3. What is anxiety?
It is a mechanism of adaptation that has the body, and that helps to address the demands of life. Its first purpose is the prepare the body for action. Therefore, a priori does not to be harmful to the health of the individual.
But if this state of anxiety is continuous and intense, it can become harmful. And for this reason it is important to learn how to control the anxiety.
Anxiety, of itself, tends to produce a feeling of insecurity, which affects five levels:
1. in the form of physical symptoms: palpitations, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, nervous tics, tremor of the hands or feet.
2. in the form of psychic symptoms: insecurity, anxiety and restlessness.
3. as alterations in our behavior: we can emotionally lock or put us on alert, for example.
4. in the form of cognitive disorders: can be worrying, more or less illogical thoughts in memory or concentration disorders.
5. at the time of performing our social function: you can lock us in carrying out the task that we tend to play regularly, or difficult the fact of starting a conversation or express our opinions, which the person tends to go unnoticed.
And all of this has consequences:
1. the feeling, of the person, to lose control.
2. the individual may suffer a blockage in carrying out their strategies to tackle the problems. This can degenerate into the appearance of symptoms of depressive type, feeling of distrust in the environment and its capabilities, which do that you renounce try to control situations that, on the other hand, have always been able to control.
3. the individuals in question can be addressed to that which gave them anxiety in two different ways:
-Through the so-called mechanism of perceptual defence: or avoid thinking about the threat (burying the head).
-Disclaimer: Do see, and believe, in fact, that there is no such threat.
4 psychological level, individuals, before the chaos generated in their world with the emergence of anxiety, attempt to reconstruct increasingly more carefully his world, which still generates more anxiety.
5. emotions, when we are under stress, also can be overstated. It perceives a distorted view of the facts; anything that involves an enormous degree of subjectivity in the behavior.
6. in all this framework, and as a result of it, it is easy to understand that a significant lower self-esteem, and develops intense fear of failure.
Posted by A primary care physician in 14:51 1 comment:
Tags: 3. What is anxiety?
2. What is stress?
It could be defined stress as that State in which we fall after taking an accelerated life, with multiple concerns (like today), and that induce, in the person who is suffering, a series of symptoms: increased heart rate, tension in muscle areas, increased perspiration, dryness of mouth, or tremors.
In fact, stress is synonymous with change; regardless of whether the change is for better or for worse: A wedding, a birth, the loss of employment... are agents that cause stress.
Thus, another possible definition of stress could be the following: preparing for a possible change, which creates physical and mental stress felt by an individual under pressure inside your body, and that triggers a system whose mission is to alert you to the presence of this situation, and prepares you for the danger or deal with change. It is, therefore, a natural reaction of the body.
Among the symptoms that triggers this reaction, we find:
-An increase of heart rate.
-An increase of the tension of muscles and sweat perspiration.
-Dry mouth.
-A reduction in the need for eating.
-Tremor in the hands
Each individual has determined genetically their ability to withstand stress. Call this determination temperament. This is very influenced by what we have learned in similar situations previously (this is called character). Therefore, the answer that the person will face a stress is directly proportional to the intensity of the stimulus that generated it, and own perception that the person has stressful said. Therefore we can deduce that the situations affect the person to a greater or lesser extent depending on the timing, and the emotional state residing in that section of his life the subject.
People have filters associated with each particular form, allowing them to exclude or amplify the received stimuli. These filters are related to the nature, sensitivity, the ability to deal with events related to lessons learned in the past and with the defense mechanisms.
Stress can not be eliminated from our lives. We can consider it as a positive if we can handle it properly. If stress causes anxiety that can be maintained at tolerable levels, it is a positive factor, which leads us to make things right. But if each event, however small, that is, makes us anxious, this stress becomes negative and harmful for us.
A little history about the concept of 'Stress'
In 1929, Canon described it as a reaction of fight or flight to threatening situations.
Years later, in 1974, Selye raised two different concepts:
-Stress: as normal conduct of coping, with which we live.
- And distress, which is defined as a system of dysfunctional, abnormal or pathological behavior (coping behaviors).
The same Selye coined the term "General adaptation syndrome", which takes place in three phases:
1. alarm response: is characterized by psychological disturbances and a decrease in the body's General defenses. A State of excess activity, instability of the levels of glucose in blood, heart excitation, increased muscle tone, and various digestive disorders is.
2 stage: resistance: the warning signs disappear, and are strengthened defenses to a higher than normal level. The duration of this phase depends on the intensity of the stimulus stressor. They also enhance the risk factors such as smoking, alcohol abuse, and a dream little repair. We can fight this phase through a balanced diet, exercise and relaxation techniques.
3 stage of exhaustion: General defenses again to reduce to minimum levels. Adaptation strategies fail, and signs of reaction begins to become irreversible. If the stressor persists, they can appear psychological symptoms, or develop various pathologies.
In 1968 Mason introduces a reassessment: there is stress, the stressor must be unpublished, and so that it produces an answer, it must have been previously evaluated cognitively by the individual. Does not affect both the stressor itself as cognitivo-simbolica assessment made by the subject of this threatening situation.
Bohus, in 1994, says that in the stress influence, a decisive, feature and duration of stimulation stressor and coping strategies according to the own of the threatened individual biological systems.
