Stress
Definition
Stress
is defined as an organism's total response to environmental demands or
pressures. When stress was first studied in the 1950s, the term was used
to denote both the causes and the experienced effects of these
pressures. More recently, however, the word stressor has been used for
the stimulus that provokes a stress response. One recurrent disagreement
among researchers concerns the definition of stress in humans. Is it
primarily an external response that can be measured by changes in
glandular secretions, skin reactions, and other physical functions, or
is it an internal interpretation of, or reaction to, a stressor; or is
it both?
Description
Stress in humans
results from interactions between persons and their environment that are
perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive capacities and
threatening their well-being. The element of perception indicates that
human stress responses reflect differences in personality, as well as
differences in physical strength or general health.
Risk
factors for stress-related illnesses are a mix of personal,
interpersonal, and social variables. These factors include lack or loss
of control over one's physical environment, and lack or loss of social
support networks. People who are dependent on others (e.g., children or
the elderly) or who are socially disadvantaged (because of race, gender,
educational level, or similar factors) are at greater risk of
developing stress-related illnesses. Other risk factors include feelings
of helplessness, hopelessness, extreme fear or anger, and cynicism or
distrust of others.
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Well, this puts just about everyone in the world at risk. Pretty scary. But, really. I have been in the situation wherein I have gotten a bad cold or a flu. No matter that I was teaching school and 1/2 the class of darlings had horrible, snotty noses, hacking coughs and were in school because no one would baby sit a sick kid and Mom had to work, inevitably some helpful person ( a few words from no longer being my friend) would tell me I was sick because I couldn't handle stress. After I suppressed thoughts of skinning them alive, I would feel stress as my anger rose. OK, now I was stressed because of latent homicidal tendencies.
Now were these people who were hitting me while I was down radiantly healthy, happy, high achievers? Invariably not. But they did often go to every doctor and alternative healer to learn their bit of wisdom that stress can lead to illness. I am overshooting myself here to make a point.You would have to be a genius not to know that stress makes things worse and weakens you.It is physics long ahead of psychology or medicine. Picture it. Take a very strong piece of glass and drop a huge granite rock on it from a certain height. My guess is that the stress of the rock hitting the glass will shatter it. Or, take a weak little leaf on a pond and drop little rain drops of water on it and if enough land on the little leaf, boom, it sinks.
But what I was trying to get to yesterday, among other things, is what if our perception changes? What if the little leaf knows that one day it will sink? No worries. What if catching the cold I spoke of earlier was the best thing that ever happened? That sort of happened to me. When I was in bed with the flu once and my house was empty and the fever was raging, I looked around my room. (no choice). By the time the fever broke, I had decided to get rid of everything that I hadn't used in a few years, everything that was broken, everything that was stupid (the end of the railing on the deck that everyone got caught on) and so on. This in turn led me to many dramatic changes for the better in my life.
So, the point is, it is not nice, in my opinion, to guilt a sick person by telling them that on top of being sick, they have failed to handle their stress well, and, moreover, we really have no idea what the real purpose is when we get an illness. Maybe it is a gift from our 'stress'. I don't know. What do you think?
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