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Stress and Health

Stress and Health. What Is Stress?. Stimulus or Response? Or interaction? Stressor — events, pressures, or situations that place demands & trigger coping adjustments Stress reaction – How one responds to stress Stress as process – interaction between event, perception, and reaction.

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Stress and Health

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  1. Stress and Health

  2. What Is Stress? Stimulus or Response? Or interaction? • Stressor — events, pressures, or situations that place demands & trigger coping adjustments • Stress reaction – How one responds to stress • Stress as process – interaction between event, perception, and reaction

  3. Stressors and reactions Four groups discussion • A. Discuss your stressors • B. How do you know when you are stressed? What are your “symptoms?”

  4. Sources of Stress • Types of Stressors • 1. Common hassles • School demands • Noise – residents near airports have higher BP & stress • Relationship issues • Sleep deprivation • Job stress • Etc…

  5. Sources of Stress • Stressors (continued) • 2. Major life events (e.g., ending a relationship, moves, serious illness) • 3. Catastrophes (9/11, Katrina, etc.) • Increased incidence of stress-related ailments • Rates of depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders increase

  6. How does a potential stressor lead to stress?

  7. Perceiving Stress • Many situations are not inherently stressful… depends on interpretation: • Primary appraisal— Is this stressful? • Secondary appraisal — Can I handle it? (e.g., can I control it or cope with it?) • Cognitive appraisals are extremely susceptible to one’s current state of mood, health, motivation

  8. Perception and stress “I have had a great many troubles in my life… And most never happened…” Mark Twain We’ll come back to this in discussion of coping

  9. Reactions to Stress Emotional Behavioral Cognitive Physiological

  10. Pulse Demo 15 Seconds What happened? Physiologically Psychologically

  11. The Physiology of Stress Walter Cannon (1929) • Fight-or-flight reaction • Outpouring of substances that prepare an organism to defend against a threat • Adaptive for our ancestors (but contributes to stress-relatedillnesses in modern times)

  12. Stress Pathways HPA Axis epinephrine (adrenalin) and norepinephrine – which increase HR, BP, & RR

  13. Measuring stress: “Overload in Working Mothers” • BCBS workers • Measures: • Urine samples (to look for metabolites of stress hormones) • Daily mood scale • Results: feel stressed (esp w/ children at home) • High stress (low perceived control + high demand) • increased urinary neurohormones

  14. Stress and impact on health • Impact on psychological and physical health • PTSD and other mental health effects • Increases risk for physical illness • How?

  15. Heart disease Persistent stressors and negative emotions Release of stress hormones Immune suppression Unhealthy behaviors (smoking, drinking, poor nutrition and sleep) Autonomic nervous system effects (headaches, hypertension) Stress and Illness

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