Emotional stressors. Psychological manifestations of the stress response

PostScience debunks scientific myths and explains common misconceptions. We asked our experts to comment on popular myths about the factors causing stress and counteracting it.

A person's response to stress is determined by their genes.

This is partly true.

Genetics contribute to how a person responds to stress, but they do not completely determine that response. The reaction to stress also depends on what exactly caused this stress (the reaction to terrorist attacks is stronger than to those that occurred without malice disasters comparable in scale), on the duration of exposure (acute or chronic stress), on the acquired ability to cope with stress. The genetic component can be divided into two parts. One, the actual genetic one, is determined by the characteristics of the genes received from the parents that control the functioning of the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. Carriers of certain gene variants react more strongly to stress or return to normal more slowly after a reaction and, as a result, have more chances develop stress-related disorders. For some of these genes, the influence of upbringing conditions was shown. People who had happy childhoods and those who grew up in unfavorable conditions may express the same gene variants differently.

The second component is determined by life history, especially stress experienced in childhood. Mammals have special systems that adjust the intensity of gene activity to specific environmental conditions. As a result of the operation of these systems, special chemical marks (methyl groups) appear in the DNA sections that regulate the switching on and off of genes, which affect how active the gene will be. Experiments on mice and rats have shown that stress experienced in childhood changes the functioning of stress response genes throughout life. Similar data were obtained for humans, but not as a result of experiments, but by studying the DNA of children who grew up in favorable and unfavorable conditions. What’s interesting is that if the mother rat took good care of the stressed pups (carefully combed and licked them), then the number of methyl marks on their DNA returned to normal, and when they grew up, their reaction to stress did not differ from the reaction of the pups that grew up in “ prosperous families.

Changes in gene function as a result of lifetime chemical modification of individual sections of DNA or other influences are studied by a branch of science called epigenetics. Epigenetic processes are what connect the reaction of the genetic apparatus to environmental influences, including the response of genes to maternal love, neglect and other conditions of upbringing. And these conditions, in turn, although not completely determining, make a significant contribution to how a person will react to stress. Therefore, even when we talk about culture and upbringing, phenomena that are far from genetics, we cannot completely discount genes. It is the work of genes that allows us to record in the form of neural connections what life and parents teach children.

Svetlana Borinskaya, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Genome Analysis, Institute of General Genetics named after. N. I. Vavilova RAS

Stress is caused only by negative emotions

It is not true.

Stress is a reaction of the body, which indicates that the body is leaving a state of homeostasis, that is, equilibrium.

But getting out of the state of balance is necessary for life, for a person to develop. Therefore, being in love or performing in front of a large audience can be stressful, that is, things that are quite comparable to a good life. Thus, stress is necessary for life, and it is, in principle, associated with any situations in which we worry.

As for negative emotions, for this case there is the concept of “distress”, the so-called bad stress when the experienced negative emotional states are either very intense or chronic. It differs from ordinary stress in that a person finds himself in an external situation that constantly throws him off balance, and experiences negative emotions constantly, and not from time to time. For example, is being bullied at work, or has constant conflicts in a family with his wife, or he doesn’t like his job and every day he has to force himself to leave the house for a long time in the morning. Distress can also occur due to high-intensity stress, that is, when negative emotions are too strong. For example, if you lose loved one, or when something very frightening happens, or when a person faces a serious threat. Distress can have a really bad effect on mental and physical health, and such stress necessarily requires some kind of intervention, a request for help, and so on.

Maria Padun, candidate of psychological sciences, senior researcher at the laboratory of psychology of post-traumatic stress at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, practicing psychologist, psychotherapist

Food helps relieve stress

This is true.

We need to start with the fact that stress is not always negative emotions, but it can also be caused by positive emotions. From the point of view of the body and work internal organs Euphoria is also stress. Therefore, you can, unfortunately, die of joy. This myth concerns the stress that appears against the background of negative emotions. If a person has such stress, anything that evokes positive emotions can help him. And food is the most reliable source of positivity. A piece of meat or chocolate will never fool you. You may not like the concert, you may have a fight with your best friend, but a piece of good food at the right moment guarantees positive emotions.

At the level of nerve cells, food promotes the release of mediators positive emotions. As soon as pleasant taste sensations appear in the mouth and something begins to fall into the stomach, endorphins and dopamine begin to be secreted in the brain. As a result, a positive emotional state arises that blocks negative experiences. This mechanism works according to innately given principles, since food is a source of energy and building materials, without which we cannot exist. Therefore, evolutionary processes have formed a brain configuration that ensures the process of nutrition, forcing us to eat every day through hunger. Moreover, a newborn eats due to innate reflexes, but later very quickly learns to find food, and learning occurs against the background of positive emotions caused by the absorption of food.

There are people who actually overeat due to stress. But, as a rule, if a person controls his behavior, he looks for other sources of positive emotions in order to relieve the stress that negative experiences caused. He can go to an exhibition, play sports or even play a computer game. Eating relieves stress, but you shouldn’t use this route often, otherwise consuming extra calories will put you at risk of stress due to excess weight.

Vyacheslav Dubynin

Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, specialist in the field of brain physiology

For metropolitan residents, daily stress is inevitable

This is partly true.

This statement is only partly true. Stress is a condition that occurs when the human body is exposed to stimuli to which it is difficult for it to adapt. These stimuli can be very different - from loud sounds to conflicts with others. In a big city we encounter such incentives quite often. This environmental conditions environment in which we live (for example, polluted air and loud traffic noise), the large number of people we meet (for example, on crowded public transport or in traffic jam), time limits and heavy physical activity, problems arising in the family and at work. All of this can cause stress.

However, there are three limitations in this case. Firstly, people living not only in large but also in small ones face many stressors. populated areas. These include, for example, working conditions that cause a person to experience severe physical fatigue or a feeling of injustice of what is happening. Secondly, even in big cities, different people find themselves in different conditions: some people get on an old, crowded train in the morning, while others take a comfortable express train; someone is stuck in traffic jams, and someone is driving on an open road; someone comes to work as if it were a holiday, while others dream of leaving it forever, and so on. This means that by choosing our mode of transportation, our life partner, or our job, we can influence our stress levels.

