Stress and mental health is there any relation ? 8 may 2021
How does stress affect mental health ?
- Stress is very important word of our daily life. In a simple word, it is our response to real or imagined challenges or threats.
- A stressor is an environmental stimulus, that affects an organism, producing physical and psychological effects such as tension and anxiety.
- This challenge involves a transaction between the person and the situation.
- Stress is also a subjective experience that may or may not correspond to physiological responses.
- Stress influences human biology, physiology, behavior, emotion and cognitive process
The general adaptation syndrome.
According to Selye, people’s responses to a stressor are similar, regardless of the type of stressor.
There are three stages in stress-
1-Alarm (an initial short stage)
2-Resistance (a longer period)
3-Exhaustion (the final stage)
1-Alarm
- Alarm begins when the stressor first appears.
- People experience physiological arousal.
- The sympathetic nervous system activates.
2-Resistance
- Resistance occurs after a relatively long exposure to a stressor.
- The person seems to have adapted to the stressor.
- The person may appear normal, but physiological responses are not.
3-Exhaustion
- Exhaustion occurs when adaptability is depleted.
- If stress is not reduced, physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion occurs.
Exhaustion may result in serious illness or death.
What is mental stress ?
STRESS TYPES:
There are many ways to classify stress. They can be:
1-Life events : They are identifiable, discrete changes in life pattern that disrupt the usual behavior and threaten the process well-being. For example Bereavement, the reaction to loss of loved one, is the prototype stressful life event.
2-Chronic stress: It includes long term condition that challenges the person, including financial deprivation, ongoing interpersonal difficulties and persistent treat to security.
e.g. living in a dangerous neighborhood.
3-Developmental stressor: Those associated with transitional phases of psychosocial development (adolescence, childbirth).
4-Daily hassles: They are ordinary but stressful occurrences that are universal in modern life.
e.g. managing household finances, unpleasant interaction with neighbourers.
5-Accidental stressor: Associated with unexpected non-developmental life events.
e.g. death
Interesting types:
Enstress : They are pleasant, describable events.
Distress: They are unpleasant, undesirable events.
Other various classifications can be…
- Personal and impersonal life events.
- Major and minor life events.
Negative effects of stress
Stress can also be produced from frustration, conflict or pressure.
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Originally published at https://nirajhealth.com on May 8, 2021.
