Stress and Health
J Dugger
Stress and Health. How does it effect you? Have you ever felt as if your life was reeling out of control or that your health was failing only to realize there were core stressors at work causing your peril? This author can certainly relate. Much of this paper will relate to and deal with the stresses suffered by a professional Firefighter/Paramedic in the United States and how this stress can effect mental and physical health.
Merriam-Websters dictionary defines stress as "a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc." (1). It can also be described as "something that causes strong feelings of worry or anxiety" (1). There are many sources of stress in one 's personal and professional life. The things that cause us stress are known as stressors (2 pg112). Some stress comes in the form of rational, instinctual fear. These stressors keep us safe through instinct or learned behavior. An example of this stress would be one 's reaction to a loud, sudden noise which stresses our system triggering a body alarm response designed to protect us from danger. Some examples of negative stressors are traffic, interpersonal issues, and long lines at the grocery store. As it pertains to emergency work there are the obvious stressors of death and high pressure situations. There are also less well known and more chronic stressors such as sleep deprivation and the simple activation of a loud alarm. All of
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.
Society defines stress as anything which forces us to change. Through technical terms stress is defined as “a negative emotional state occurring in response to events that are perceived as taking or exceeding a person’s resources or ability to cope.” To explaining stress researchers came up with the “Cognitive appraisal model”, this system works to tell us whether we believe we have enough resources to deal with the situation without becoming stressed. For instance as a now college student those who have had previous experience taking finales in high school can have less stress than those who have not taken it. This is because they have previous experience with taking the tests and learning how to study while those who have never taken one can become extremely stressed over the unknown of the test. Stress is one of the sub branches that is attached to the world of health psychology. Health psychology is a quickly growing branch that deals with the way the mind and body work together. Psychologists that work in the health field came up with the biopsychosocial model. This model explains the complex interaction with biological, psychological, and social factors.
Stress can be defined as an interaction between people and any kind of demand within their environment. A stressor can be an event or an object which is harmful for an individual. Stress can happen when the demand outweighs a human's ability to deal. Factors that may cause job stress include long work hours, job insecurity, conflict among workers and supervisors, shift work, or hazards. Job stress can cause low productivity, low employee morale, high turnover, increased call ins, sickness and negative results. Aspects that need to be considered when diagnosing job stress include age, sex, race, income, education, marital status and personality.
People are increasingly facing more stress since the Human-Being society became developed and complicated, by ignoring the physical influence to our body, Human’s health suffered considerably from stress. Many people was suggested to solve the stress problem by using psychological approaches, however, the research in recent decades has identified a significant awareness gap between the benefits of physical activities and stress relief. The following paper is aiming at exploring how stress affects physical health and how to relieve stress physically.
When thinking about Evicted and the different chapters we have learned about in class, the first chapter that came to my mind as relating most to Evicted was the chapter Stress and Health. Many topics in that chapter appeared in the book and related to many of the problems that the characters were facing in Evicted. The characters in the book had stressors that affected them in their daily lives, which also caused many health problems in the long run.
According to Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (2013), stress in general is a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation (Full definition of stress, 1c.). Job stress may involve the type of work your do, your boss, or co-workers or your hours you work. When it comes to job stress, it can take a toll on your productivity, as well as your physical and emotional health.
Substantial progress has been made by academic researchers to gain insight into social determinants of health. Consequently, the Centre for Urban Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe approached the International Centre for Health and Society at University College Hospital London to help summarise research work on social determinants of health in ten messages with the main aim of translating research advances into action (Marmot and Wilkinson, 2005). The ten messages were subsequently published as The Solid Facts (Wilkinson and Marmot 1998) which include stress, social gradient, early life, social exclusion, work, unemployment, social support, addiction, food and transport. The aim of this brief essay is to demonstrate the impact of stress as a social determinant of health.
Stress is a term used by many, is somewhat misunderstood, and often used to describe a negative condition or emotional state. People experience various forms of stress at home, work, in social settings, and when engaged in activities to simply have fun, such as playing sports. Police officers experience stress the same as others, but also in ways much different than the average citizen. The dangers, violence, and tragedy seen by officers result in added levels of stress not experienced by the general population.
Emergency services, in particular the paramedic profession, are categorised amongst the most stressful occupations worldwide (Rybojad, Aftyka, Baran & Rzonca, 2016). Recurrent exposure to emergency life threatening circumstances in concurrence with ongoing operational stressors can be physically, mentally and emotionally tiring. Chronically, this will have detrimental effects upon paramedic’s wellbeing and resilience and can result in reduced professional capability (Clompus & Albarran, 2015). This essay will decipher the specific occupational challenges and stressors faced by paramedics. It will describe various opportunities for maintaining optimal mental health with short term management. Additionally, ways of building long term resilience to effect improvement of personal and professional proficiency will be explored.
The frequency of the stress health-related behavior plan for changes is that I am changing the behavior gradually. Therefore, I will engage in the behavior 5 times a week, and I will not engage in the behavior 2 times out of the week. However, I am taking this stress health-related behavior plan for changes one step at a time. Furthermore, some days are better than others, and I try to make myself aware of my actions and behaviors, so I can channel them in a positive manner.
Stress is an obstacle that everyone deals with daily, it`s become part of our vocabulary. It is difficult to believe that our general use of the word originated only a little more than 60 years ago, when it was essentially conceived by Hans Selye. It wasn 't until the late 1950s that endocrinologist Hans Selye first identified and documented stress. Our every day life is full of frustrations, aggravations, and frustrations. For many people, stress is a common concept that has become a way of life. When stress becomes overwhelming, it can damage your health, mood, relationships, and even the quality of your life. Reducing stress in your life is vital for sustaining your overall health. Dancing is an effective stress reliever.
One type of stress is job stress. Job stress is when the stressors involved are work related. "NIOSH" the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states, job stress is the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. There are many things in life that
Psychological stress is pressure placed on a person to adapt, cope, or adjust to a situation (Rathus, 2016, p.284). The result of prolonged stress can affect a person’s mood, pleasure experience, and have harmful effects on physical health (Rathus, 2016, p.284). Society in the twenty first century places high demands on people. Technology makes it very difficult to separate work life, school life, and home life. Today, society places a high value on a busy lifestyle for individuals. For example, many places of business are open twenty-four hours a day. In addition to societal pressures, attending a university adds to the stressors a person may experience. Going to school not only includes classroom time but it also includes homework,
This proposal examines the problems, effects, and solutions to workplace stress. In addition, I will explain risk assessment, management, and prevention. Finally, I will review coping strategies for workplace stress.
A substantial amount of Canadians experience stress in their lives. In fact, nearly one-quarter of the population over the age of 15 are stressed on a daily basis (Statistics Canada, 2013). Stress can be defined as a mental and emotional state of tension, in which one perceives the environment around them to be strenuous and overwhelming. Although some stress is necessary for survival, it can adversely affect both the physical and mental health. Its detrimental effects include but are not limited to: lack of confidence, concentration, motivation, decision making and increased heartrate, sweating, tension, as well as other physical and psychological problems such as headaches and insomnia (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2015). These health complications strongly emphasize the need for further research in ways to cope with, and reduce stress. Henceforth, the purpose of this paper is to use established research to better understand stress, then propose my own study that would investigate another stress-reduction method.