Stress

Stress Overview Stress Causes Stress Symptoms When to Seek Medical Care Exams and Tests Stress Treatment Self-Care at Home Medical Treatment Next Steps Follow-up Prevention Outlook For More Information Web Links Synonyms and Keywords Authors and Editors Related stress articles: Stress - on WebMD Stress - on MedicineNet

Stress Overview Everyone is familiar with stress. We experience it in varying forms and degrees every day. In small doses, stress can actually be beneficial to us. It is only when the stress becomes too great, affecting our physical or mental functioning, that it becomes a problem. In small doses, stressors can help give us increased energy and alertness, even helping to keep us focused on the problem at hand. This type of stress is good. People may refer to the experience of this type of stress as feeling "pumped" or "wired." As the level of pressure gets too great, stress eventually surpasses our ability to cope with it in a positive way. Often, people describe themselves as being stressed out, burned out, or at wits end. At this point, it is important to find positive and productive ways to deal with the stress and, more importantly, to address the person or situation that is causing the stress. Everyone reacts to stress differently. Each of us has a different level of pressure and anxiety that we can handle without a bad outcome. Only you can assess your level of tolerance to stressful situations. The best treatment for stress is to prevent getting into situations that are likely to overwhelm your ability to cope. This is not always possible because the stressors may often come from outside sources that are beyond your control.

Stress Causes The following are risk factors for uncontrollable stress: Social and financial problems

Medical illness Lack of social support Family history

Stress Symptoms Stress usually first affects the inner emotions. Initial symptoms may include the following feelings: o o o o o Anxiousness Nervousness Distraction Excessive worry Internal pressure

These emotional states can then begin to affect a person's outward appearance: o o o o Unusually anxious or nervous Distracted Self-absorbed Irritable

As the stress level increases, or if it lasts over a longer period of time, a person may begin to feel more severe emotional or physical effects: o o o o o o o o o Excessive fatigue Depression Sometimes even think of hurting yourself or others Headaches Nausea and vomiting Diarrhea Chest pain or pressure Heart racing Dizziness or flushing

o o

Tremulousness or restlessness Hyperventilation or choking sensation

In most cases, these symptoms are very minor and dont last very long. If they become more severe or increase in frequency and severity, seek medical help.

When to Seek Medical Care You should call your doctor when you are unable to identify the source of your stress or anxiety and if the condition continues or comes and goes. o If, in conjunction with your friends, family, or spiritual advisers, you cannot identify a source or solution for your anxiety and stress, your first resource should be your doctor. A physical problem may be causing your symptoms. There may be a hidden cause that requires the assistance of a counselor to help uncover. Once your doctor has ruled out a medical cause for your symptoms, your doctor can be a great resource for other options in treatment of your stress symptoms. Primary care doctors have many resources that they can use to help get to the source of your stress. You should never be embarrassed about your situation or the fact that you are seeking help. It is the doctors role to help. Remember, the sooner you get help, the sooner you will feel better. If you are having physical symptoms that seem either unrelated to stress or are worse than you have experienced in the past, you should consult your doctor immediately.

You should call 911 or go to the nearest hospitals emergency department if your stress is resulting in any of these symptoms: o o o o o o Thoughts about harming yourself Thoughts about harming others Chest pain Fluttering or rapid heartbeats Headaches unlike your usual headaches Any condition that you feel might cause you serious harm if not treated immediately

5
Stress Treatment

Self-Care at Home When you find yourself feeling the bad effects of stress, you need to take action immediately. The sooner you begin the process of treatment, the easier it will be and the quicker you will be back to your normal state. The first step in the process is to try to identify the cause of the stress. Sometimes this is a known source such as a deadline at work, a pile of unpaid bills, or a relationship that is not working out. It can at times be more difficult to find the source of your problem. o Often, many relatively mild stressors occurring at once can bring on the same stress as a larger problem or known source of anxiety or worry. Some people experience stress from events that occurred in the past (post-traumatic stress disorder).

