Stress and Health

What Is Stress?

Stimulus or Response? Or interaction? Stressor — events, pressures, or

situations that place demands & trigger coping adjustments

Stress reaction – How one responds to stress

Stress as process – interaction between event, perception, and reaction

Stressors and reactions

Four groups discussionA. Discuss your stressorsB. How do you know when you

are stressed? What are your “symptoms?”

Sources of Stress

Types of Stressors 1. Common hassles

School demands Noise – residents near airports have

higher BP & stressRelationship issues Sleep deprivation Job stress Etc…

Sources of Stress

Stressors (continued) 2. Major life events (e.g., ending a

relationship, moves, serious illness) 3. Catastrophes (9/11, Katrina, etc.)

•Increased incidence of stress-related ailments

•Rates of depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders increase

How does a potential stressor

lead to stress?

Perceiving Stress

Many situations are not inherently stressful… depends on interpretation:

•Primary appraisal — Is this stressful?•Secondary appraisal — Can I handle it?

(e.g., can I control it or cope with it?)

Cognitive appraisals are extremely susceptible to one’s current state of mood, health, motivation

“I have had a great many troubles in my life…

And most never happened…”

Mark Twain

Perception and stress

We’ll come back to this in discussion of coping

Reactions to Stress

EmotionalBehavioralCognitive

Physiological

Pulse Demo

15 Seconds

What happened?

Physiologically

Psychologically

The Physiology of Stress

Walter Cannon (1929)

Fight-or-flight reaction Outpouring of substances that prepare an

organism to defend against a threat Adaptive for our ancestors (but contributes

to stress-related illnesses in modern times)

Stress Pathways

epinephrine (adrenalin) and norepinephrine – which increase HR, BP, & RR

HPA Axis

Measuring stress: “Overload in Working Mothers”

BCBS workersMeasures:

Urine samples (to look for metabolites of stress hormones)

Daily mood scaleResults: feel stressed (esp w/ children at

home) High stress (low perceived control + high

demand) increased urinary neurohormones

Stress and impact on health

•Impact on psychological and physical health

•PTSD and other mental health effects

•Increases risk for physical illness

•How?

Stress and Illness

Unhealthy behaviors(smoking, drinking,

poor nutrition and sleep)

Persistent stressorsand negative

emotions

Release of stresshormones

Heartdisease

Immunesuppression

Autonomic nervoussystem effects

(headaches,hypertension)