Home » Misc » Negative stress response

Negative stress response


Causes of Stress, Reducing Stress, and More

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

In this Article

  • Causes of Stress
  • What Are the Symptoms of Stress?
  • Tips for Managing Stress
  • How Can Stress Affect Your Health?
  • When Should I Seek Help for Stress?

Stress. We all live with it each day. But how do you react to daily stress? For some people, life's stressors cause them to become irritable, short-tempered, or unable to concentrate on tasks. Others have interrupted sleep (trouble falling asleep or waking early in the morning with racing thoughts). Then there are those who react by eating junk food -- and a lot of it! (Remember - desserts is stressed spelled backward!) The good news: No matter how busy your schedule, it is possible to manage stress and keep it from ruining your life.

Causes of Stress

Simply stated, stress describes the many demands and pressures that we all experience, to some degree, each day. These demands are physical, mental, emotional, or even chemical in nature. The word "stress" encompasses both the stressful situation, known as the stressor, and the symptoms you experience under stress, your stress response.

The problem with stress is that it activates your sympathetic nervous system, stimulating the release of stress hormones throughout your body. These hormones give you super energy and cause other changes in the body such as the "fight or flight" response.

The "fight or flight" response makes your heart beat faster. You might feel very nervous, making it difficult to breathe. Short term, the "fight or flight" response causes changes that allow you to handle sudden stressful events. When you face fear -- or even recall a stressful or frightening event from the past -- the resulting hormonal changes super-charge your body to a state of high arousal. This prepares you for action.

But long-term stress can be particularly difficult. When stress hormones stay elevated over time, there is a gradual and steady stream of harmful changes to the body. Long-term stress can suppress the immune system, which may lead to the development of diseases.

Stress can be positive or negative, depending on the situation. Positive stressors (called eustress) may include an upcoming wedding, the holidays, or pregnancy. On the other hand, negative stress (called distress) results in the full-blown stress response. If continuous, negative stress can lead to loss of productivity, health problems, and exhaustion.

What Are the Symptoms of Stress?

Stress symptoms vary greatly from one person to the next, but the most universal sign of stress is a feeling of being pressured or overwhelmed. Other symptoms include:

  • Physical complaints (stomachaches, headaches, chest pains, nausea, and diarrhea, and a sensation of numbness or tingling in your hands, arms, and face.)
  • Problems getting along with family members, friends, and teachers.
  • Changes in behavior at home (short temper, unexplained anger, crying for no reason).
  • Regression -- behavior that is not age-appropriate.
  • Dysfunctional sleep patterns, including nightmares, too little sleep, difficulty falling asleep, or even oversleeping.
  • Communication difficulty or personality changes, such as becoming withdrawn or requiring much more attention than usual.
  • Impatience.

If you are experiencing a few of these symptoms, chances are that your level of stress is high. If left untreated, stress can lead to permanent feelings of helplessness and ineffectiveness.

Tips for Managing Stress

Now that you understand more about stress and the symptoms, try the following these 6 tips to unwind, de-stress, and get back in control of your emotional state:

  1. Identify the sources of stress. Try to figure out what's causing your stress symptoms. Maybe you are overextended (too many commitments) and feel fatigued and irritable. Once you identify the sources of stress, try to minimize these as much as possible.
  2. Talk it out. Talk to a friend, family member, or therapist if your stress level is too high. Getting your feelings out without others judging you is crucial to good mental health.
  3. Take time out. Before you reach your breaking point, take time out for solitude. Take time to nurture yourself, away from the cares and responsibilities of the world. Find time for inner strength and emotional healing.
  4. Set limits. Never hesitate to say "no" before you take on too many commitments. Especially if you are balancing work and family, it's important to prioritize. Saying "no" can help bring your stress to a manageable level and give you more control over your life.
  5. Try exhaling. Breathing can measure and alter your psychological state, making a stressful moment increase or diminish in intensity. Often, people who are anxious or upset take shallow breaths and unconsciously hold them. By paying attention to your breathing, particularly exhaling during tense moments, you will feel more relaxed. Buy a bottle of inexpensive bubbles (in the toy section at most stores), and use it to learn how to exhale slowly. Breathing from your abdomen, blow through the bubble blower with a steady stream of breath. If you blow too hard or too softly, you won't get any bubbles. But smooth, steady breaths will produce a nice flow of bubbles. Use this breathing technique (without the bubbles) when you are feeling stressed.
  6. Exercise daily.Exercise is thought to increase the secretion of endorphins, naturally produced substances in the brain that induce feelings of peacefulness. Many studies show that exercise, along with the boosted endorphin levels, really does increase confidence and self-esteem and reduce tension. Exercise also acts as a displacement defense mechanism for those who are "stressed out." What does that mean? If you've ever walked for several miles, you know how hard it is to think of your problems when your mind is focused on walking.