If you can identify the source of your stress, remove yourself from it or address the situation. That may be all that is needed to resolve the situation and your anxiety. Even if you are only able to get away for a few seconds or minutes, the break is important and can help you on the way to a more permanent solution. o This break can be accomplished by physically removing yourself from the provoking situation (such as an argument) or mentally removing yourself from the stressor (such as financial worries) through a mental distraction, often called a time-out. The point of these actions is to allow you a moment to relax and formulate a plan for dealing with the problem at hand. Just having a plan can be a great stress reliever. It gives you a set of positive steps that you can work on to get yourself back to your baseline and out of the stressful situation. These steps should be broken down into tasks you can accomplish easily. Working toward a goal is rewarding. It prevents the hopelessness and lost feeling that can accompany stress and make it worse.

If you are unable to determine the source of your stress, you need to seek outside help. Sometimes discussing your situation with family, friends, or a spiritual adviser can be helpful. If these routes are not successful, you should make an appointment with your doctor or a mental health counselor to help determine the source of the stress and rule out any potentially reversible medical causes of your stress.

Medical Treatment The treatment of your stress will vary greatly depending on the types of symptoms you are experiencing and how severe they are.

Treatment can range from simple reassurance to inpatient care and evaluation in a hospital setting. Some basic treatment recommendations are as follows: o o o o o o Careful workup and evaluation by a doctor Regular exercise program Reassurance Biofeedback as indicated Counseling by qualified mental health professionals, as needed Medical intervention for any physical problems discovered

Prevention You can take steps to prevent stress in your life. Set realistic goals and limits for yourself. Put things into perspective and try not to get upset about insignificant or relatively unimportant matters. Take stress, time management, or anger management classes. Find activities that you enjoy and set aside time to participate in them on a regular basis. Participate in regular physical exercise. Maintain a positive outlook. Set goals and break them into easily achievable tasks. Reward yourself for the good things that you do each day.

Outlook The prognosis for people suffering from the effects of stress is almost always outstanding. Most people recover completely once the stressor is identified and a plan is devised to remove or control it. The key is to seek help early and be an active partner in your care and recovery. Just worrying about your problems will only make them worse. Call on your friends, family, clergy, and doctor to help you return to a full and productive lifestyle.

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Stress (medicine)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search For other definitions , see Stress. In medical terms, stress is the disruption of homeostasis through physical or psychological stimuli. Stressful stimuli can be mental, physiological, anatomical or physical[1] reactions. The term 'stress' in this context was coined by Austro-Canadian endocrinologist Hans Selye, who defined the General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS paradigm in 1936.
Contents

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1 Types of stress 2 General Adaption Syndrome o 2.1 Stage one: alarm o 2.2 Stage two: resistance o 2.3 Stage three: exhaustion 3 Neuro-chemistry and Physiology 4 History of stress 5 Common factors of stress 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Types of stress

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Responses to stress include adaptation, psychological coping such as stress management, anxiety, and depression. Where stress enhances function (physical or mental, such as through strength training or challenging work) it may be considered eustress. Persistent stress that is not resolved through coping or adaptation may lead to escape (anxiety) or withdrawal (depression) behavior. The fulcrum of the stress response is a disparity between experience (real or imagined) and personal expectations and resources. A person living in a fashion consistent with personally-accepted expectations has no stress even if the conditions might be interpreted as adverse from some outside perspective rural people may live in comparative poverty, and yet be unstressed if there is a sufficiency according to their expectations. If

there is chronic disparity between experience and expectations, stress may be relieved by adjustment of expectations to meet the ongoing experiences or conditions. Stress can also be triggered by alarming experiences, either real or imaginary.[2]
[edit] General Adaption Syndrome

This is a model on stress, researched mainly by Hans Selye[3][4] on rats and other animals. His research involved exposing animals to unpleasant or harmful stimuli such as injections, extreme cold and even vivisection. He found that all animals showed a very similar series of reactions, broken into three stages. He describes this universal response to the stressors as the General Adaption Syndrome or GAS in 1936.
[edit] Stage one: alarm

When the threat or stressor is identified or realised, the body's stress response is a state of alarm. During this stage adrenaline will be produced in order to bring about the fight or flight response. There is also some activation of the HPA axis, producing cortisol.
[edit] Stage two: resistance

If the stressor persists, it becomes necessary to attempt some means of coping with the stress. Although the body begins to try to adapt to the strains or demands of the environment, the body cannot keep this up indefinitely, so its resources are gradually depleted.
[edit] Stage three: exhaustion

