Everyone knows firsthand what stress is. The very fact of being born is stress for the newborn. In the future, this state is repeated more than once, because external stimuli are present in the life of every person. Residents of cities get tired of the hustle and bustle, transport, traffic jams. People get tired of constant work and a list of responsibilities to family, society, colleagues. What is stress? Let’s figure it out.
What is stress
The term “stress” was introduced, or rather borrowed from the science of the strength of materials in 1936 by the Canadian physiologist Hans Selye. It was originally a technical term for stress, pressure, and pressure. Hans Selye decided that this also applies to humans. Then stress was considered as an adaptive reaction of the body in extreme conditions (high temperatures, illness, injury, etc.). Today, the problem of stress is considered more broadly, the list of stress-generating factors includes socio-psychological elements, for example, conflicts, surprises.
Stress is a special form of experiencing feelings and emotions. In terms of psychological characteristics, stress is close to affect, and in terms of duration to mood. This is a mental state, the body’s response to environmental conditions and the requirements put forward by the environment to the individual. From English, the word “stress” is translated as “stress”. In psychology, stress is usually considered as a period of human adaptation.
Depending on how a person assesses the prevailing conditions, stress has a disorganizing or mobilizing effect. However, in any case, the danger of depletion of the body remains, since at the moment of stress all systems work at their limit. This is how it works:
- Adrenaline rises, this stimulates the production of cortisol, thereby accumulating additional energy, increasing strength and endurance. The person experiences a surge of energy.
- The longer the first stage of arousal lasts, the more adrenaline and cortisol accumulate. Gradually, they replace serotonin and dopamine, and these hormones are responsible for good mood, joy and self-confidence (calmness). Accordingly, the mood worsens, anxiety is noted. In addition, an excess of cortisol provokes a decrease in immunity and the development of diseases. The person is often sick.
- Attention gradually decreases, fatigue and irritation accumulate. Trying to cheer yourself up with coffee, energy drinks, sports, or pills only makes it worse.
- The hormonal balance is so imbalanced that every little thing freaks out. Resistance to stress finally falls.
From the point of view of the perception of the personality itself, stress goes through 3 stages:
- Feelings of anxiety associated with specific circumstances. It is accompanied at first by a decline in strength, and then by an active struggle with new conditions.
- Adaptation to previously frightening conditions, maximum functioning of body systems.
- The stage of exhaustion, which is manifested by a failure of protective mechanisms and disorientation in life. Anxiety and a number of other negative emotions and feelings reappear.
In moderation, stress is beneficial (emotional shock). It increases attention and motivation, interest, activates thinking. But in large quantities, stress inevitably leads to a decrease in productivity. In addition, it negatively affects health, stimulates diseases. Regardless of the nature of stress, the body’s response at the biological level is the same: an increase in the activity of the adrenal cortex (caused by the hormonal changes described above), atrophy of the lymph nodes and thymus, the appearance of ulcers in the gastrointestinal tract. It is obvious that such frequent changes are harmful to health, it is not for nothing that they say that all diseases are from the nerves.
Conditions for stress
You can talk about stress when:
- the subject perceives the situation as extreme;
- the situation is perceived as requirements that exceed the abilities and capabilities of the individual;
- a person feels a significant difference between the cost of meeting requirements and satisfaction from the results.
Types of stress
You might be surprised, but stress can be beneficial. Harbingers of stress – emotions, as you know, they are positive and negative. In this regard, stress can be pleasant or unpleasant. For example, a surprise (surprise) can be pleasant and unpleasant, but at the biological level, it looks the same.
Unpleasant and dangerous stress is called distress. Positive stress is called eustress. Their features:
- With eustress, a person experiences positive emotions, he is confident in himself and is ready to cope with the situation and the accompanying emotions. Eustress awakens a person, makes him move forward. It is positive emotion and joy.
- Distress is the result of a critical overvoltage. It interferes with human development and provokes a deterioration in health.
In addition, stress can be short-term, acute, and chronic. Short-term ones are usually beneficial. Acute stress borders on a state of shock, it is an unexpected and violent shock. Chronic stress is the long-term exposure to various minor stressors.
An example of positive, short-term, and beneficial stress is competition and public speaking. An example of distress (dangerous and prolonged stress) is psychotrauma, for example, the death of a loved one.
According to the spheres of occurrence, the following types of stress are distinguished:
- intrapersonal stress (unfulfilled expectations, meaninglessness and purposelessness of actions, unfulfilled needs, painful memories, etc.);
- interpersonal stress (problems in relationships with people, criticism and assessment, conflicts);
- financial stress (inability to pay rent, delayed wages, lack of funds, etc.);
- personal stress (difficulties associated with fulfilling social roles, compliance and non-compliance with duties);
- family stress (all difficulties associated with the family, intergenerational relationships, crises and conflicts in the family, the fulfillment of marital roles, etc.);
- environmental stress (unfavorable natural conditions);
- social stress (problems affecting the whole society or the category of people to which an individual belongs);
- work stress (problems in the labor sphere).