And finally, thirdly, the influence of many stressors depends on our interpretation of what is happening, our attitude towards it. Imagine that two people have to decide difficult task. One person thinks: “Here we go again! I do not know what to do. I won’t be able to solve this problem, and I’ll be fired from my job.” In other words, he perceives it as a heavy burden that can cause serious trouble. Another person thinks differently: “How interesting! I don’t know what to do with it, but I’ll definitely figure it out and achieve success.” He perceives this task as a challenge that he can answer. As a result, the first participant will experience stress more quickly than the second. A simple conclusion follows from this: yes, Big city constantly presents us with stimuli that can cause stress, but we are able to increase or decrease their impact.

Olga Gulevich, Doctor of Psychology, Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics

Stress can't cause real harm to your health

This is not entirely true.

Stress can really mobilize the body's strength and help increase human activity. However certain types stress, especially those caused by intense stressors, can negatively affect human health. For example, there is traumatic stress, which has various harmful psychological consequences. It is believed that traumatic stress is caused by the influence of high-intensity stressors, which are associated with a threat to both the life of the person himself and his loved ones. Traumatic stress disrupts a person's normal functioning. Such stress is dangerous not only with its immediate manifestations, but also with its delayed manifestations. For example, with post-traumatic stress, a certain proportion of people who are more vulnerable to stress may experience consequences such as constant experience this situation both six months after the traumatic event and several years and even decades later.

If we are talking about the impact of such stress on a person’s physical health, then the consequences of stress can be expressed in different ways: normal level wakefulness, problems with sleep arise, somatic reactions appear, such as rapid heartbeat, breathing, etc. With such stress, problems with the gastrointestinal tract may also arise, various skin diseases and other consequences.

Of course, it is incorrect to separate the psychological consequences of stress from the consequences associated with a person’s physical health. The fact of a person’s systemic response to a situation has long been established. Thus, difficulties with regulating emotions can lead to increased time spent awake, difficulty falling asleep, interrupted sleep, and chronic early awakening. If a person does not get enough sleep, if he is constantly in a state of hypervigilance, that is, constantly expecting some kind of trouble, then he cannot recover or rest. And from here various diseases arise, primarily those to which a person is most sensitive.

But it is wrong to think that there is only harmful stress and distress. There is also another level of stress - eustress. Hans Selye wrote about such manifestations of stress. This is a beneficial stress, during which the body’s forces are mobilized and a person becomes toned. And this tone also performs a protective function. Let's say, when a person needs to avoid undesirable factors in some circumstances or when he really needs a certain state of tone in order to solve a real problem.

That is, stress can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on a person’s condition. It is important to note that this is also related to the human condition. The fact is that usually a person experiences various stresses and does not always quickly recover from them. Accumulated, cumulative stress is the result of experiencing many negative events, and therefore for one person a specific stressful event will not have obvious negative consequences, but for another it will be the last straw.

In general, the myth that stress does not harm human health has a right to exist, because by creating such a myth, people thereby try to convince themselves that there are no problems, to protect themselves from the anxiety that arises when thinking about the negative consequences of a stressful situation : a person tends to deny the problem and, as it were, escape from his fears. In fact, this is an illusory salvation. The lack of knowledge that the consequences of stress can be negative does not protect a person from these consequences, but, on the contrary, disarms him in coping with them. After all, as you know, denying a problem does not eliminate it at all, but, paradoxically, makes it even more difficult to solve. The courage to admit to oneself that after one or another difficult event a person’s life and health has changed for the worse opens the way for him to turn to his own resources or to social support, to the help of other people.

Natalya Kharlamenkova, Doctor of Psychology, Head of the Laboratory of Psychology of Post-Traumatic Stress at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Personality Psychology of the State Agrarian University of Humanities

Shabanova Vika

Abstract research work

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MUNICIPAL BUDGETARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION GYMNASIUM No. 1

Stress

Abstract - research work

Performed:

Shabanova Victoria Andreevna,

Student of class 10B

Supervisor:

Khizhnyak Natalya Lvovna,

biology teacher

Khabarovsk

2012

Introduction 3

“Characteristics of stress” 5

1.1. Concept and history of the term 5

1.2. Forms of stress 6

1.3. Stages of stress as a process 7

1.4. Stress Concepts 8

1.5. Phases of stress development 9

1.6. Emotional intensity 11

1.7. Stress hormones 13

1.8. The effect of stress on the human body 14

1.9. What are possible reactions human body

for stress? 15

1.10. What happens in the body during stress 16

2.1. Student survey 17

2. 2. Which people are more stressed? 18

Chapter 3. Ways to relieve stress

3.1. Causes of stress 19

3.2. Techniques that mobilize intellectual

Opportunities for students in preparing for the test

Exams 20

3.3. How to get rid of stress 21

3.4. Medical care for stress 22

Conclusion 23

References 24

Introduction

Relevance.

Every person is exposed to stressful situations, losing their strength and nerves, many of them do not think about the fact that this has a detrimental effect on their body. Many people are exposed to stressful situations, from which you need to be able to find a way out correctly; by fully examining stress, you can most competently deal with the stressful state.

Already great philosopher In ancient times, Socrates said 2,400 years ago: “There is no bodily illness apart from the soul.” These words echo what the famous Russian doctor M.Ya. wrote in the 19th century. Mudrov: “Knowing the mutual effect of the soul and body on each other, I consider it my duty to note that there are also spiritual medicines that heal the body and are drawn from the science of wisdom, more often from psychology.”

Indeed, the human body is a unity of soul and body. And any disease is a problem of a person’s entire personality, consisting not only of the body, but also of the mind, feelings and emotions. That is why one of the founders of domestic oncology, Academician N.N. Petrov, drew the attention of oncologists to the fact that it is important to understand the suffering of the patient as an individual and to treat the patient, not the disease.

Doctors are well aware that the effectiveness of medical treatment largely depends on the patient’s faith in recovery and on trust in the attending physicians. Optimistic attitude to life and a positive inner attitude are sometimes more effective than drugs in promoting recovery.

Negative emotions, usually caused by various psychological stresses, contribute to the development of various diseases. Moreover, in recent decades, the role of psychological and social factors in the origin of diseases Russian citizens has grown sharply. This is especially true for the so-called psychosomatic (from the Greek words psyche - soul, soma - body) diseases, in the development of which, along with biological factors, the so-called psychological stress takes part.

