Stress Management

1
Stress Management
2
Stress Management

• Hans Selye
• the nonspecific response of the body to any
  demand made upon it.
• That is a very broad definition. It is brought
  up here to make you realize that anything you do
  to your body or mind will cause some reaction.
  That reaction is broadly defined as stress.

3
Eustress and Distress

• Eustress good stress. This type of stress
  promotes positive functioning and growth.
• Distress negative stress. This refers to stress
  that becomes debilitating and causes folks to
  withdraw from situations.
• Homeostasis a constant balancing act where
  eustress and distress are the variables.

4
GAS

• General Adaptation Syndrome
• This is Selyes view on what happens to us each
  time we encounter stress.
• Three phases to the process
• Alarm initial response that attempts to return
  the body to homeostasis.
• Resistance process of adjusting to the stressor
  and adapting to the new situation.
• Exhaustion attempts to pacify the stressor have
  been unsuccessful and normal functioning is now
  decreased.

5
Non-biological Theories of Stress

• Richard Lazarus
• neither an environmental stimulus, a
  characteristic of the person, nor a response, but
  a relationship between demands and the power to
  deal with them without unreasonable or
  destructive costs
• PERCEPTION takes center stage as only each person
  can decide what stimulus results in stress for
  him/her.

DQ 6 Do you agree more with Selye or Lazarus?
6
Categories of Stressors

• Acute time-limited stressors short duration with
  an event of importance to the moment but not the
  future. Example trying to find your missing
  sock or your keys, being rushed before you leave
  the house.

7
Categories of Stressors

• Brief naturalistic stressors not referring to
  nature. This category deals with stressors that
  are of larger importance and have a longer
  lasting effect. Ex. taking an exam.
• Stressful event sequences results from major
  life altering circumstances. The individual
  knows there will be an end or a lessening of
  symptoms. Ex. planning a wedding or a
  graduation party.

8
Categories of Stressors

• Chronic stressors stressors without an end in
  sight. Ex. college is an example of a chronic
  stress.
• Distant stressors stressors that occurred long
  ago but still cause problems in current time.
  Ex. child abuse or perhaps you were cheated on
  long ago and still harbor those feelings towards
  your current other.

9
The Stressor

• All theories involve a stressor.
• Stressor any stimulus with the potential for
  triggering a fight-or-flight response.
• Fight-or-flight what our bodies instinctively do
  to prepare us to either
• Run from the stressor to avoid it.
• Stand our ground and take on the stressor.

10
The Stressor

• Not always a physical harm issue.
• Environmental toxins, heat, cold.
• Psychological self-esteem, depression.
• Sociological being fired, death of a friend.
• All stressors cause the same physiologic
  responses. If it is not a physical harm issue,
  those byproducts accumulate.
• Elevated blood pressure, increased muscular
  contractions, serum cholesterol, and an increase
  in stomach acid production.

11
Stress Reactivity

• How your body reacts to the stressor.
• Increase muscular tension, heart rate, blood
  pressure, neural excitability, sodium retention,
  perspiration, serum glucose, stomach acid
  production, urination.
• Decrease saliva.
• Alters respiration rate, brain waves.
• If these products are not used, they will
  accumulate and become detrimental to our health.

12
Stress Reactivity

• Duration how long your body is away from its
  normal physiology.
• Degree how large of a discrepancy there is
  between the stress response and your normal
  physiology.
• One prong of stress management is getting those
  physiologic responses back to normal as quickly
  as possible.

13
Physiological Stress Reactions

• Hormones are key.
• Epinephrine (adrenaline) is released to prepare
  your body to deal with the stress.
• Begins the fight or flight response.
• Cortisol
• Conversion of fats and proteins to CHO so the
  body has the fuel needed for combating the
  stressor.
• Increased belly fat storage.
• Increased levels from uncontrollable /
  unpredictable stressors.

14
Emotional Personality Traits

• How we are taught to deal/cope with stress from
  our parents has a major impact on our
  personality.
• Type A (higher stress levels), Type B
• A too much to do, not enough time over
  multi-task, perfectionist, hostile, cynics,
  mistrustful, angry, suspicious.
• B relaxed, calm.
• Can still have equal ambition and success as A.

15
Relationship between stress and illness.
16
Stress Interactions

• Stress Immunity
• Acute Helps fire up the immune system.
• Chronic Debilitates the immune system.
• Stress Digestion
• Increase fluid and fiber intake to lessen
  symptoms caused by stress on digestion.
• Over OR under eating depends on each person.
  Some folks eat more to calm themselves, others
  forget to eat.