How Can Stress Affect Your Health?

The problem with stress is that it's cumulative. In other words, if you don't have a healthy way of responding to stress or counterbalancing the "fight or flight" response, constant exposure to stress hormones overloads the body.

Changes in levels of hormones produced by daily stress can hurt your health. When stress levels increase, it results in an overproduction of stress hormones that weaken the immune system. This can lead to physical and psychological problems.

Chronic, or long-term, stress often results in high anxiety, insomnia, depression, gastrointestinal problems, and can even lead to dependency on drugs and alcohol (a self-medication solution that makes an already bad problem worse). Some studies show that the hormones associated with chronic stress are linked to increased fat in the abdomen. That, in turn, increases the risk of chronic and serious illness such as diabetes.

When Should I Seek Help for Stress?

When stress interrupts your life, causing sleep problems or making you feel anxious and out of control, talk with your primary health care professional. They might recommend a professional therapist who can offer support and give you some practical lifestyle tips in how to manage stress without letting it take over your life

Health & Balance Guide

  1. A Balanced Life
  2. Take It Easy
  3. CAM Treatments

Types Of Stressors (Eustress Vs. Distress)

  1. Eustress
  2. Distress
  3. Examples of Eustress and Distress
  4. Work and Internal Sources of Distress

Eustress vs. Distress

 We mentioned it earlier and it bears repeating: stress is not always a bad thing. Stress is simply the body's response to changes that create taxing demands. The previously mentioned Dr. Lazarus (building on Dr. Selye's work) suggested that there is a difference between eustress, which is a term for positive stress, and distress, which refers to negative stress.

In daily life, we often use the term "stress" to describe negative situations. This leads many people to believe that all stress is bad for you, which is not true.

Eustress

Eustress, or positive stress, has the following characteristics:

  • Motivates, focuses energy.
  • Is short-term.
  • Is perceived as within our coping abilities.
  • Feels exciting.
  • Improves performance.

 

Distress

In contrast, Distress, or negative stress, has the following characteristics:

  • Causes anxiety or concern.
  • Can be short- or long-term.
  • Is perceived as outside of our coping abilities.
  • Feels unpleasant.
  • Decreases performance.
  • Can lead to mental and physical problems.

 

Examples of Eustress and Distress

It is somewhat hard to categorize stressors into objective lists of those that cause eustress and those that cause distress, because different people will have different reactions to particular situations. However, by generalizing, we can compile a list of stressors that are typically experienced as negative or positive to most people, most of the time.

Examples of negativepersonal stressors include:

  • The death of a spouse.
  • Filing for divorce.
  • Losing contact with loved ones.
  • The death of a family member.
  • Hospitalization (oneself or a family member).
  • Injury or illness (oneself or a family member).
  • Being abused or neglected.
  • Separation from a spouse or committed relationship partner.
  • Conflict in interpersonal relationships.
  • Bankruptcy/Money Problems.
  • Unemployment.
  • Sleep problems.
  • Children's problems at school.
  • Legal problems.

Examples of positivepersonal stressors include:

  • Receiving a promotion or raise at work.
  • Starting a new job.
  • Marriage.
  • Buying a home.
  • Having a child.
  • Moving.
  • Taking a vacation.
  • Holiday seasons.
  • Retiring.
  • Taking educational classes or learning a new hobby.

Work and Internal Sources of Distress

Work and employment concerns such as those listed below are also frequent causes of distress:

  • Excessive job demands.
  • Job insecurity.
  • Conflicts with teammates and supervisors.
  • Inadequate authority necessary to carry out tasks.
  • Lack of training necessary to do the job.
  • Making presentations in front of colleagues or clients.
  • Unproductive and time-consuming meetings.
  • Commuting and travel schedules.

