1. Managing Stress: Coping With Life’s Challenges
Health: The Basics
Fifth Edition
Chapter 3
Managing Stress: Coping With Life’s Challenges
PowerPoint® Lecture Slide Presentation CD-ROM
Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings

2. What is Stress? • Introduction
• Mental and physical response of our bodies to life’s challenges
• A stressor causes the body to adjust
• Adjustment is the attempt to cope
• Strain is the wear and tear on the body
• Stress can be positive (Eutress) or negative (Distress)

3. What is Stress? • Introduction (continued)
• Real or imagined events
• Adrenal glands release hormones
• Can you give some examples of positive and negative stressors?

4. The Body’s Response to Stress
• The General Adaptation Syndrome
1) Alarm
2) Resistance
3) Exhaustion
Figure 3.2: The General Adaptation Syndrome: Alarm Phase.

5. Stress and Your Health • CVD Risk increases
• Notice the hormones that are released during stressful events
• “The disease of prolonged arousal”
• Increased plaque buildup
• Hardening of the arteries
• Increased blood pressure

6. Stress and Your Health • Stress and Impaired Immunity
• Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
• Stress and the Mind
• Stress contributes to mental and emotional dysfunction

7. Sources of Stress • Psychosocial sources of stress
• Change
• Overload
• Hassles
• Pressure
• Environmental stress
• Noise

8. Sources of Stress • Self-Imposed stress • How you cope
• List some stressors from each of these sources.

9. Chronic Stressors for College Students

10. Stress and the College Student
• Men and Women indicate that their stressors differ
• Women: dieting, overload of school work, etc
• Men : being underweight, commuting problems, not having someone to date, etc
• What are some stressors you have experienced?

11. Stress Management • Building Skills to Reduce Stress
• Assess your stressors
• Change your response with cognitive coping strategies
• Learn to cope using stress inoculation
• Downshift
• Manage Emotional Responses
• Examine your self-talk

12. Figure 3.3: Steps in Anger Control.

13. Stress Management • Taking Mental Action • Taking Physical Action
• Self esteem
• Mental skills to manage
• Taking Physical Action
• Exercise
• Relaxation
• Eating Right

14. Stress Management • Managing Time • Take on only one thing at a time
• Clean off your desk
• Find a clean, comfortable place to work
• Never handle papers more than once
• Prioritize your tasks
• Don’t be afraid to say no
• Avoid interruptions

15. Stress Management • Managing Time (continued)
• Reward yourself
• Become aware of your own advantage
• Break overwhelming tasks into small pieces, and allocate a certain amount of time to each
• Remember that time is precious
• What have you done to manage your time wisely?

16. Alternative Stress Management Techniques
• Popular Stress Fighters
• Hypnosis
• Massage Therapy
• Meditation
• Biofeedback
• Making the Most of Support Groups
• Friends
• Family
• Coworkers

17. Developing Your Spiritual Side: Mindfulness
• Physical Dimension
• Interact with nature
• Emotional Dimension
• Deal with negative feelings
• Social Dimension
• Interact, listen, and communicate
• Intellectual Dimension
• Objective reasoning