Target – reveal the essence of the concept of stress and find ways to relieve stress in high school students.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

• Study the scientific literature about stress as a physiological phenomenon.
• Make a plan for dealing with stressful situations.

The following were used when working on the research project: methods:

1. collection of information
2. study of popular science literature,
3. interviewing
4. analysis
5. generalization

An object - are teenagers studying at our school.

Item - stress among high school students.

Chapter 1. Review of scientific literature on the topic:

"Characteristics of stress"

1. Concept and history of the term

Stress (from the English stress - pressure, pressure, pressure; oppression; load; tension) is a nonspecific (general) reaction of the body to an impact (physical or psychological) that disrupts its homeostasis, as well as the corresponding state of the nervous system of the body (or the body as a whole ).

Stress is a complex process; it certainly includes both physiological and psychological components. With the help of stress, the body, as it were, mobilizes itself entirely for self-defense, to adapt to a new situation, and activates nonspecific defense mechanisms that provide resistance to the effects of stress or adaptation to it.

“Stress” is a state of severe emotional overstrain associated with mental disorder, with the inability to think soberly and make decisions.

The first definition of stress was given by the Canadian physiologist Hans Selye. According to his definition, stress is anything that leads to rapid aging of the body or causes disease.

The encyclopedic dictionary gives the following interpretation of stress: “A set of protective physiological reactions that occur in the body of animals and humans in response to the influence of various unfavorable factors.”

Walter Cannon first introduced the term "stress" into physiology and psychology in his classic works on universal reaction"fight or flight"

1. Forms of stress

Stress is divided intopositive form and negative form.

Positive form- this is the state of a person who is able to sense the presence of problems around him and be able to solve them; positive stress, opposite stress.

Negative form- stress associated with expressed negative emotions and exerting bad influence to your health.

1. Stages of stress as a process

The famous foreign psychologist Hans Selye, the founder of the Western doctrine of stress and nervous disorders, defined next stages stress as a process:

1) immediate reaction to the impact (alarm stage);

2) the most effective adaptation (resistance stage);

3) disruption of the adaptation process (exhaustion stage).

Stress is an integral part of every person's life and cannot be avoided. The stimulating, creative, formative influence of stress in the complex processes of education and training is also important. But stressful effects should not exceed a person’s adaptive capabilities, since in these cases deterioration of well-being and illnesses – somatic and neurotic – may occur.

1. Stress concepts

The creation of the concept of stress began with the “damage response syndrome as such”, which was called the “triad”, accidentally discovered in an experiment by G. Selye in 1986:

Enlargement and increased activity of the adrenal cortex;

Reduction (shrinkage) of the thymus gland (thymus) and lymph. Glands, pinpoint hemorrhages and bleeding ulcers in the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines.

G. Selye compared these reactions with symptoms characteristic of almost any disease, such as a feeling of malaise, diffuse painful sensations and a feeling of aching joints and muscles, gastrointestinal disorders with loss of appetite and decreased body weight. Combining them into a single system was legitimate only if there was a single mechanism for controlling these reactions and a common overall development process.

G. Selye suggested distinguishing between “superficial” and deep adaptive energy. The first is available “on demand” and can be replenished at the expense of the second – “deep”. The latter is mobilized through adaptive restructuring of the body's hollostatic mechanisms. Its depletion is irreversible, according to Selye, and leads to death or aging and death.

The assumption of the existence of 2 mobilization levels of adaptation is supported by many researchers.

With the continuous action of a stress factor, the manifested “stress triads” change in intensity.

Extreme situations are divided into short-term ones, when response programs are updated, which are always “ready” in a person, and long-term ones, which require an adaptive restructuring of a person’s functional systems, sometimes subjectively extremely unpleasant, and sometimes unfavorable for his health.

Short-term stress is a comprehensive manifestation of the onset of long-term stress.

Under the influence of stressors that cause prolonged stress (and can withstand only relatively light loads for a long time), the onset of stress development is erased, with a certain number interesting manifestations of adaptation processes. Therefore, short-term stress can be viewed as an enhanced model for the onset of long-term stress. And although short-term and long-term stress differ from each other in their conspicuous manifestations, they are nevertheless based on identical mechanisms, but operating in different modes (with different intensities). Short-term stress is the rapid consumption of “superficial” adaptation reserves and, along with this, the beginning of the mobilization of “deep” ones. If the “superficial” reserves are not sufficient to respond to the extreme demands of the environment, and the rate of mobilization of the “deep” reserves is insufficient to compensate for the expended adaptive reserves, then the individual may die with completely unspent “deep” adaptive reserves.

Long-term stress is a gradual mobilization and consumption of both “superficial” and “deep” adaptation reserves. Its course may be hidden, i.e. reflected in changes in adaptation indicators, which can only be recorded special methods. Maximum tolerated long-term stressors cause severe stress symptoms. Adaptation to such factors can be provided that the human body manages to mobilize deep adaptive reserves to “adapt” to the level of long-term extreme environmental demands. The symptoms of prolonged stress resemble the initial general symptoms of somatic, and sometimes severe, painful conditions. Such stress can turn into illness. The cause of long-term stress can be repeated extreme factors. In this situation, the processes of adaptation and readaptation are alternately “turned off.” Their manifestations may seem fused. In order to diagnose and predict the course of stressful conditions, it is proposed to consider how independent group conditions caused by long-term intermittent stressors.

Currently, the first stage of stress development has been well studied - the stage of mobilization of adaptation reserves (“anxiety”), during which the formation of a new “functional system” of the body, adequate to the new extreme demands of the environment, basically ends.

During a long stay in extreme conditions a complex picture of changes in the physiological, human and socially human characteristics of a person emerges. The variety of manifestations of long-term stress, as well as the difficulties of organizing experiments with multi-day, multi-month, etc. human being in extreme conditions are the main reasons for its insufficient knowledge. A systematic experimental study of long-term stress was started in connection with the preparation of long-term space flights. Research was initially conducted to determine the limits of human tolerance for certain unfavorable conditions. The experimenters' attention was drawn to physiological and psychophysiological indicators. Social research has become an important area of ​​study of long-term stress.