17
College Stress

• Research shows the number of students stating
  they are overwhelmed going down.
• Annually stress levels begin low and raise high.
  Final exams, term projects, major presentations
  are all due at the end and not in the 1st week of
  class.
• Perennial stress levels are high to low meaning
  you are more stressed as a freshman than as a
  senior.

DQ 7 Why is college stress going down?
18
College Stress

• First-generation college students experience
  significantly elevated stress levels.
• Link to alcohol is not substantiated with regard
  to stress. Does stress cause drinking or the
  other way around? College students break the
  mold because we drink when we are happy and not
  just when we are sad.

19
Olympic Athletes Study

• A study was done by Dr. Dan Gould looking at
  medal winners vs. non-medal winners. Understand
  that at the Olympic level coaching, training, and
  nearly all physical variables are equally
  distributed across competitors.
• The largest difference between the folks that won
  medals and those that did not was the COPING
  STRATEGIES the winners utilized.

20
Olympic Athletes Study

• Even at the Olympic level unexpected events
  occur. How those folks dealt with those
  surprises was the biggest difference between
  winners and losers.
• How we perceive a stressor, either as a challenge
  we can overcome or as a threat we need to
  withdraw from, goes a long way to determining our
  stress response.

21
Threat vs. Challenge in College

• Each situation is viewed differently across
  people because of their perceptions.
• Taking an exam
• Threat feelings of anger, a lack of preparation
  may occur, and a negative outlook towards the
  exam.
• Challenge increased preparation, view the test
  as an opportunity to show a high level of
  intelligence.

22
Stress Management

• Impractical, if not impossible, to eliminate
  stress.
• Probably not beneficial to eliminate stress as it
  can increase motivation and productive
  activities.
• The overwhelming goal is to decrease the harmful
  effects associated with stress.

23
Stress Model

• Intervention any activity designed to block the
  harmful effects of a stressor.
• Cognitive Appraisal how each person interprets
  the situation.
• Public speaking is a perfect example of this.
  Some folks view public speaking as a threat and
  it becomes a debilitating situation. If I felt
  that way I should have picked a different
  profession because teaching usually involves
  public speaking.

24
Stress Model

• If a situation is perceived as stressful an
  emotional response occurs.
• The physiological responses quickly follow and
  the body is then prepared to fight-or-flight.
• Illness or adaptation are two options that occur
  at the end of the stress model.

25
Stress Model
26
Stress Model

• It is important to realize that the model does
  not always follow linearly.
• When you have an emotional response of anger and
  then take that out on someone else you may have
  just encountered a new life situation prior to
  finishing the previous one.
• Similarly, one complete model may lead directly
  into a new round of going through the model. A
  disease may be a consequence of the 1st stress
  model and lead you directly to a new life
  situation starting a new round.

27
Roadblocks

• Roadblocks are any activity that you employ to
  short-circuit the stress model.
• You can employ roadblocks at any point during the
  stress model. The earlier in the model you can
  employ a roadblock the better off youll be.
• If you can strive to find a positive in each
  situation, or to place a lower value on an event,
  you will stop the model at the cognitive
  appraisal.

28
Comprehensive Management

• Roadblocks do not remove all stress from a
  situation. If you think of stress in terms of a
  quantity, the residual amount goes on to the next
  step in the stress model.
• That realization has led to the term
  Comprehensive Stress Management (CSM).
• CSM being able to employ a variety of roadblocks
  at each level along the model.

29
Stress Model as a Roadway
30
Hassels Uplifts

• Hassels daily events that are typically
  negative.
• Shoe lace breaks.
• Drop your toast on the floor.
• Forget your lunch.
• Uplifts daily events that are typically
  positive.
• You look nice today.
• Job well done.
• Thanks for
• Playing with your puppy or children.

31
Hassels Health

• Hassels predictive of psychological distress,
  dynamics of stress and aging, and related to
  poorer mental and physical health.
• Your response to the hassle is key! Breaking your
  shoe lace means you may have to change your
  shoes. It doesnt mean you will now have a bad
  day, week, or that you are cursed. Just because
  a hassle occurs doesnt mean you have to allow it
  to become a stress potential life event.

32
Interpersonal

• Interpersonal situations that involve others.
• Saying No is difficult for many people. You
  dont want to disappoint a friend or you may
  realize you may want a return favor later.
• However, protecting your own time is invaluable
  and everyone needs to learn how to say No.