In addition, stress can be physiological and psychological. Physiological stress is a reaction to adverse environmental conditions. In fact, this is environmental stress. Physiological stress is:
- chemical (influence of substances, lack of oxygen, hunger);
- biological (disease);
- physical (professional sports and high loads);
- mechanical (damage to the body, violation of the integrity of the cover).
Psychological stress arises in the social sphere, in the interaction of a person with society. The psychological types of stress include intrapersonal, interpersonal, personal, work and informational.
We have not mentioned the last type yet, let’s pay attention to it. Information stress involves information overload. Every day, people are forced to process large amounts of information, a high-risk group consists of people whose profession involves the search, processing and recording of information (students, accountants, teachers, journalists). Television, the Internet, vocational training and the fulfillment of duties force not only to receive information, but also to analyze it, assimilate it, and solve problematic problems. The chaotic flow of information provokes fatigue, distraction, decreased concentration, distraction from the goals of the activity and professional duties. Overload is especially dangerous in the second part of the day, before going to bed. Sleep problems are a common consequence of information overload.
Causes of stress
Stress is caused by new and unusual living conditions for a person. Obviously, it is impossible to enumerate all stress-generating factors, they are subjective in nature, depend on the norm that is customary for a particular person. Both the unstable economic situation in the country and the lack of the desired product in the store can cause stress.
Which factor turns out to be stressful depends on the person’s temperament, character, personal experience and other individual and personal characteristics. For example, a child from a dysfunctional family will react more calmly to abuse and fights in the future than a person who has never faced such treatment.
Difficulty at work is more likely to be the cause of adult stress. Work stress factors include the following:
- Organizational factors: overload or low employment, conflicting requirements (role conflict), uncertainty of requirements, uninteresting work, extreme or unfavorable working conditions, inadequate organization of the process.
- Organizational and personal factors: fear of mistakes and dismissal, fear of losing a job and one’s “I”.
- Organizational and production factors: unfavorable psychological climate in the team, conflicts, lack of social support.
Personal stressors include:
- conflicts and misunderstandings in the family;
- illness;
- crises;
- loss of meaning in life;
- burnout, etc.
Stress is a response to a demand. Regardless of the nature (positive or negative), the body is reorganized. Biochemical shifts are a defensive reaction worked out by evolution. In fact, it is these biochemical changes that trigger the feelings and emotions that we experience during moments of stress. We are not worried about the stress itself, but its consequences – emotions that do not get an outlet.
Signs of stress
Signs of stress include:
- feelings of anxiety and tension;
- a feeling of impossibility to overcome the current situation;
- sleep problems;
- tiredness and apathy;
- lethargy;
- passivity;
- irritability;
- irascibility;
- inappropriate reactions;
- depression;
- yearning;
- dissatisfaction with oneself, work, other people, the whole world.
The effects of stress
Stress makes a person nervous, fidgety. The accumulating energy asks for release, but remaining unrealized, destroys a person from the inside. All psychological complications are due to stagnation of physical energy. After all, it is forbidden for a person as a social being to openly throw out his negativity, we cannot act like animals in a stressful situation: fight, run. Although some may well afford it, some other situations require similar behavior. But, for example, the problems of an office worker are difficult to solve in this way. This is the tension that builds up.
So, stress can cause:
- cardiovascular diseases;
- colds and impaired immunity;
- allergies;
- neuroses;
- diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
- other psychosomatic diseases;
- diseases and disorders of the genitourinary system;
- pain and discomfort in muscles and joints;
- decrease in bone density;
- decreased activity and ability to work.
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that by 2020 depression (the main danger of stress) will come out on top in popularity, bypassing infectious and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, WHO notes that already 45% of all diseases are caused by stress.
But this is dangerous for chronic stress and stress at the stage of distress. In moderate doses, stress serves as a hardening for the psyche, increases the body’s stability. But this does not mean that it is necessary to specially carry out such “tempering measures”.
Epilogue
In a moment of stress, our body is ready for two options: fight or flight. This is dictated by the animal part of us, the biological stress of the body. Of course, in life, people do not always literally run away or attack under stress (although this is not uncommon). More often this is understood in the abstract: flight, for example, means going into drunkenness or depression.
It should be understood that stress cannot be avoided. This is a variant of the body’s reflex response to difficult or unpleasant (unfavorable) circumstances. A developing active personality will have to face the new and unknown, unusual, frightening all his life. And the body will react with appropriate hormonal changes, it will reflexively defend itself.
Remember that stress is a reaction to our attitude to the situation, the perception of what happened. We do not react to the fact, but to what it means to us. Since stress cannot be avoided, it is necessary to work on increasing stress resistance. This is an important property that allows you to move along the path of life. More about this in the article “Stress resistance is: definition, levels, increase.”