1. Phases of stress development (stress subsyndromes).

Psychological and psychophysiological studies of stress under experimental factors of different nature and different durations have made it possible to identify a number of forms of adaptive activity, i.e. forms of “general adaptation syndrome”, which can be considered as stress subsyndromes. With a long course of stress, its subsyndromes can alternate, repeat, or combine with each other with alternating dominance of individual symptoms. In conditions where a person is exposed to extremely tolerable stress factors for a long time, these subsyndromes, one after another, in a certain order, i.e. become phases of stress development. The differentiation of these subsyndromes was possible due to the fact that during the development of stress under the specified conditions, they alternately became manifest (mostly pronounced and noticeable for both researchers and subjects) different shapes adaptive activity. It can be noted that with stress factors assessed subjectively as maximally tolerable, the change in manifested subsyndromes of stress indicated a consistent transition from the dominance of a subsyndrome, which marks a relatively low functional level of adaptation, to a subsyndrome, the symptoms of which are evidence of the mobilization of a hierarchically higher level of adaptation.

So, 4 stress subsyndromes have been identified:

1. Emotional-behavioral syndrome.

2.Vegetative syndrome (subsyndrome of preventive-protective vegetative activity).

3.Cognitive subsyndrome (subsyndrome of changes in mental activity under stress).

4. Socio-human subsyndrome (subsyndrome of changes in communication under stress).

It should be said about the conventions of such a division of stress subsyndromes. It may be different. In this case, predominantly human bases were chosen for analyzing the manifestations of stress that arise at a relatively constant level of subjective extremity of the stressor.

1. Emotional tension

One of the stress factors is emotional tension, which is physiologically expressed in changes in the human endocrine system. For example, when experimental studies In clinics for patients, it was found that people who are constantly under nervous tension suffer more severely from viral infections. In such cases, the help of a qualified psychologist is necessary.

Main features mental stress:

1) stress is a state of the body, its occurrence involves interaction between the body and the environment;

2) stress is a more intense state than the usual motivational one; it requires the perception of threat to occur;

3) stress phenomena occur when the normal adaptive reaction is insufficient.

Since stress arose mainly from the perception of a threat, its occurrence in a certain situation can arise for subjective reasons related to the characteristics of a given individual.

In general, since individuals are not alike, a lot depends on the personality factor. For example, in the “person-environment” system, the level of emotional tension increases as the differences between the conditions in which the subject’s mechanisms are formed and the newly created ones increase. Thus, certain conditions cause emotional stress not because of their absolute rigidity, but as a result of the inconsistency of the individual’s emotional mechanism with these conditions.

With any imbalance in the “person-environment” balance, the insufficiency of the individual’s mental or physical resources to meet current needs or the mismatch of the system of needs itself is a source of anxiety. Anxiety, referred to as

Feeling of vague threat;

A feeling of diffuse apprehension and anxious anticipation;

Uncertain anxiety

represents the most powerful mechanism of mental stress. This follows from the already mentioned feeling of threat, which represents the central element of anxiety and causes it biological significance as a signal of trouble and danger.

Anxiety can play a protective and motivational role comparable to the role of pain. An increase in behavioral activity, a change in the nature of behavior, or the activation of intrapsychic adaptation mechanisms are associated with the occurrence of anxiety. But anxiety can not only stimulate activity, but also contribute to the destruction of insufficiently adaptive behavioral stereotypes and their replacement with more adequate forms of behavior.

Unlike pain, anxiety is a signal of danger that has not yet been realized. Prediction of this situation is probabilistic in nature, and ultimately depends on the characteristics of the individual. Wherein personal factor often plays a decisive role, and in this case the intensity of anxiety reflects the individual characteristics of the subject rather than the real significance of the threat.

Anxiety, by intensity and duration inadequate to the situation, interferes with the formation of adaptive behavior, leads to disruption of behavioral integration and general disorganization of the human psyche. Thus, anxiety underlies any changes in mental state and behavior caused by mental stress.

1. Stress hormones

Under stress, the level of activity of the body's functional systems changes - cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, digestive, genitourinary... An important role in maintaining this new status is played by hormones, the release of which is under the control of the hypothalamus. The most active endocrine gland under stress is the adrenal gland.

Hormones released by the adrenal glands during stress:

Hormones of the adrenal medulla are catecholamines.

Catecholamines are biologically active substances, these include

• Adrenalin . A hormone whose secretion increases sharply during stressful conditions, borderline situations, a sense of danger, with anxiety, fear, with injuries, burns and shock. The effect of adrenaline is associated with the effect on α- and β-adrenergic receptors and largely coincides with the effects of excitation of sympathetic nerve fibers. It causes vasoconstriction of the abdominal organs, skin and mucous membranes; to a lesser extent constricts the vessels of skeletal muscles, but dilates the vessels of the brain.
• Norepinephrine. The action of norepinephrine is associated with a predominant effect on α-adrenergic receptors. Norepinephrine differs from adrenaline by a much stronger vasoconstrictor and pressor effect, a significantly less stimulating effect on heart contractions, a weak effect on the smooth muscles of the bronchi and intestines, weak influence on metabolism (lack of pronounced hyperglycemic, lipolytic and general catabolic effects).
• Dopamine. An increase in the level of dopamine in the blood plasma occurs during shock, injury, burns, blood loss, stressful conditions, various pain syndromes, anxiety, fear, stress. Dopamine plays a role in the body’s adaptation to stressful situations, injuries, blood loss, etc.

Corticosteroids - hormones of the adrenal cortex:

• Glucocorticoids (cortisol, corticosterone). Triggers protein metabolism to combat stress. The hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropin) travels through the bloodstream through the adrenal gland, where it triggers the release of cortisol. Cortisol causes blood sugar levels to increase and speeds up the metabolic process in various ways.

• Mineralcorticoids (aldosterone)

Doctors consider cortisol to be a key stress hormone and use the amount of cortisol levels in the blood as a measure of stress levels.

1.8.The effect of stress on the human body

Stress has a negative impact on both the psychological state and physical health person.

Stress disorganizes a person’s activity, his behavior, leads to a variety of psycho-emotional disorders (depression, neuroses, emotional instability, low mood, or, conversely, overexcitation, anger, memory impairment, etc.).