33
Asserting Yourself

• Assertive Behavior expressing yourself and
  fulfilling your own needs.
• Friend What movie do you want to see tonight?
• You I really want to see that new Will Ferrell
  movie.
• Often times the response to the question is I
  dont know, I dont care, Whatever you want.
  Those are the opposite of asserting yourself.

34
Asserting Yourself

• Nonassertive behavior sacrificing your needs to
  satisfy someone elses.
• Husband Where do you want to go to dinner
  tonight?
• Wife Whatever you want is fine with me.
• Husband Sweet. I have really been wanting to
  try out the new Sports Bar with an all you can
  eat BBQ while we watch the Cubs game.

35
Asserting Yourself

• Aggressive behavior seeking to dominate or to
  get your own way at the expense of others.
• Wife I was really hoping to go see the high
  school play this weekend.
• Husband That isnt an option. You know I hate
  those things and then I wont have fun and then
  well get into a fight and you wont have fun
  either. We should just stay home.

36
Asserting Yourself

• Asserting yourself can be a difficult skill to
  master.
• Stress comes when you repeatedly deny your own
  needs and put others before yourself.
• The trick is to be understanding, courteous, and
  respectful when asserting yourself.

37
Nonverbal Assertiveness

• Words need to match actions to show maximum
  assertiveness.
• Good upright posture, facing the people you are
  talking to, speak clearly and loud enough for
  folks to hear easily, and speak with confidence
  and without hesitation.

38
Verbal Assertiveness DESC

• Describe use clear and distinct words to give
  detail on the situation.
• When you sit around all day watching baseball
• Express relate your feelings.
• I have to cook, clean, and take care of the
  dogs.
• Specify identify at least 1 way you would like
  the situation to change.
• I want you to take the dogs for a walk before
  you sit to watch the game.

39
Verbal Assertiveness DESC

• Consequence tell the other person what will
  happen if s/he does not abide by your request.
• I will not cook until after you take the dogs
  for a walk.
• Remember to use assertive body language when you
  utilize the DESC pattern for forming your
  comments.

40
Conflict Resolution

• Conflict is often a major source of stress
  potential life situations.
• The more frequent and longer duration of your
  conflicts the more stress you experience.
• The more stress you experience the more likely
  you are to get into a conflict.
• Rinse and repeat! ?

41
Conflict Resolution

• Major problems w/ communicating in conflict
• Lack of listening.
• Attempts to win.
• Inability to demonstrate an understanding of the
  other persons point of view / perceptions.
• A refusal to consider or accept solutions you
  didnt think of or propose.

42
Time Management

• Time is always used and not ever saved.
• The goal is to limit the amount of time wasted.
  However, that is not to say that time spent
  unproductively was wasted.
• Watching a movie or playing a video game are not
  necessarily wastes of time. They can be great
  stress relievers.
• Be very careful if you choose to make a comment
  about how someone else uses his/her time. Not
  everyone has the same perceptions.

43
Social Support

• Social support may be our best ally in combating
  stress potential life situations.
• Folks experiencing a great deal of stress
  potential life situations that had multiple
  friends / family members to rely upon experienced
  comparable stress levels to someone that did not
  experience a similar situation.

44
Social Support 3 Types

• Tangible support your car breaks and your friend
  lets you use her car so you can go to work.
• Emotional support having a friend listen to you
  while you vent about work or school.
• Informational support asking a friend for advice
  and trusting that s/he has your best interest at
  heart.

45
Social Support 2 Ways

• Informational support may be to such a high
  quality that it prevents you from putting
  yourself in a stress potential life situation.
  That advice then had a direct effect on your own
  personal stress model.
• Stress buffering theory is when some form of
  social support stops the stress model before it
  gets to negative consequences.

46
Perceptions

• Perceptions does not always equal reality.
• Perceptions are not always equal across people.
• I view an unmade bed as comfy and ready to be
  slept in!
• My wife views the same unmade bed as messy,
  annoying, and a reminder that she has one more
  thing to do.

47
Selective Awareness

• We are constantly bombarded by sensory
  experiences. What we choose to pay attention to
  is usually under our own control.
• Every situation has good and bad. Sometimes it
  is difficult to find both, but they are always
  there. You have to select how you view the
  situation.

48
Selective Awareness

• You could perceive this Power Point as terribly
  boring and that this class is not what you
  wanted.
• You could perceive this class as being very
  practical and take whatever lessons you can and
  use them in your life to make your stress load a
  little lighter.