Stressors are not always limited to situations where some external situation is creating a problem. Internal events such as feelings and thoughts and habitual behaviors can also cause negative stress.

Therapists are Standing By to Treat Your Depression, Anxiety or Other Mental Health Needs

Explore Your Options Today

Common internally caused sources of distress include:

  • Fears: (e.g., fears of flying, heights, public speaking, chatting with strangers at a party).
  • Repetitive Thought Patterns.
  • Worrying about future events (e.g., waiting for medical test results or job restructuring).
  • Unrealistic, perfectionist expectations.

Habitual behavior patterns that can lead to distress include:

  • Overscheduling.
  • Failing to be assertive.
  • Procrastination and/or failing to plan ahead.

Additional Stress Articles
  • Different Types of Stress 
  • Long Term Consequences of Stress
  • Effects of Stress on Social Help
  • Introduction of Stress
  • Methods of Stress Reduction
  • Prevention of Management and Stress
  • Top 7 Sources of Stress
  • Stress Inoculation Therapy 
  • Stress Management Techniques

Myndfulness App

Designed to Help You Feel Better Daily

Download Now For Free

Learn More >

Stress response

  1. Main
  2. University structure
  3. Social and psychological service
  4. Current articles in psychology
  5. Stress response

“You can improve your life only through changing your attitude towards it, perceiving it as the most precious gift, through the wisdom of experiencing joy every day, minute, second. ” L. Ermolaeva.

"We have an invaluable brain - to think, dream, design our lives, improve ourselves."

There are also troubles, problems, fatigue in life, but this is a natural part of it, and therefore one should not pay more attention to them than they are worth. In our life, everything obeys the rhythm, a dark streak is sure to be followed by a light streak, you just need to sincerely believe in it. Solomon's saying: "Everything will pass, this too will pass." Psycho-saving advice is carried by a prayer: "Lord, give me the strength to change what I cannot change and give me the wisdom to distinguish one from the other." The psychological paraphrase says: “If you can change the situation, change it; if you cannot change the circumstances, change your attitude towards them.”

Reaction to stress should be meaningful and balanced. You should not give in to the first emotional impulse, you should be self-possessed and cool-headed, look at the world around you realistically and also act realistically.

American psychotherapist D. Powell offers some tips to help you survive stress with minimal losses.

  1. Think about how you felt when everything was going well. When you imagine yourself in a comfortable situation, there are sensations associated with it.
  2. Relax physically. If the body and muscles are relaxed, then the psyche cannot be in a tense state.
  3. Try to be realistic when you describe the situation to yourself or loved ones; in which you are. Avoid words like "never", "always", "hate".
  4. Live for today. Set goals for today and reach them.
  5. Do not allow yourself to "drown" in self-pity, do not refuse help. Love, friendship and help are powerful tools in the fight against stress.
  6. Make stress work for you. Many people have overcome stress by refusing to become losers. They met the test with their heads up. If you can accept a negative event (such as losing your job) as a need to take a positive action (such as finding a better job), you will defeat stress at its very weapon.
  7. Try not to think of past events as defeat.
  8. Treat stress as a source of energy. Treat every problem life presents as a challenge.
  9. You cannot be responsible for the behavior of others, but you can control how you react to their actions. Your main victory is a victory over your emotions.
  10. Don't try to please everyone, it's unrealistic, you have to please yourself from time to time.
  11. Draw a mental picture of your future and compare it with the short-term crisis that you are currently experiencing.

Last modified: 01/23/2021, 18:34:20

Responsible for formation: Tokareva Julia

+7 (8482) 22-93-94

"Normal reaction to an abnormal situation": what happens to those who are faced with a life threat | Articles

On the morning of Tuesday, May 11, in Kazan, a former student opened fire at school No. 175. As a result, at least nine people were killed, including children. Such tragedies affect the condition of all those who survived them, suffered or are somehow connected with one of the participants, including on duty. Qualified psychologists trained to work in such situations can help to cope with this. About how such specialists work, how the effects of stress manifest themselves and who can help, Izvestia talked with those who train them and study post-traumatic experience.

“Like electric discharges”

An acute state of stress associated with the need to accept, realize and accommodate everything that happened, according to psychologists, is observed in everyone who has been affected in one way or another by a life-threatening situation. In the case of the tragedy in Kazan, this includes the students themselves, their parents and relatives, as well as teachers and representatives of the school administration.