Stress, especially if it is frequent and prolonged, has a negative impact not only on a person’s psychological state, but also on a person’s physical health. They are the main risk factors for the manifestation and exacerbation of many diseases. The most common diseases are the cardiovascular system (angina pectoris, hypertension), gastrointestinal tract(gastritis, peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum), decreased immunity.

Hormones that are produced under stress, necessary in physiological quantities for the normal functioning of the body, in large quantities cause many undesirable reactions leading to illness and even death. Their negative effect is aggravated by the fact that modern man unlike the primitive, under stress it rarely uses muscle energy. Therefore, biologically active substances circulate in the blood in elevated concentrations for a long time, preventing either the nervous system or internal organs from calming down.

In muscles, glucocorticoids in high concentrations cause the breakdown of nucleic acids and proteins, which, with prolonged action, leads to muscle dystrophy.

In the skin, these hormones inhibit the growth and division of fibroblasts, which leads to thinning of the skin, its easy damage, and poor wound healing. In bone tissue - to suppress calcium absorption. Final result long-acting of these hormones - a decrease in bone mass, an extremely common disease - osteoporosis.

The list of negative consequences of increasing the concentration of stress hormones above physiological levels can be continued for a long time. This includes degeneration of brain and spinal cord cells, growth retardation, decreased insulin secretion (“steroid” diabetes), etc. A number of very authoritative scientists even believe that stress is the main factor in the occurrence of cancer and other oncological diseases.

Such reactions are caused not only by strong, acute, but also by small, but long-term stressful influences. Therefore, chronic stress, in particular, prolonged psychological stress, depression can also lead to the above diseases. Even a new direction in medicine has emerged, called psychosomatic medicine, which considers all kinds of stress as the main or concomitant pathogenetic factor of many diseases.

1.9. What are the possible reactions of the human body to stress?

1. Stress reaction. Unfavorable factors(stressors) cause a stress response, i.e. stress. A person consciously or subconsciously tries to adapt to a completely new situation. Then comes leveling, or adaptation. A person either finds balance in the current situation and stress does not produce any consequences, or does not adapt to it - this is the so-called maladaptation (poor adaptation). As a consequence of this, various mental or physical abnormalities may occur.

In other words, stress either continues for a long time or occurs quite often. Moreover frequent stress can lead to depletion of the body's adaptive defense system, which, in turn, can cause psychosomatic diseases.

2. Passivity. It manifests itself in a person whose adaptive reserve is insufficient and the body is not able to withstand stress. A state of helplessness, hopelessness, and depression arises. But this stress reaction may be temporary.

The other two reactions are active and subject to the will of man.

3. Active protection against stress. A person changes his field of activity and finds something more useful and suitable for achieving peace of mind, helping to improve his health (sports, music, gardening, collecting, etc.).

4. Active relaxation (relaxation), which increases natural adaptation human body- both mental and physical. This reaction is the most effective.

1.10.What happens in the body during stress.

Under normal conditions, in response to stress, a person experiences a state of anxiety and confusion, which is an automatic preparation for active action: offensive or defensive. Such preparation is always carried out in the body, regardless of what the reaction to stress is - even when no physical action occurs. The impulse of an automatic reaction can be potentially unsafe and puts the body into a state of high alert. The heart begins to beat faster, blood pressure rises, and muscles tense. Regardless of whether the danger is serious (threat to life, physical violence) or not so serious (verbal abuse), anxiety arises in the body and, in response to it, a readiness to resist.

Chapter 2. Research part

2.1Student survey

Usually, students are most stressed during exams, since this is the most difficult time, since everyone understands that their future life, writing tests comes in second place and usually students do not succumb to stressful situations during rest.

2.2. Which people are more stressed?

Adults are usually the most stressed because their lives are more complicated and they have responsibility and care on their shoulders.

In second place are teenagers, it is during this period that puberty. An increased ability to think critically about one's developing personality and one's future may appear to increase the risk of developing depression when adolescents become fixated on possible negative outcomes. Low school performance, of course, leads to the development of depression and behavioral disorders in adolescents.

Children come in third place, as they are usually not stressed at all.

Chapter 3. Ways to relieve stress

3.1. Causes of stress

Main sources of stress:

Conflicts or communication with unpleasant people;

Obstacles that prevent you from achieving your goal;

Pipe dreams;

Either too high requirements to yourself;

Noise;

Monotonous work;

Constant accusation, self-reproach that you have not achieved something or missed something;

Hard work;

Strong positive emotions;

Quarrels with people and especially with relatives (observation of quarrels in the family can also lead to stress).

3.2. Methods that mobilize the intellectual capabilities of students in preparation for passing exams

During times of stress, severe dehydration occurs. This is due to the fact that nervous processes occur on the basis of electrochemical reactions, and they require a sufficient amount of fluid. Its deficiency sharply reduces speed nervous processes. Therefore, it is advisable to drink a few sips of water during exams. For anti-stress purposes, drink water 20 minutes before or 30 minutes after meals. Best fit mineral water because it contains potassium and sodium ions. Organize your workspace correctly. Place objects or a painting in yellow-violet tones on the table, as these colors increase intellectual activity.

How to prepare psychologically:

1. Start preparing for exams in advance, little by little, in parts, remaining calm;

2. If it is very difficult to gather your strength and thoughts, you need to try to remember the easiest things first, and then move on to studying the difficult material;

3. Perform daily exercises that help relieve internal tension, fatigue, and achieve relaxation.

4. Perform auto-training before exams, saying the following phrases:

• I know everything.
• I studied well all year.
• I will do well on the exam.
• I am confident in my knowledge.
• I am calm.

How to remember a large amount of material

• Repeat the material based on questions. First, remember and be sure to briefly write down everything you know, and only then check the correctness of the dates and basic facts.
• When reading a textbook, highlight the main ideas - these are strong points answer. Learn to write a short answer plan for each question separately on small pieces of paper.
• On the last day before the exam, look at the sheets with a short answer plan.
• The most the best remedy to relieve stress among students, this is the holidays.

