Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stress: Dr. O.H Ezeh
Stress: Dr. O.H Ezeh
Introduction
• stress is a worldwide public health problem that affects
more than 77 percent of people globally(APA, WHO).
• About 43 percent of adults suffer adverse health effects
from stress .
• Between 75 and 90 percent of all physician office visits are
for stress-related ailments and complaints.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has
declared stress as hazard of the work place.
• Chronic stress is present and persistent in all areas of life
including: at work, home, and in personal relationships.
Definitions
•Any physical or psychological event that is perceived as a potential
threat to physical or emotional well-being.
Distress
• Negative or debilitating reactions to events resulting when the stress
response exceeds the individual’s controllable limits.
• Perceived as threat.
• Negative events e.g. Loss of a loved one, death in the family etc.
Eustress
• Positive reaction to a stressor.
• Stress is defined/interpreted as a challenge rather than a threat.
• Positive events e.g. getting married, receiving a promotion, birth of a
wanted baby etc.
Stressor
- Any situation, condition, event or circumstance that causes stress.
.
Behaviour Risk Factors
.Behaviours that increase the chances of
disease, injury, or premature death. More than
70% of leading causes of death are directly
related to behavioural risk factors.
External sources of stress
-Family.
-Work.
-Economic.
-School.
-Major life events.
-Unforeseen events.
-Environment.
-Etc.
SOURCES OF CLINICAL STRESS
A) For Patients
.Uncertainty.
.Pain.
.Fear.
.Cost of health care.
.Lack of knowledge.
.Risk of harm.
SOURCES OF CLINICAL STRESS
B)For Health Worker.
.Poor patient outcome.
.Risk of making an error.
.Unfamiliar situations.
.Excessive work load.
.Inadequate resource.
.lack of state of the art equipments.
.Poor remuneration and conditions of service.
.Risks of contracting disease/occupational hazards.
.Etc.
CAUSES OF STRESS
Internal causes of stress.
(i.e self-generated):
- Inability to accept uncertainty.
- Pessimism.
- Negative self-talk/mental-talk.
-Negative thought patterns.
-Worry.
-Fear.
-Attitudes
-Expectations
-Unrealistic.
-Etc
Stress patterns
• Are unique
• Vary from person to person
• Even in the same person, vary with time.
• Can be:
– Predictable e.g developmental stress – as when an individual enters different
periods of time,
– Unpredictable .e.g accident, death in family, drastic social change, life events
e.t.c
– Accumulated stress
– Stresses do not usually come singly or operate independently of one another.
_Stress of the moment
• The way individuals cope with stress overtime shapes the course of their
lives.
• Reactions to stress are one way in which needed competencies are
developed.
Determinants of stress patterns
• Age
• Sex/gender
• Occupation
• Economic status
• Personality make up
• Competencies
• Family situation
• E.t.c
Stress is the balance between stressor- demand and coping
skills.
If the coping skills/resources are greater than stressor-
demand stress will not result.
Stress reaction.
3. Exhaustion.
- At which time the body’s resources are exhausted
and serious health consequences or even death
may occur.
- Selye noticed that the first symptoms of any disease or trauma (e.g.
poisoning, infection, injury or stress) are almost identical. His
studies showed that the body responds to any stress/stressor in the
same way, be it:
- Infection.
- Exam failure.
- Embarrassment.
- A new job.
- Trouble at school.
- Etc.
1. Stress
- Chronic negative stress increases chances of
becoming ill.
2. Coping Style.
- Can decrease or increase the risk of illness
- problem-focused) coping can lead to a decrease in
illness, whereas (emotion-focused) coping can lead to an
increase in illness.
1. Behavioural
People under stress:
• Sleep poorly.
• Are less likely to exercise.
• Adopt poor eating habits.
• Smoke more.
• Abuse alcohol or other abusable substances more.
• Do not comply with medical treatment.
2. Endocrine System.
-Stress triggers a response by the body’s endocrine system which
releases hormones that influence multiple other biological
systems including the immune system. Psychoneuroimmunology
is the study of the links among behaviour, stress, disease and the
immune system.
1. Emotion-focused.
2. Problem-focused coping.
3.Appraisal coping
EMOTION-FOCUSED COPING
Addressing the feelings or emotions associated with the stressor. Some may use drugs /substance to
dull the negative emotions , e g by releasing , distracting or managing their mental states .Some
types of emotion-focused coping include:
-Emotional discharge/venting
-Efforts to maintain hope
-Self-blame,
-Blaming others,
-Avoiding or denial of issues,
-Wishful thinking,
-Resigned acceptance etc,
Have been linked to: Depression, anxiety, etc.
2) problem-focused (engaged coping) techniques/strategies.
-deal with the cause of the problem or the stressor directly.
-try to change or eliminate the source of the stress by researching the problem.
-learning the skills to solve it.
•Talking to others.
•Seeking information.
•Seeking support
•Learning to provide own medical care
•Setting goals for successful management
Maladaptive
-destructive
.-unhelpful
.-worsens preexisting problems
.-harmful
Coping – Is a process. It involves appraisal, then trying to apply a strategy, followed by
an evaluation of the benefit this brings.
• Stress management can improve the chances
of survival following life threatening diseases
e.g. cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS.
Combination of treatments helps people to resist diseases.
Stress Inoculation.
- Use of positive coping statements to control fear and anxiety.
Negative Self-Statements.
- Self critical thoughts that increase anxiety and lower
performance.
Coping Statements.
- Reassuring self-enhancing statements that are used to stop
self-critical thinking.
Various psychological and behavioural strategies can actually; -boost immune system functioning.
By doing so, they help promote and restore health. E.g. stress management reduced severity of cold and flu in university students.
-increase positive emotions
-increase energy, performance and productivity
-lessen depression
-elevate mood, producing calmer mood.
-better sleep
-reduces stress-related health problems.
-induce relaxation.
-improves quality of life.
-prevent both physical and psychological morbidities and mortalities!
# Stressful circumstances are rendered considerably less stressful when a person successfully copes well with them.
Coping is one of the medications in stress and stress-related illnesses.
Certain medications may also help in reducing stress caused by specific disorders
‘Psychic’ = Mind
‘Soma’ = Body.
Mind – Body connection.
Self-Healing Personality.
•Characterized by effective coping with illness.
•Self-healing individuals are:
–Energetic.
–Responsive to others.
–Positive about life.
–Q;What are the public health implications of stress?
DEEP BREATHING
Learning to breath deeply;
-calms nerves and clears the head.
- comes handy whenever the individual feels upset or
stretched to the limit.
-inhale deeply, filling your lungs with much air.
-imagine there is an imaginary sack in your stomach that must
be filled to the capacity as you inhale.
-hold for a count of 8.
-repeat the cycle 5 times.
-this process can be applied anywhere and as many as 4-5
times daily.
Thank you