Currently, we have the contributions of cognitive theory, which proposes that there are 4 possible responses to stress:
1 fight (fight)
2 flight (flight)
3 fainting (faint)
4 paralysis (freeze)
Effects of stress on the body
Psychological stress leads to a series of reactions, including:
-Decrease of our immune defenses, causing allergies, infections and autoimmune diseases.
-Increases the risk of heart and circulatory disorders.
-Diabetes and hypertension
-Asthma
-Ulcers
-Cancer
There is a group of psychosomatic disorders that occur due to stress, and affecting the autonomic nervous system. Thus, digestive symptoms are frequent: anorexia nervosa, peptic ulcers, inflammatory diseases of the colon, bowel, ulcerative colitis... and the breathing, such as asthma, for example. The skin may also affect, to a greater or lesser extent.
What do we mean by stressor?
They are those items or circumstances that cause us stress. There are different types:
1. physical or environmental: pollution, excessive noise, disorder...
2 social or vital event: the death of a close relative, separation or divorce, economic bankruptcy, the birth of a child... (See Social adjustment of Holmes and Rahe scale)
3-psychological: memories of an event, emotional conflicts, threats, emotions, thoughts, a cognitive misinterpretation of some situation, violence...
PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESS SCALE
(Holmes and Rahe)
1 death of spouse 100
2 separation or divorce 70
3. judicial process or serious legal problems and can end in imprisonment 68
4 death of a close family member 65
5. disease or accident requiring save bed 55
6 marriage 50
7. staying unemployed 47
8 removal work 45
9 reconciliation with 45 spouse
10 illness of a member of the family or marked improvement of a chronic illness in a member of the family of 44
11. break from dating or similar relationship 42
12 pregnancy 40
13. addition of a new Member to the family 39
14 death of a friend 38
15. sudden change in family finances (more or less) 38
16 reset in the company or labor disputes at the company in which works 38
17 change in the type of work activity 38
18 loan or mortgage of more than six thousand euro 38
19. the wife gets pregnant 35
20. radical change (more or less) in the number of disputes family 35
21 fall in love or start a new intimate and deep friendship 34
22. the husband or the wife loses her job 33
23 32 moving
24 change of place of work 31
25 accident or physical violence 30
26. a member of the family no longer live in the family house 30
27. the wife begins to stop working outside the home 29
28 fights or disagreements with neighbors or relatives non-resident in the family home (or disappearance of a State's customary conflict) 28
29 28 major personal success
30 tests 27
31 promotion at work 27
32 fights or disagreements with colleagues and colleagues (or disappearance of a State's customary conflict) 26
33 in the House (major reforms) 25
34. notable deterioration of housing or the neighborhood 25
35. change in personal habits (of exit, dress, style of life, etc.) 24
36. important change in hours or conditions of work 23
37 change in religious views 22
38. change in political views 22
39 changes in social life (more or less) apart from possible changes in customs or personal habits 20
40 changes in fashion or duration of the dream 18
41. change in frequency of family reunions 17
42 change in eating habits or appetite 16
43 vacation away from home 15
44 Parties of Christmas and Epiphany, or the equivalent of 13
45. minor (including penalties of traffic) legal problems 11
Types of stress:
As we saw that it defined Selye, the stress can be classified as:
1 distress or negative stress: when, before a number demands increased perception of demands that pose us some difficulty or threat, the Agency does not give time to recover, and suffers from heavy wear. Examples of this situation would be: be overloaded at work, activities in which they do not possess enough knowledge, beneficiary of a promotion at work, but for a position not according to our capabilities or preferences, have significant debts and not having enough money to pay for them...
2 Eustress or positive stress: would that mechanism which is activated automatically with a problem clearly perceived and interpreted as such. Once the problem has been resolved, the body returns to its normal functioning, recovering the balance.
Depending on the nature of the stressor, we can speak of:
1 sociological stress: one that occurs in a situation of social crisis.
2. work-related stress: indicate here that not all people react in the same way against the conditions and contingencies of the work.
3. physiological stress: occurs for the assault to the body by physical causes.
4 stress caused by environmental changes
5. psychological stress: induce emotional responses, anguish, anxiety, irritability, negative mood.
Is there any difference between stress and fear?
Basically, that the first prepares the body for action, allows us to think quickly and act with greater strength and power; and the second, usually, paralyzes.
What are the typical symptoms of stress?
Physicists, include: palpitations, feeling of breathlessness, hyperventilation, dryness of mouth, apnea, nausea, digestive ailments, diarrhea, constipation, stress and muscle pain, cramps, restlessness, hyperactivity, tremor in the hands, fatigue, dizziness, sleep difficulties, headaches head, sweating, hot flashes, hands and cold feet, increased or decreased appetite, increased ingestion of substances (alcohol, tobacco), decreased sexual desire...
And psychic symptoms, we can find: anxiety, concern, despair, introversion, depression, impatience, irritation, hostility, aggression, frustration, boredom, insecurity, feeling of guilt, lack of interest in appearance, health or sex, inability to complete a task before starting another, difficulty thinking clearly, focus and/or take decisions, failures of memory, forgetfulness, lack of creativity, decrease in attention , inflexibility, hypercritical, irrational behavior, loss of productivity efficiency...
Posted by A primary care physician in 14:47 No comments:
Tags: 2 what is stress?
- Blogger Comment
- Facebook Comment
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
0 comentarios:
Post a Comment