Managing Stress and Coping with Loss

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Managing Stress and Coping with Loss

• Chapter 4 Sec 1
• Stress and Your Health

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Objectives

• Describe five different causes of stress.
• Describe the bodys physical response to stress.
• Differentiate between positive and negative
  stress.
• Describe how stress can make you sick.

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What Causes Stress?

• STRESS
• The bodys and minds response to a demand.

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Type of Stressors

• A STRESSOR is any situation that puts a demand on
  the body or mind.

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Environmental Stressors

• Conditions or events in our physical surroundings
  
• Natural disasters
• Noise
• Crowds
• Pollution
• Poverty

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Biological Stressors

• Conditions that make it difficult for your body
  to take part in daily activities
• Illness
• Injury
• Disability

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Thinking Stressor

• Mental challenge
• Taking a test

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Behavioral Stressor

• Unhealthy behaviors
• Smoking
• Not getting enough sleep or exercise
• Using drugs

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Life change Stressors

• Any major life change
• Divorce
• Death of a loved one
• Getting married
• Having trouble with a teacher
• Having more arguments with parents

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Research Highlight

• Procrastination, Performance, and Health
• Researchers found that the procrastinators
  suffered significantly more stress and had more
  health problems than non procrastinators.
• Space out your studying and try to complete your
  assignments as early as possible. Procrastination
  can be hazardous to your health, as well as your
  grades.
• Source Huffman, K. Vernoy, M., and Vernoy, J.
  (2002). Psychology in Action (5th Ed.). Davers
  John Wiley Sons, Inc.

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Physical Response to Stress

• The physical changes that prepare your body to
  respond quickly and appropriately to stressors is
  called the fight-or-flight response.
• Past vs. Present the fight-or-flight response
  might even be maladaptive at times. Today, we are
  taught not to fight or flee but to stay calm and
  resolve stressful situations rationally.
• Your body provides energy, reflexes, and strength
  to respond to a stressor.
• Your body releases epinephrine hormones.
• Breathing speeds up, heart beats faster, muscles
  tense up, pupils get wider, sweating increases,
  digestion stops, blood pressure increases, and
  blood sugar increases.

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Emotional and Behavioral Response to Stress

• Eustress is a positive stress that energizes one
  and helps one reach a goal.
• Try to make stress positive.
• Alert, focused, motivated, energized, and
  confident.
• Distress is negative stress that can make a
  person sick or keep a person from reaching a
  goal.
• Nervous, forgetful, frightened, confused, and
  unsure.

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Stress-Related Disorders and Diseases

• Tension headache
• Cold and flu
• Asthma
• Migraine headache
• Backache
• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• High blood pressure
• Chronic fatigue
• Ulcer
• Anxiety disorder
• Insomnia
• Depression

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Long-Term Stress Can Make You Sick

• The general adaptation syndrome is a model that
  describes the relationship between stress and
  disease.
• Alarm stage
• Your body and mind become alert (flight-or-fight
  response)
• Headaches, stomachaches, difficulty sleeping, and
  anxiety
• Resistance stage (adaptation)
• If stress continues, your body becomes more
  resistant to disease and injury than normal
• Exhaustion stage
• Your body cannot take the resistance to the
  stressor any longer. You become exhausted, organs
  and immune system may suffer

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Closure

• What do you think would be the consequences of
  not having a fight-or-flight response?
• Is all stress bad?
• What is the difference between stress and
  depression?

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Creative Activity

• Create a post card or flyer relating to the issue
  of coping with loss.
• Group (table activity). Write all group members
  name of the card. Everyone should participate.
• Based on new knowledge, provide words of
  encouragement and show your support for a person
  who recently experienced a loss
• Be creative and have fun