49
Enjoyment

• As I sit here I have a concert of crickets
  blasting away. While a part of me certainly
  wishes their instruments would all suddenly go
  quiet, the majority of me realizes I am fortunate
  enough to be sitting in the yard of the home I
  own and that is my orchestra of crickets blasting
  away.

50
Enjoyment

• It can be very difficult to find enjoyment in
  many activities. However difficult the challenge
  is, the reward is almost certainly greater.
• It has been said happiness is the secret to life.
  If you accept that and happiness is the absence
  of distress. Then finding ways to limit your
  distress will allow you to experience happiness.
• Everyone is a better husband, wife, friend,
  neighbor, etc. when they are happy.

51
Attitude of Gratitude

• This is simply appreciating what you have.
• All of us have many things to be grateful for.
  We just have to take the time and put forth the
  mental energy to realize all of the things we
  have.
• This concept can quickly turn to religion but it
  does not have to. You can thank your wife for
  her social support and be grateful that she gives
  it to you so easily.

52
Humor

• Humor has been shown to be an effective means of
  dealing with stress.
• It has a primary use of defusing stressful
  situations.
• Think of the Star Wars movies. At some point
  during the most tense moments in the movie, the
  camera will shift to C-3PO and R2-D2 for comic
  relief. That humor lowers the tension and thus
  allows it to be ratcheted up again later.

53
Humor

• 14 yr. olds laugh every 4 minutes.
• Adults laugh only 15 X / day!
• Humor has been shown to
• Improve immune system function.
• Increase tolerance of pain.
• Decrease the stress response.
• Patch Adams, the movie with Robin Williams, was
  based on a real individual.

54
Stress Reduction Techniques Self-Selected

• Breathing
• Refocusing
• Serenity breaks
• Stress signals
• Reality checks
• Stress inoculation
• Laugh

• Spiritual coping
• Sublimination
• Exercise
• Journaling

55
Stress Reduction Techniques Requiring
Instruction

• Progressive relaxation the process of
  alternating tensing and relaxing all the muscles
  of the body. Upon completion you feel more
  relaxed.
• Imagery creating mental pictures or scenes that
  help you calm down and relax.

56
Stress Reduction Techniques Requiring
Instruction

• Self-talk (scripts) making a set of statements
  that you can use to elevate your confidence or
  calm your nervous.
• Hypnosis seeing a hypnotherapist to assist you
  in calming down and coping with stressful
  situations.

57
Stress Reduction Techniques Requiring
Instruction

• Systematic desensitization is the process of
  exposing you to something stressful on a very
  small scale and working up to more stressful
  events.
• If you are scared of spiders
• Look at a picture of a spider
• Be in a very large room with a spider
• Be in a small room with a spider
• Touch a spider

58
Helpful Hints for Stress Reduction

• Schedule your time. Knowing what you are going
  to do and when you are going to do things will
  keep you on schedule and avoid the stress of
  being rushed or late.
• Plan ahead. Similar to above but with a longer
  outlook. Paying attention to upcoming events or
  due dates will allow you to be more fully
  prepared.

59
Helpful Hints for Stress Reduction

• Find time robbers. These are little activities
  that you do that soak up minutes without you
  noticing. Checking email or voicemail repeatedly
  are two examples.
• Dont procrastinate. We all know what this is
  do not wait until just before deadlines to
  accomplish your tasks.

60
Helpful Hints for Stress Reduction

• Your study style. However you study best is
  perfect! Music on or off? Bright room or low
  lighting? Do you read the textbook before
  lecture and after? It really does NOT matter.
  What you have to do is find the pattern that
  works for you and use it.

61
Helpful Hints for Stress Reduction

• Focus on current task. Do not worry about next
  week when you have something right in front of
  you that must be done now.
• This is also studying when it is study time. Not
  Googling something and ending up on Ebay for 20
  minutes. Then finding yourself on Wikepedia,
  then checking email, then

62
Helpful Hints for Stress Reduction

• Chunk large projects. Large projects are usually
  best done in portions. Sitting down and
  attempting to do too much at one sitting will
  decrease your quality of work.

63
Helpful Hints for Stress Reduction

• Clean and clear workspace. Keeping your desk free
  of distractions and having enough space to lay
  out any materials you may need.
• This also includes your email inbox! Do not
  accumulate old messages that will tend to
  distract you when you check for new messages.
  Create a stored message folder, respond, or
  delete but dont just let them sit in your inbox.