Stress & Health

Brainstorm…. List all the different stressors that you encounter in a regular school day.

To study how stress & healthy/unhealthy behaviors influence health & illness, psychologists & physicians created the interdisciplinary field of behavioral medicine, integrating behavioral & medical knowledge. Health psychology provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine. Health psychologists ask: -How do our emotions & personality influence our risk of disease? -What attitudes & behaviors help prevent illness & promote health & well-being? -How do our perceptions of a situation determine the stress we feel? -How can we reduce or control stress?

What is stress? Stress: the process by which we perceive & respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging. Stress is not just a stimulus or a response…it is the process of how we appraise & cope w/ environmental threats & challenges. - “Stress arises less from events themselves than from how we appraise them” (Lazarus, 1998). When short-lived or appraised as a challenge, stress can motivate us – a positive effect (Yerkes-Dodson Law); athletes, difficult math test… Stressors can also threaten us; Severe or prolonged stress harms us; veterans w/ PTSD, children suffering from severe child greater risk for later chronic disease (Repetti et.al., 2002).

The Stress Response Sx Obviously the sympathetic nervous Sx is activated as discussed earlier… “fight or flight” Physiologists have identified additional stress responses.. – On orders from the cerebral cortex (via the hypothalamus & pituitary gland), the adrenal glands secrete glucocorticoid stress hormones (cortisol). – In a fight-or-flight scenario, epinephrine is the one handing out guns; glucocorticoids are the ones drawing up blueprints for new aircraft carriers need for the war effort” (Sapolsky, 2003). British Airways flight in 1999 from San Francisco to London…3 hours into flight, a mistakenly played msg. told passengers the plane was about to crash into the sea!

Alternatives to flight or fight: – Withdraw, pullback, conserve energy – Some even become paralyzed by fear – Women tend to seek & give support~tend & befriend – Men more often than women tend to socially withdraw, turn to alcohol, or become aggressive. – Women respond by nurturing & banding together, which is partly attributed to oxytocin-a stress moderating hormone associated w/ pair-bonding in animals & released by cuddling, massage & breast feeding.

Hans Selye’s : General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) Phase 1: you experience an alarm reaction due to the sudden activation of sympathetic nervous Sx; heart rate zooms, blood diverted to skeletal muscles, feel faintness of shock Phase 2: resistance; your temp., blood pressure & respiration remain high & there’s a sudden outpouring of hormones; if persistent, the stress may deplete your body’s reserves. Phase 3: exhaustion; reserves depleted; more vulnerable to illness or even, in extreme cases, collapse & death

Few medical experts disagree w/ Selye’s basic point…our body comes designed to cope w/ temporary stress but prolonged stress can produce physical deterioration... – Brain’s production of new neurons slows – Women who suffered enduring stress as caregivers for kids w/ serious disorders displayed a symptom that is a normal part of the aging process – shorter bits of ends of their chromosomes…*the most stressed women had cells (telomeres) that looked a decade older than their chronological age…