Stress Management
Care Management 101 says:
Stress is a condition wherein a person responds to changes in the normal balanced state. It is caused by a stressor, and our body has a coping mechanism to respond and adapt to it.
Stress has four types of stressors: internal (comes from within the person; e.g. cancer), external (reason came from other people; e.g. death of a loved one), developmental (predictable as it is being encountered by a person as he grows older; e.g. a child going to school), and situational (unpredictable; e.g. accidents). We are affected by these stressors physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
Stress goes like this, Physiologically speaking:
Stress is a sympathetic activity. It starts when the body percieved the stressor and sends a stimulus to the hypothalamus to make the body adapt to it. The hypothalamus will secrete a hormone called Corticotropic Releasing Factor that will go straight to the Anterior Pituitary Gland.
The Anterior Pituitary Gland's role is to send signals to the other parts of the body to either increase or decrease their output depending on the situation; in a person undergoing stress, it will secrete Adrenocorticotropin, a hormone controlling the hormones secreted by the adrenal glands. It will stimulate the release of four other hormones:
- Epinephrine - required for "fight-or-flight" situations; a.k.a. adrenaline
- Norepinephrine - decreases blood flow to kidneys. It will stimuate the release of renin, an hormone required for the synthesis of angiotensin, which helps increase blood pressure.
- Aldosterone - an hormone responsible in increasing sodium retention and decreasing urine output. Decrease in urine output causes an increase in oxygen, thus hypoventilation is avoided.
- Cortisol - needed for Gluconeogenesis (a process of converting amino acids to glucose; glucose is needed for increase in energy)
Our body responds to stress through these hormones by:
- pupil dilation
- excessive sweating
- increased heart rate and cardiac output
- paling of the skin
- increased sodium and water retention
- increased respiratory rate
- decreased urinary output
- dryness of the mouth
- decreased gatrointestinal motility
- increased mental awareness
- hyperglycemia
Psychologic Indicators include the following:
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Anger
- Depression
- Defense Mechanisms
A person has different coping mechanisms. One person may manifest a mild anxiety when he's lost, or may experience panic under extreme conditions. Our body makes the difference. Our vulnerability to stressors may respond well or the other way around. Our inability to cope up with stress will resort to serious illnesses.
Now I know. You should know as well. I'm not supposed to have anxiety to the level that it's already severe. I'm to avoid stress as much as possible. I have very poor coping mechanism to stress, that's why I...