3.3. How to get rid of stress

Seek help from a psychotherapist who will help you understand how you got into this state and what to do to avoid ending up in it again; will remove psychological and emotional pressures;

Seek help from a doctor who will prescribe you the necessary tranquilizers, antidepressants and other medications;

Drink a soothing complex of herbs (chamomile, valerian, motherwort, hawthorn, peony);

Take daily walks in the fresh air;

Visit the bathhouse, swimming pool;

Temper the body.

3.4. Medical help for stress

Stress is the body's protective reaction to environmental influences. Excessive stress can destroy the body. One stress can be superimposed on another, so frequent stress loads are especially dangerous.

First, under the influence of stress, a disease called neurosis may occur. Neurosis serves as the beginning for a number of other diseases, the main of which are:

Hypertonic disease

Atherosclerosis

Cardiac ischemia

Heart attack

Stroke

Ulcer of the stomach and duodenum.

If stress symptoms do not subside within a few weeks, a diagnostic evaluation should be performed.
In the absence of any obvious physiological causes of stress, educational psychotherapy is recommended, which will help to master the skills of overcoming difficult life situations and extract useful developmental experience from them.

Anti-stress programis a set of techniques to help cope with negative consequences stress. It can also be a preventive measure.

The purpose of the anti-stress complex- help a person remain calm and balanced in any life situations. Designed for a modern person living in a busy rhythm. Program components: Breathing exercises, sauna steaming, massage, relaxation, aromatherapy.

Conclusion

The most powerful manifestation of emotions causes a complex physiological reaction - stress. It turned out that the body responds not only to adverse effects of various kinds - cold, fatigue, fear, humiliation, pain and much more. defensive reaction on a given impact, but also by a general, complex process of the same type, regardless of which particular stimulus acts on it in this moment. It is important to emphasize that the intensity of the developing adaptive activity depends not on the physical force of the impact, but on personal significance active factor.

Stress is not only an evil, not only a misfortune, but also a great blessing, because without stress of various types, our life would become like some kind of colorless and joyless vegetation.

Activity is the only way to put an end to stress: you won’t be able to sit it out and lie down. Constantly focusing on bright sides life and activities that can improve the situation not only maintains health, but also contributes to success.

Nothing is more discouraging than failure, nothing is more encouraging than success.

Bibliography

1. Aizman R.I. Physiological foundations of health. – Novosibirsk, 2002. – 62 p.

2. Buyanova N.Yu. I explore the world: encyclopedia. – M.: AST, 2005. – 398 p.

3. Degterev E.A., Sinitsyn Yu.N. Management of a modern school. Issue 8. – Rostov on Don: “Teacher”, 2005. – 224 p.

5. Fedorova M.Z., Kuchmenko V.S., Voronina G.A. Human ecology: Culture of health. – M.: “Ventana-Graf”, 2006. – 144 p.

6. Fedorova N.A. Home medical directory. – M.: “Publisher Press”, 1995. – 520 p.

Among the huge number of scientific publications devoted to stress that is growing every year (mostly these works are of a physiological and medical nature), in recent years more and more works have appeared concerning the psychological manifestations of the stress reaction. As L.A. notes in his study. Kitaev-Smyk, the library of the International Institute of Stress has collected more than 150 thousand publications on this problem.

In 1980, the Selye Foundation began publishing the thematic magazine “Stress”.

The main problems that are discussed both on the pages of printed publications and at various conferences and psychological forums are: stress and life, sociological problems of stress, students and stress, psychological and demographic problems of stress, etc.

Psychological disorders most often associated with excessive stress are causeless anxiety, manic behavior, sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, etc. Thus, a number of researchers have proven that an increased level of anxiety can arise as a result of symptomatic and proprioceptive impulses to the cerebral cortex.

As noted by J. Everly and R. Rosenfeld, excessive arousal associated with stress, ascending through the reticular activating system to the limbic area and neocortex, leads to the emergence of disorganized and dysfunctional nervous impulses, manifested in the presence of symptoms of sleep disturbances, vague anxiety, and in some cases cases and little purposeful manic behavior. It should be noted that the activation of the psychological stress reaction always precedes the manifestation of diffuse pointless anxiety.

Another psychological manifestation of excessive stress is depressive reactions. It has been established that scientists associate stressful events that lead a person to the idea that he is in a hopeless situation with psychophysiological stress arousal. The activation of the manifestation of this stressful arousal is depression.

There is also evidence suggesting a connection between stress and schizophrenia (i.e. organic changes in the brain). One of the behavioral hypotheses of schizophrenia considers this disease as a disturbed adaptive mechanism of avoidance when faced with an anxiety-provoking situation.

Questions for self-control

What are the main issues discussed in the field of stress psychology.

What functional disorders can stress lead to?

Emotional stress and mechanisms of its development

Human emotions as a factor in the regulation of behavior. The most studied in the field of psychological manifestations of stress is emotional stress. At the same time, it is impossible to understand the essence of emotional stress without understanding the essence of human emotional manifestations. After all, emotions continuously accompany a person’s life and are powerful incentives for a person to satisfy both social and biological needs. It should be noted that for most people (due to the socio-social nature of human activity) social needs have reached their greatest development, with which most emotional experiences are associated. If the goal is achieved and the need is thus satisfied, positive emotions arise, which contribute, as K.V. notes in his study. Pike perch, cessation of purposeful activity and induce a “state of mental peace.”

If the need remains unsatisfied, then the emergence of negative emotional states is quite natural.

As has been proven by physiologists and psychophysiologists, his mental and physical state largely depends on what emotions a person experiences (positive or negative modality).

Turning to studies devoted to the study of the emotional sphere of personality (works by L.S. Vygotsky, V.P. Zinchenko, A.G. Kovalev, A.N. Leontyev, A.A. Lyublinskaya, A.V. Petrovsky, P.M. Jacobson et al.) it should be noted that in their studies scientists note that emotions and feelings are a special class of mental processes determined by environmental influences.

Studying the features of the emotional-personal sphere, in their research scientists, first of all, attempt to define this concept. So, A.A. Lyublinskaya notes that emotions should be understood as relatively short-term processes of a clearly expressed nature, i.e. clearly demonstrating a person’s attitude to various situations, to his activities, to his actions, etc.

A.V. Petrovsky proposes to understand emotions as the direct, temporary experience of some more permanent feeling and defines emotions as “mental excitement, mental movement.”

