HPA Pivot Reaction To Social Anxiety

Humans frequently turn on the stress response that was intended to assist our survival in reaction to the everyday challenges we face. Professor Michael Marmot conducted a study in England of 28,000 people’s health over a course of 40 years. Each person was a British

Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G., & Siegel, S. D. (2005). STRESS AND HEALTH: Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological Determinants. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1,

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.

Stress affects health in a number of ways. It is defined by James (2011) as pressure or tension that comes in many shapes and forms and furthermore the body and mind in particular reacts psychologically and even emotionally.

All of this stress has a significant impact on one’s overall health and wellness. From cancer to child mortality, nearly every

Stress is known to negatively impact health. Psychological responses, such as mood, emotion and coping, influence the way we perceive stress and the impact it has on the physiological response (Chida & Hamer, 2008). Past studies have used the hormone cortisol to test the stress response(Dickerson &

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a better way to assist people who suffer from social anxiety disorder. I will propose a better way I will treat those who suffer with social anxiety disorder. I will explain some realistic actions I will take to help move my proposals in a positive direction. Further, I will discuss the steps I will take to avoid being a “pawn” in the current system. Lastly, I will demonstrate how I am going to really help my clients that are suffering with social anxiety disorder without jeopardizing my career.

Multiple types of stressors, such as those combining both life events, chronic stressors, and daily stressors, suggests that it is the interaction of stressors and the accumulation over time that affects psychological and physical health. Long-term stress impairs the immune system’s ability to fight against disease and increases the risk of psychological and physical health problems (David, et al., n.d). According to David, et al., (n.d), there are two prominent ways to think about the links between stress, health, and lifecycle. One approach examines life changes such as divorce or job loss and require significant adjustment on the part of the individual.

Stress is one of the number one causes that contribute to people’s health problems. According to Weber.edu, “in Healthy People 2000, a report from the U.S.

Stress affects individuals of all ages, genders, and cultures. Either good or bad it effects daily life and can cause turmoil if not dealt with in a healthy manner. Take for example Josh Jones (client name has been changed to protect their confidentiality) a Caucasian adolescent male living in a rural Oregon school district. At age eleven he has just transitioned from elementary school to middle school and is adjusting to a larger pool of classmates and adapting to higher expectations set by his teachers. Josh is a middle child with two parents, one of whom recently lost their job; these multiple stressors in Josh’s life have accumulated to the point where Josh is having difficulty managing his stress prompting the following health

Hans Selye started to use the term “stress” when he discovered that all of his patients looked sick and worn out. He concluded that all of them had something in common: they were all under physical stress. Selye did not stop when he provided convincing arguments that stress impacted health. Could it be psychological? Could it be stressful? John Mason, a physician, designed an experiment to test if psychological stress was equivalent physical stress. Either way hormone levels increased when put in a stressful situation. There was also a debate about whether people react the same way or react different. Eventually it came to be that there are common element that cause stress, however, people will react differently to the stressors. In my research,

Existence of distinct links between psychological stressors and a persons’ overall health have been proven through various objective studies. The degree of the stress response can also be directly linked to the severity of its effects. Specific research indicates that stress is related to increased risk of improper immune system functioning, liver disease, and coronary artery disease.

Chronic psychological stress is associated with the body losing its ability to regulate the inflammatory response. The inflammatory response is the body’s defense mechanism that protects it from infection and injury. Inflammation is partly regulated by the hormone cortisol and when cortisol is not allowed to serve its function the immune cells become insensitive to cortisol's regulatory effect. Prolonged stress alters the effectiveness of cortisol to regulate the inflammatory response by decreasing tissue sensitivity to the hormone. Unchecked inflammation is thought to encourage the development and progression of many diseases leading to a greater risk for depression, heart disease and infectious diseases.

Many illnesses are the result of stress, including tension headaches, migraines, depression, anxiety and cardiovascular disease. It is vital to be proactive and manage health problems before the problems get out of control. According to Alvord et al. (2016), “People who suffer from depression and anxiety are at twice the risk for heart disease than people without these conditions” (para. 4). Understanding the illness through research may help to manage the problem more efficiently.

Stress is also linked low fertility in one’s reproductive organs, and can cause problems during pregnancy or one’s menstrual cycle (www.everydayhealth.com). This happens when one is overwhelmed with the stress he or she is going through in their lives. No one person is the same, meaning stressors as well as stress levels differ for each individual. This is why it is hard for scientists to reach the core because it is a subjective sensation related with a variety of symptoms that differ for each of us. Because of this, stress is not always a synonym for distress. Situations like a steep roller coaster ride that cause fear and anxiety for some can prove highly pleasurable for others (www.stress.org). Each person also responds to stress differently. There are numerous physical as well as emotional responses to stress. Stress can cause an ocean of different emotions that are often times unpredictable. It can have wide ranging effects on people’s emotions, mood and behavior (www.stress.org). Stress has said to have been America’s number one leading health problem. It has been shown that stress levels have escalated in children, teenagers, college students and the elderly for reasons that of which have lead to: increased crime, violence, and other threats to personal safety; pernicious peer pressures that lead to substance abuse and other unhealthy life style habits; social isolation and loneliness; the erosion of family and religious