In the final stage in the GAS model, all the body's resources are eventually depleted and the body is unable to maintain normal function. At this point the initial autonomic nervous system symptoms may reappear (sweating, raised heart rate etc.). If stage three is extended, long term damage may result as the capacity of glands, especially the adrenal gland, and the immune system is exhausted and function is impaired resulting in decompensation. The result can manifest itself in obvious illnesses such as ulcers, depression or even cardiovascular problems, along with other mental issues.
[edit] Neuro-chemistry and Physiology

The neurochemistry of the general adaptation syndrome is now believed to be well understood, although much remains to be discovered about how this system interacts with others in the brain and elsewhere in the body. The body reacts to stress first by releasing the catecholamine hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine, and the glucocorticoid hormones, cortisol and cortisone.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) is a major part of the neuroendocrine system, involving the interactions of the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands. The HPA axis is believed to play a primary role in the body's reactions to stress by balancing hormone releases from the adrenaline-producing adrenal medulla, and from the corticosteroid-producing adrenal cortex. Stress can significantly impact many of the body's immune systems, as can an individual's perceptions of, and reactions to, stress. The term psychoneuroimmunology is used to describe the interactions between the mental state, nervous and immune systems, as well as research on the interconnections of these systems.
[edit] History of stress

It was gradually realized that such concepts as anxiety, antagonism, exhaustion, frustration, distress, despair, overwork, pre-menstrual tension, over-focusing, confusion, mourning, and fear could all come together in a general broad term, stress. The popular use of the term in modern folklore expanded rapidly and created an industry of popular psychology, self-help, psychotherapy, and sometimes quackery. There were a series of films in the 30s, 40s, & 50s that dealt with mad scientists playing with hormones that seem related to this folklore. The use of the term stress in serious and recognized cases, such as those of post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosomatic illness, has scarcely helped clear analysis of the generalized "stress" phenomenon. Nonetheless, some varieties of stress from negative life events (distress) and from positive life events (eustress) can clearly have a serious physical impact distinct from the troubles of what psychotherapists call the "worried well." Stress activates the sympathetic branch of the autonomous nervous system and the release of stress hormones including adrenaline/epinephrine, and cortisol. Sympathetic nervous output tends to divert bloodflow to the large musclesthe body 'thinks' it has to run away from something or fight something: the so-called 'fight or flight' response of ancient evolutionary heritageand blood flows correspondingly less to the digestive system and other organs that are not immediately needed for a response to the stimulus. We all recognize the effects: dry mouth, motor agitation, sweating, pallor, enlarged pupils, and insomnia. Our modern lifestyle tends to cause continual sympathetic nervous system activation with very little opportunity for the parasympathetic (also called 'vegetative') nervous system to activate. When the parasympathetic system is active, the bowel and other non-muscle organs receive good blood-flow, the pupils constrict, and the glands all function well and secrete their various compounds. Absence of the autonomic parasympathetic activation leads to poor digestion and probably also to poor healing and organ function. It is vital to take time out from our modern lifestyles to allow for rest and proper parasympathetic action in our bodies.
[edit] Common factors of stress

Both negative and postive stressors can lead to stress. Some common categories and examples of stressors include:

Sensory: pain, bright light Life events: birth and deaths, marriage and divorce Responsibilities: lack of money, unemployment Work/study: exams, project deadlines Personal relationships: conflict, deception Lifestyle: heavy drinking, insufficient sleep Early life exposure (e.g. child abuse) can permanently alter an individual's stress response[citation needed]

One evaluation of the different stresses in people's lives is the Holmes and Rahe stress scale.
[edit] See also

Oxidative stress

[edit] References

1. ^ Rippetoe-Kilgore, Mark and Lon. 2006. Practical Programming for Strength Training. ISBN 0-9768-0540-5 2. ^ Ron de Kloet, E; Joels M. & Holsboer F. (2005). "Stress and the brain: from adaptation to disease". Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6 (6): 463-475. PMID 15891777. 3. ^ Seyle, Hans (1936). "A syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents". Nature. 4. ^ Seyle, Hans (1950). "Diseases of adaptation". Wisconsin medical journal 49 (6).
[edit] External links

"Research on Work-Related Stress", European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) "Working on Stress", European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EUOSHA) "Taming Stress", Scientific American, September 2003

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