Stress, Health, and Wellness

1. Stress, Health, and Wellness COL 103 Chapter 14 Professor Jackie Kroening 864-646-1430 864-646-1425 (PSY office) www.lifetour.com

2. Living with Stress • Cataclysmic events • Sudden, powerful events that occur quickly and affect many people simultaneously • Personal stressors • Major life events that produce stress • Daily hassles • Minor irritants of life that , by themselves, produce little stress, but which can add up and produce more stress than a single larger-scale event • Virtually any event, good or bad, can cause STRESS if it presents you with a challenge.

3. Stressed Out • Anxious • Upset • Fearful • Body effects • Faster heart rate • Breathing becomes rapid and shallow • Produces more sweat • Long term effects are: • Ware down the immune system • Common cold • Headaches • Strokes • Heart disease

4. Stressed Out Class exercise: Ch. 10 Try it! #1 Page 368 15 Min.

5. PREPARE Readying Yourself Physically ORGANIZE Identifying what is causing you stress WORK Developing Effective coping strategies EVALUATE Are your stress strategies effective RETHINK Place stress in perspective Handling Stress

6. Prepare: Readying Yourself Physically • Primary way to prepare for stress is good physical condition • Good vigorous exercise program • Vigorous exercise results in our bodies producing a natural coping response to stress through the production of endorphins in our brains, as well as contributing to our general physical health • Drink healthy – stay away from: • Coffee • Soda • chocolate • Eat Healthy foods

7. Organize: Identifying What is Causing You Stress • Must identify stressors in order to design a coping strategy and activity Class Activity 15 min: • Write down the stressors that are in your life right now • Prioritize your stressors from most stress to least stress

8. Work: Developing Effective Coping Strategies • Take charge of the situation • Don’t waste energy trying to change the unchangeable • Look for the silver lining • Talk to your friends. Social Support • Relax • Meditation • Meditation exercise • Progressive relaxation • Remember that wimping out doesn’t work, Keep your commitments

9. Evaluate: Is Strategies Working Effectively • Experience of stress depends on how you interpret circumstances • Effectiveness depends on who you are • If one coping strategy doesn’t work try another • Don’t become paralyzed

10. Rethink: Placing stress in Perspective • Don’t sweat the small stuff • Put circumstances into proper perspective • Make peace with stress • Some stress is a good thing, it activates you to take action

11. Keeping Well Eating Right • Eat a variety of “whole” foods • Fruits • Vegetables • Grains • Avoid foods that are high in sugar and salt • Seek a diet low in fat and cholesterol • Remember: less is more (moderation is key) • Schedule three regular meals a day • Be aware of hidden contents of various foods • Beware of eating disorders • Bulimia is the eating disorder in which individuals binge on large quantities of food and later vomit or take laxatives to get rid of it

12. Keeping Well Make Exercise Part of Your Life • Choose a type of exercise that you like • Incorporate exercise into your life (take stairs instead of elevator) • Make exercise a group activity • Very your routine

13. Keeping Well Getting a Good Night’s Sleep • Exercise more • Have a regular bedtime • Use bed for sleeping and not as an all-purpose area • Avoid caffeine after lunch (can last 8 to 12 Hr’s) • Drink a glass of milk at bedtime • Avoid sleeping pills • Don’t try to force sleep on yourself

14. Keeping Well Drug Abuse (Alcohol) • Alcoholics – Individuals with serious alcohol-abuse problems who become dependent on alcohol and continue to drink despite serious consequences • Binge drinking – Having at least four or five drinks in a single sitting • Heavy drinking damages liver and digestive system and effect brain cells

15. Keeping Well Drug Abuse (Nicotine) • Remain smoke-free one day at a time • Visualize the consequences of smoking • Exercise • Use nicotine patches or nicotine gum • Avoid people when they are smoking • Enlist the social support of family and friends • Reward yourself • Join a quit-smoking program • Keep trying

16. Keeping Well Drug Abuse (Illegal Drugs) Addiction Warning Signs • Feeling you need to be high to have a good time • Being high more often than not • Getting high to “get yourself going” • Going to class or work high • Being unprepared for class because you were high • Feeling regret over something you did while you were high • Driving while high • Having a legal problem due to being high • Behaving, while high, in a way you wouldn’t otherwise • Being high in nonsocial, solitary situations • Thinking about drugs much of the time • Avoiding family while using liquor • Hiding drug use from others

17. Keeping Well Drug Abuse (getting help) • College health services, counseling center • Drug treatment centers • Government hotlines

18. Sexual HealthPreventing Unwanted Pregnancy • Abstinence - The only totally effective means of preventing pregnancy • Birth control pills • Implants • IUD • Diaphragms • Condoms • Contraceptive sponge • Sterilization • Withdrawal and douching is ineffective

19. Sexual HealthAvoid Sexually Transmitted Diseases • Know your sexual partner – well • Prevent the exchange of bodily fluids during all sex activity • Be faithful to a single partner

20. Sexual HealthDate Rape • Date rape often occurs because of the common — but untrue — belief that when women offer resistance to sex, they don’t really mean it • Reduce rape by: • Set limits – women have the right to set firm limits, and these should be communicated clearly, firmly, and early on • No means no – When a partner says no, it means no – nothing else • Be assertive – never accept being pressured into an activity in which you don’t want to engage • Communicate – women and men should talk about their views on sexual behavior and what it is and is not permissible • Keep in mind that alcohol and drugs cloud judgment