Stress and its impact on the psychological health of a person

People constantly talk about stress, but no one will take the trouble to understand what it is, lamented many years ago by the Canadian physiologist Hans Selye. Nobel laureate rendered a great service to mankind, having created a half century ago the doctrine of this mysterious phenomenon.

According to Selye, stress is nothing more than "a nonspecific response of the body to any demand presented to it." Stress and its impact on the psychological health of a person is justified by many means, let's see what exactly.

Chemistry and Physics

The first date and an unpleasant conversation with the boss - the same thing, if we only talk about the stress-component of these events. In trauma and during sex, in grief and in joy, in wealth and poverty from the physiological point of view the same thing is happening. The brain gives the command: "Attention, readiness is the number one!" First, the nervous system responds: it sends a signal to the adrenal glands that begin to actively throw out stress hormones - adrenaline and cortisol. First, run away, and then be afraid, says the body in response to stress. This unconditioned reflex we inherited from our ancestors - that's who had to run every day, escaping from the furious mammoth, then from the saber-toothed tiger. Until now, with any, even minimal, danger, the body automatically turns on the "run or run" regime, designed to help the master save or win in the fight. The vessels narrow, the pressure rises, and the heart beats more often - as if about to burst out of the chest. Blood pours from the face and flows to the muscles - from nowhere appear forces and abilities that you did not expect from yourself. Stress mobilizes, instantly helping to separate the grain from the chaff, most importantly from the secondary. He gives an opportunity to survive without thinking. Fear is luxury.

Leaves, constant stress keeps in a tonus, after all, having become unstuck and has become ill, from vital frustrations you will not get out. A survey conducted by Kelly Services confirmed the correctness of sociologists: it turned out that the inhabitants of the most prosperous countries in the world - Switzerland, Sweden and Norway - feel constant stress of stress and do not tolerate it. And the Russians, accustomed to nervous overload, practically do not notice it. As soon as the essence of stress became clear, scientists around the world enthusiastically began to study it. For example, domestic demographers found: most of the long-livers among the generation of grandparents - people with a difficult fate, full of unrest and deprivation. Israeli scientists have studied the gender peculiarities of stress tolerance. They persuaded 97 students of the University of Jerusalem to participate in the stress-interview. First, each candidate was given five minutes to present himself in a favorable light in the face of the three judges and the eye of the television camera. In the second part of the experiment, the subjects were forced to count from 1687 in the reverse order, in the event of an error, starting all over again. Analyzes of the saliva test subjects showed that in men the level of cortisol (and hence stress) was much higher. Danish scientists even strengthen our immunity, reducing, in particular, the risk of developing breast cancer. The results of the study of Professor Stuart Brody from the University of Western Scotland were completely unexpected. It turned out that having sex with a condom can lead to stress. And unprotected sex, on the contrary, raises the mood and relaxes. The scientist bases his conclusions on the fact that according to the plan of nature we enjoy only from sex, which can lead to the continuation of the genus.

Stress management

Hans Selye did not see anything terrible in difficult life situations, he believed that it was in them that they contained the aroma and taste of life. "Do not be afraid of stress. It does not happen only with the dead. However, a natural question arises. If stress is useful, why are people so afraid of it and suffer from its consequences? When we feel that the expectations of society (or our own requirements) are too great and simply can not match, we become nervous, quickly get tired and, eventually, get sick. Selye proved that adaptation to environmental changes invariably goes through three stages. "The phase of anxiety and mobilization (the body activates all the resources that have been dozing for the time being) helps us to be more careful if, for example, we sneak through the dark forest at night. An acute reaction to stress is often manifested by sleep disorders. Not necessarily insomnia: it happens that a person stays up late, desperately bites his nose, but for some reason does not go to sleep - he has "absolutely urgent" cases. Women begin to iron, sew, dismantle in closets, knowing full well that all this can be done tomorrow. Often it is in such situations that people sit down in front of the TV and watch, for example, a film that has long been watched and knows its content well. If in this state a person still manages to fall asleep, he wakes up every couple of hours - often from nightmares. Psychologists advise you to get rid of annoying evening thoughts with the help of simple exercise. Imagine that under your bed is a large box or wooden trunk. Stress must be managed, "the scientist said. Difficulties can dislodge a person from the rut, but unlike an animal, we are free to choose to drown in a sea of ​​stressful reactions or to extract the necessary "nutrients" from the experience and to take from the psyche something that does not benefit us. Slowly open its lid and fold it in turn all that you are tormented by: the excitement of tomorrow's business negotiations, the fear of forgetting about an important meeting, a timely report, unpaid bills. When you wake up the next morning, you can open the lid and get your worries - if you want, of course. Some people struggle with stress all their lives. But the catch is already in the formulation itself. Alas, the stressors of the first category - prices, taxes, initiatives of the authorities, the weather, habits and characters of other people - are almost beyond our control. Of course, you can be nervous and curse about the power outage or the inept driver who created the traffic jam at the crossroads, but, in addition to raising blood pressure and concentration of adrenaline in the blood, you will not achieve anything. It is much more effective to simply accept the situation and relax - with the help of methods of muscle relaxation, meditation, breathing exercises or the principles of rational thinking (finding positive moments.) "Fighting" with stress means acting against your body and its natural defensive reaction. Fight with your body is not necessary - it should be friends and cooperate, and then he will thank you with gratitude. Professor of Psychotherapy Yuri Shcherbatykh proposes an entire system to overcome stress. In his opinion, it is first necessary to determine what kind of stimulus is involved.

In a situation of tension that seems unbearable to us, we want to make a jerk, maximally strain, so that the troubles will end sooner. The result - a new round of stress and getting into a closed cool. This is the main error. It is necessary not to strain, but relax and, if possible, have fun. Stressors of the third type are phenomena that we ourselves turn into a problem (after all, stress is not an event, but our reaction to it). For example, concern for the future (from the obsessive thought "Have I turned off the iron?" To the fear of death) and experiences because of the past that can not be changed. A key role here is played not by fact, but by an internal setting. Do you remember Chekhov's story "The Death of an Official" in which a "little man" who accidentally sneezed at the general's baldness died of fear? If it seems to you that your life is nowhere worse and literally makes you nervous and leads to stress, then ... maybe it only seems to you? The role of stimuli is claimed by a mass of events. But will the stress factor be its cause - depends only on your choice. The second category includes stressors, to which we not only can, but also should influence. These are our mistakes, inability to set goals and determine priorities, inability to manage time. If such a situation repeats over and over again, then there will be only one advice - to collect the will into a fist and start planning. For the sake of experiment, you can try to do non-urgent work much earlier and see how much it will be more convenient and pleasant. And to motivate your mind, take it as a game. And what if this is better? Offer yourself a reward: "I have to do this work in the next two days, then after its completion I'll buy myself, I will allow myself, I will do for myself ... something desirable." So, we discussed the stressors of the first and second groups (circumstances that we can not / can and should influence).