One of the fundamental studies of psychologists in the field of studying emotions and feelings is the study of P.M. Jacobson. Having studied the nature of the emergence of emotions and feelings, the scientist concludes that the root cause of their occurrence is needs (as we pointed out earlier). The development and change of the need sphere entails changes in the sphere of feelings and emotions, a change in a person’s experiences. Not only the strength of these experiences, but also their direction is of great importance. Experiences can often become a stimulant, a motive for an action, a person’s active actions.

The predominance of emotions of the positive or negative modality of emotions, as S.L. believes. Rubinstein, will influence all spheres of life and activity of the emerging personality, the activation of the entire system of human relations with the world. Moreover, the researcher sees this activity not only in the manifestation of the activity of thought, but also in the active manifestations of emotions and feelings. The scientist considers sensory knowledge not only as the starting point of knowledge, but also as its necessary component.

L.S. also adheres to the position on the regulating function of emotions. Vygotsky, who notes that it is emotions that organize human behavior. According to the researcher, this happens by analogy with the “stimulus-response” mechanism. The scientist believes that emotions must be considered as a system of preliminary reactions that inform the body of the immediate future of its behavior and organize the forms of this behavior.

In the research of scientists, an attempt was made to determine approaches to the classification of human emotions and feelings (studies by G.I. Baturina, B.I. Dodonov, P.M. Yakobson). So, as the basis for his classification P.M. Jacobson takes the idea that human emotions and feelings are a synthesis of individual-typical (innate) and sociocultural (acquired) experience. The scientist notes that a person’s feelings, being his personal “response” to the environment, are generated in their content primarily by the nature of that phenomenon, that aspect of reality to which they are directed. Then they are determined by the nature of the attitude that people have developed towards this side of reality in the process of long-term social practice. And finally, they are determined by the nature of a person’s individual needs. Based on this, the author proposes to distinguish between feelings:

according to the object of reality to which they are directed (real, imaginary, etc.);

At the same time, P.M. Jacobson proposes to classify higher feelings as a separate category. He includes: moral, aesthetic, intellectual And practical.

The study of B.I. is also devoted to the problem of classification of emotional states. Dodonova. The author divides all emotional states into specific ones, which reflect the nature and state of a specific, defined need, and nonspecific ones, which reflect the general state of a person and characterize his need sphere as a whole. In turn, the scientist considers the following ten emotional states of a person to be specific emotions:

1. Altruistic emotions. These are experiences that arise from the need for assistance, help, and protection of other people. As the author notes, perhaps genetically this need originates from the “parental instinct.” People can experience altruistic emotions without actually helping others, but only by identifying themselves in the imagination with one or another noble hero. The inventory of altruistic emotions is the desire to bring joy to others, a feeling of concern for the fate of someone, care, empathy for the luck and joy of another person, a feeling of tenderness or tenderness, a feeling of devotion, a feeling of participation and pity.

2. Communicative emotions. These emotions arise based on the need for communication. However, the author points out that not every emotion that arises in the process of communication can be considered communicative. Communicative emotions should include only those that ensure the fulfillment of the need for emotional closeness with other people. The inventory of these emotions stands out: the desire to communicate, share thoughts and experiences, find a response to them, a feeling of sympathy, affection, a sense of respect, a feeling of appreciation, gratitude, a feeling of adoration, a desire to earn approval from loved ones and respected people.

3. Emotions of self-affirmation and ambition. These emotions are associated with the need for self-affirmation and fame.

4. Praxic emotions. As noted by B.I. Dodonov, the term “praxical feelings” was introduced by P.M. Jacobson, who proposed to call this the experiences caused by an activity, its change in the course of work, its success or failure, the difficulties of its implementation and completion. Inventory of this type of emotion B.I. Dodonov identifies the following manifestations: the desire to succeed at work, a feeling of tension, passion for work, admiring the results of one’s work.

5. Emotions of struggle. According to the author, these emotions come from the need to overcome danger, and the inventory of these emotions is the thirst for thrills, intoxication with danger, risk, determination, a feeling of strong volitional and physical tension, mobilization of one’s physical and mental abilities.

6. Romantic emotions. According to the researcher, these emotions can be considered as a desire for the unusual and mysterious. However, B.I. Dodonov notes that the feeling of mystery as a typical “romantic emotion” appears in us not in connection with any secret, but only where we vividly “feel” our inclusion in the number of objects that are affected by the mysterious factor, especially when it is attributed to conscious will, spirituality. The feeling of mystery almost always includes anticipation: something is about to happen. These emotions are manifested in the desire for the extraordinary, the unknown; expectation of something unusual and very good, a feeling of special significance of what is happening, etc.

7. Gnostic emotions (or intellectual feelings). According to the researcher, these categories should not be placed side by side. The author notes that a person associates gnostic emotions not simply with the need to obtain any new information, but with the need for “cognitive harmony.” Its essence is to find the familiar, familiar, and understandable in the new, unknown, thus bringing all available information to one common denominator. The tools of these emotions can be: the desire to understand something, to penetrate into the essence of a phenomenon, a feeling of surprise or bewilderment, a feeling of guesswork, etc.

8. Aesthetic emotions. Despite the fact that this category of feelings has been studied for a long time, as noted by B.I. Dodonov, the question of the nature and even the very composition of aesthetic experiences remains far from clarified to this day. The complexity of the issue, according to the researcher, lies in the fact that the aesthetic attitude towards what is depicted is manifested through all other feelings: joy, anger, melancholy, disgust, suffering, grief, etc. However, it is unclear what aesthetic feeling is in its pure form, without the feelings that accompany it.

9. Hedonic emotions. This includes emotions associated with satisfying the need for bodily and mental comfort. The inventory of these emotions is: enjoyment of pleasant sensations from tasty food, warmth, etc., a feeling of carelessness, a sense of fun, etc.

10. Emotions of acquisition, accumulation. As the author notes, these emotions arise in connection with an interest in accumulation, “collecting” things that go beyond the practical need for them. Perhaps this passion is genetically related to the instincts of animals, prompting them to stock up for the winter.

However, as B.I. points out. Dodonov, this classification can be called open and, if necessary, supplemented with new categories of emotional experiences.