Most people will need from a month to six months to go through the acute phase of stress , Yulia Bykhovets, a psychologist and researcher at the Post-Traumatic Stress Laboratory of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia.

However, those who have a more vulnerable psyche will not be able to "contain" the trauma within this period. Post-traumatic stress disorder or some of its symptoms associated with the delayed effects of trauma experience, according to her, develops, as a rule, in 15-20% of those who find themselves in an extreme situation .

Normal reaction

Photo: Izvestiya/Zurab Javakhadze

Such symptoms include sudden mood swings, loss of interest in life, constantly emerging memories of the experience: "The trauma does not fit in the person's head and begins to ooze like a wound."

The very concept of stress today is rather vague, and it is not worth comparing these experiences with those that we experience with discomfort in everyday life, psychologist draws attention: “Many say, they say, I have such stress, I quarreled with someone . But this is a little different - the person quarreled, got worried, then everything went away. And then this state rolls over you in constant waves, similar to electric discharges. The psyche processes information in this way.

Extreme situations are all situations in which a threat to life arises and is realized , explains Sergey Shklyaruk, a psychologist, Ph.D.

Incidents that threaten the lives of more people are more visible and attract the attention of journalists, but this is not a necessary condition. “The specialists we are training will work in different situations - it can be both law enforcement agencies and oncology,” he says.

“It is impossible to prepare”

In recent years, employees of the psychological service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation and the Center for Emergency Psychological Assistance of the department have provided assistance to the population in such situations - by 2020, when the services celebrated their twentieth anniversary, as specified by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, they included about 800 people.

Targeted training of specialists to work with the civilian population in crisis situations began in Russia about 20 years ago. Before that, there were also psychologists in the power structures and structures involved in emergency response, but they mainly participated in the selection and further support of the employees themselves, who also face the negative effects of the experience, says Sergey Shklyaruk.

Normal reaction

Photo: RIA Novosti / Igor Russak

At the same time, he notes, the psychologist's tasks will differ depending on whether it is an emergency situation or a catastrophe . In the first case, psychologists, among other things, can work to prevent its development, in the second, as in the case of Kazan, people have already died and it is necessary, first of all, to help the victims cope with the consequences.

In a tragedy similar to the one that happened in Kazan, aggravating factors from the point of view of the psyche are the insecurity of the affected group (schoolchildren), as well as the complete surprise of what happened , the lack of a minimum opportunity to somehow prepare, notes Yulia Bykhovets, because it was impossible to foresee such a situation.

In adults, this can provoke additional feelings of guilt , she says: “They feel that they should have done something, should have protected the children, but how do you do it? After all, this does not happen every day, this is not our norm. It's impossible. But you can understand this with your head, but there will still be heaviness inside, a feeling that you could have foreseen this.

This, as a rule, is not true, since in most cases it is beyond the power of a person to prevent a tragedy or change the course of events in such cases . But in themselves, such states are part of the normal process of experiencing grief, the psychologist draws attention. This also includes denial, and a kind of "bargaining": "Let's check again, maybe no one died."

This is “a normal reaction to an abnormal situation that exceeds the ability of a person to cope with it,” notes Yulia Bykhovets.

Normal reaction

Photo: Izvestiya/Oleg Kazantsev

People who find themselves in a crisis situation need the help of a specialist, because the body's reaction to danger can be quite strong - up to panic reactions or fading. In this situation, a person will not be able to act independently, Sergey Shklyaruk draws attention.

But if support is provided to people directly in the process, then after that those who suffered as a result of large-scale tragic events - for example, during the capture of hostages in Nord-Ost and Beslan - often remain on their own, he continues.

Building a full-fledged support system that would work for the long term is almost impossible due to the high cost and complexity. At the same time, for the victims themselves, the struggle with the consequences can stretch for several months or even years - and this means that at this time they will need help, the psychologist says.

lingering scar

The period that a person needs to cope with an acute state of stress is individual - depending on the situation and the characteristics of the psyche, it can be from one to several months.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is associated with delayed effects from the experience, is like a lingering scar and “can behave insidiously,” says Yulia Bykhovets.

Learn more