, whether good or bad. The body releases chemicals into the bloodstream, which creates a rush of energy and strength If an individual is feeling stressed. This energy can prove useful if an individual is in physical danger. Because it enables a person’s survival instinct kicks in; it is often described as ‘fight or flight.’ In addition, stress can also have a negative effect on the body, for example: suffering from stress and leaving it unchecked can contribute to health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

There are three different theories that are used when talking about how we react to stress through the physiological aspect or the psychological aspect. The first is part of the physiological aspect of stress called the Cannon Fight or Flight theory which was proposed in 1914. Fight or Flight response is a physiological stress response that evolved to help organisms to survive immediate danger. The theory states that when an organism, human being or animal, faces imminent danger (acute stressor) the body arouses quickly and is ready to act via two different systems. They are the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal medulla which is part of the endocrine system and is the region that produces the hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones increase heart rate, blood flow, and glucose levels to prepare the body for an emergency. This response from the body suggests that the body knows how to protect itself and reach homeostasis. These two systems work together to either fight against the danger or flight away from the danger. Lord, King and Pfister in 1976 studied the Fight or Flight response in animals through a very unethical study. They administered chemicals on male hooded Wistar rats which inhibited the neurotransmitters from functioning normally. This made it very difficult for the rats to escape an electric shock. The results of the study suggest that the Flight or Fight response

When put under stress, both humans and baboons have cortisol and adrenaline found in their blood. These hormones are critical for survival, and other physical changes in the body such as a racing heart, increased blood pressure, and quickly responding muscles are all present when the body is put under stress. However, in regard to humans, these same physical responses can occur when the body is not in a life in death situation. Instead, it is common for psychological stresses such as public speaking, taking a test, paying taxes, or driving a vehicle to invoke the same physiological responses as someone in a critical situation. This can be unhealthy for the human body, as many people can get worked up over multiple stressors in one day,

stress and to relieve anxiety varies from one person to another” (p. 1). The author

If an individual is experiencing consistent stress, the individual’s level of adrenal cortical steroid might increase, and this secretion will weaken the system, scale back energy and have an effect on essential thinking. To decrease stress, an individual might meditate, relax during a bath, get pleasure from music, participate in social gatherings and make elaborate plans. What is more, a person will take supplements that give ashwagandha, magnesium, Zn and nicotinic acid.

4) My thoughts when I'm stressed were always negative, I felt like I had an enemy inside of me. It made my stress worst for me because I became more angry. Anything that was positive or a happy

Chapter 6 covers the fundamentals of stress disorders. After reading this chapter discussing the fight and flight response, psychological stress disorders and physical stress disorders, I have a better concept of this subject itself. Our fight and flight response is trigger by our hypothalamus, which sends off neurons and chemical for our mind and bodies to react. As discussed in class, the autonomic nervous system control the involuntary activities like heartbeat and breathing. The sympathetic nervous system is aroused when we face danger (THE FIGHT). For example, the sympathetic nervous system makes our heart beat faster when we are scared. The parasympathetic nervous system (THE FLIGHT) help make us calm, like regulating our heartbeats.

[Griffin n.d.] Physiological scientist Hans Seyle studied stress in rats and found that no matter what kind of stress they endured they suffered the same physiological change as if they had suffered prolonged stress. Seyle named the stages that the rats went through the General Adaptation Syndrome. [Kalat,2017] The three phases of the physiological change that occurs in response to long term stress are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Alarm is the first reaction to stress where your body releases hormones including cortisol. This is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands. A person wont immediate recognize the cortisol working because it is a multi-step process involving two minor hormones. The brain has two pathways that process stimuli. The first is the amygdala that has to recognize the threat and send a message to the hypothalamus part of the brain which releases a hormone that then tells the pituitary gland to release cortisol. In event of a life emergency, the high amounts of cortisol will help save your life. It helps to maintain fluid balance and blood pressure, while slowing down some body functions that aren’t crucial in the moment, like reproductive drive, immunity, digestion

Relaxation techniques are the best way to action stress-related problems. Relation techniques advice ascendancy accent that can advance to anxiety. Deep breath and alleviation techniques are mostly assigned to amusement all-overs afterwards medication. These techniques are awful benign and can be accomplished for a

The authors describe the three anxiety responses, which are interrelated. These three include the physical or biological response (such as the primitive fight-or-flight response); the cognitive response to stressful stimuli with anxiety, and the behavioral aspects or reactions to the feeling of anxiety. Cognitive and behavioral responses to anxiety are fed by the biological responses to stressors, fear, or perceived threats. Behavioral responses include aggression, anger, or avoidance. The authors provide a chart delineating the different responses of anxiety, including physical symptoms such as sweating. The authors also distinguish between fear and anxiety, also defining the panic response.

When our brain detects a stressor the amygdala, an area of the brain that is involved in emotional processing, directs a distress signal to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus sends a signal to the sympathetic nervous system to activate the fight-or-flight response to direct our body to respond to the imminent physical danger or psychological threat. The fight-or-flight response is known as the first stage of the Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome. Consequently, the adrenal glands will produce catecholamines such as epinephrine and norepinephrine into the bloodstream (Copstead & Banasik, 2013 p.14). This results in an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and there’s also an increase in blood flow towards the

The therapeutic model I will outline is Deep Relaxation and Meditation, it has been said to “help with psychological stress, anxiety disorders and major depression” (215). For people with anxiety, “the stress system never shut down …. deep relaxation and meditation can help shut down the release of stress chemical into the bloodstream” (Brogaard, 215). It seems by relaxing and taking deep breathes it allows you to focus on the situation that is arising, plus it can help you to center yourself from having an anxiety episode. Plus deep relaxation and meditation can “rejuvenate the brain’s chemistry and leads to a calmer state of mind, even after the relaxation or mediation ends” (216).

Researchers tend to focus more intensely on perturbations resulting from aversive events. (Novak et al 2013). A stress response can be describe physiologically as a result of discovery of metabolic, immunological and neuroendocrine mechanisms. Several hormones including ACTH, glucorticoid, catecholamines, and prolactin are involved in a stress response. Adrenal glands are essential to hormonal stress responses because they are involved both hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical axis and the symphatho-adreno- medullary system. The most salient physiological responses to stress include activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) as well as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Accu- rate measurement of the catecholamines (i.e., epinephrine and norepinephrine) released as a result of SNS activation is dif- ficult because these substances are only available for transient periods of time (Reeder and Kramer, 2005). Thus, evaluation of the HPA axis, most commonly by measurement of its end-prod- uct glucocorticoids, has traditionally been the primary means to make inferences about the stress response in animals. (Otovic & Hutchinson

Long-term activation of this stress-response system can lead to the disruption of almost all of the body’s processes. If this happens, the individual has an increased risk of developing numerous health problems. So, to prevent this from happening, the problem must be nipped in the bud.

Stress is a state of emotional or mental tension or strain resulting from very demanding and adverse circumstances in an individual’s life. The term general adaptation syndrome (GAS) is used in describing the long-term and short-term reactions to stress through its three stages that explain an individual’s experience with stress. The alarm reaction stage is the initial stage where an individual reacts immediately to a stressor exhibiting a "fight or flight" response that prepares one’s body for any physical activity. This stage may however, result in decreased immune system effectiveness, making individuals more prone to an illness during this phase. The resistance is the second stage where f stress continues one’s the body forms an adaptation to the stressors with different levels of changes taking place to reduce the effectors stress. The exhaustion stage is the third one where one’s body resistance resistance to stress may gradually reduce or collapse quickly meaning that one’s immune system to resisting diseases may be almost eliminated.