The result of psychological research was also the study of the properties of emotions: reactivity, that is, the ability to respond to stimuli; sharpness And depth perceived and experienced; longevity influences when a person is not left with strong feelings for a long time; sustainability, the result of which is the difficulty of replacing some emotions with others (this is especially true for preschool children); differentiation.

Systemic organization of emotions and its role in human behavior. According to the theory of functional system P.K. Anokhin, emotions play a decisive role in organizing purposeful human behavior. Continuously “coloring” different stages of behavior, emotions, first of all, as we noted above, mobilize the body to satisfy leading biological or social needs. The biological significance of emotions has not only been preserved and consolidated by emotions, but has also received the greatest development in human behavioral and labor activity. This is objectively due, first of all, to the development of social forms of motivation for behavior and activity.

The biological meaning of emotions, as scientists believe, is as follows. Emotions allow one to subjectively assess the need existing in the body, its magnitude, qualitative characteristics, and allow one to determine, in relation to biological or social needs, both favorable and harmful factors for human life that affect his body. It is emotions that make it possible to identify the most significant from the various needs simultaneously existing in the human body and direct a person’s behavioral activity precisely towards their satisfaction.

According to K.V. Sudakov, based on the need in the human brain, motivation is formed (arousal motivation), which is a specific informational neurophysiological equivalent of the existing need. Motivation as a specific state of the brain encourages a person to act, that is, to form purposeful behavior, which is ultimately designed to satisfy a given need.

Functional system theory P.K. Anokhin characterizes different key mechanisms of human behavioral activity and allows us to determine those stages of behavior that are accompanied by distinct emotional reactions.

According to the scientist, the first stage of the behavioral act should be considered the most emotionally charged - afferent synthesis, in which a complex of motivational, environmental and triggering stimuli interact in the central nervous system based on previous experience. According to the “information theory of emotions” by P.V. Simonov, the degree of severity of the emotional reaction depends on the predicted probability of satisfying the existing need. According to the scientist, if there is a lack of information and a person’s previous experience does not allow him to make a decision on an appropriate behavioral act that guarantees the achievement of the desired result, then in this case a negative emotional reaction appears, the severity of which will be inversely proportional to the likelihood of achieving the result.

In the case when, on the basis of previous experience when making a decision, the absolute possibility of achieving a useful result is predicted, emotional reactions do not arise and the behavioral act becomes automated.

Thus, already when making a decision, the body predicts in the acceptor of action results not only the parameters of the future result, but also the probability of achieving it.

As noted by P.V. Simonov and K.V. Sudakov, analysis of the subsequent stages of a purposeful behavioral act indicates that the most pronounced negative emotional reaction occurs when there is a “mismatch”, a discrepancy between the results obtained and the result predicted and necessary to satisfy a person’s biological or social needs. According to K.V. Sudakov, the degree of mismatch and, consequently, the emotional reaction depend on the initially predicted possibility of achieving desired result with the help of an implemented behavioral act. The lower the initially estimated probability of achieving the result, the less pronounced the reaction of mismatch and the emotional manifestations associated with it.

Thus, it should be noted that in the stage of assessing the effectiveness of behavior, the greatest emotionality is manifested with maximum confidence in success.

Turning to the research of P.K. Anokhin, it should be noted that with his work the scientist proved that in a favorable case for the organism, when the parameters of the achieved result correspond to the properties of the acceptor of the result of the action, an emotion of positive modality arises, which, as it were, “crowns”, is the completion of a successful behavioral act, especially in that case , when a non-absolute probability of achieving an adaptive result initially existed and was predicted.

Strong negative emotions, therefore, arise in the process of forming behavior when there is a low probability of satisfying a need and the ineffectiveness of behavior or when certain obstacles appear on the way to the goal. In this case, a conflict situation arises that does not allow one to achieve a positive behavioral result.

At the same time, as scientists studying this problem believe, the stronger the negative emotions at the stage of formation and implementation of behavior, the more pronounced the positive emotions will be in the event of successful completion of the behavioral act and satisfaction of the dominant need.

At the same time, it should be noted that emotions of a positive modality cannot arise without negative emotions preceding them. Under natural conditions, a person’s desire for positive emotions means the formation, under the stimulating influence of negative emotions, of such purposeful behavior with the help of which, despite a large number of obstacles, it is still possible to achieve the necessary or desired result.

The above indicates that emotions accompany different stages of the systemic organization of behavioral acts: the process of afferent synthesis, decision-making and evaluation of the effectiveness of behavior (when comparing the reverse afferentation from the result with the emphasis on the results of the action). In the process of a purposeful behavioral act, there is a certain relationship between positive and negative emotions. Emotions are a specific subjective state of a person, entirely (both qualitatively and quantitatively) dependent on the nature of a social or biological need, the possibility and reality of its satisfaction with purposeful behavior and characterized by a complex of somato-vegetative reactions. The main biological meaning of emotions is that they contribute to the achievement of a behavioral result and the associated satisfaction of a social or biological need. These ideas formed the basis of a synthetic theory of the emergence of positive and negative emotional reactions to different stages behavior developed by E.A. Yumatov.

Emotional stress: general characteristics . As noted above, the idea of ​​stress as a general nonspecific adaptation syndrome of the body was first formulated in the works of G. Selye. According to the scientist's definition, stress is a stress reaction that occurs as a nonspecific response of the body to the action of extreme, unfavorable environmental factors - stressors - which are various pathogenic, toxic and foreign substances, physical factors, etc. According to G. Selye, stress by its biological nature has an adaptive orientation and activates the protective mechanisms of the human body to prevent the pathogenic effects on it from these unfavorable factors. As noted above, stress is characterized by a number of successive stages (states):

• resistance;

  exhaustion, after which the death of the body may occur.

Along with the general concept of stress, science has developed the idea of ​​emotional stress as the primary psycho-emotional reaction of a subject to the action of stressors, which is also characterized by a complex of nonspecific (in relation to the initiating factor) manifestations.

The foundations of ideas about emotional stress were laid by W. Cannon and subsequently developed by K. Levy. Their studies show that during emotional stress, sympathetic-adrenal mechanisms are activated, which at a certain stage of stress development have an adaptive function, and then, in the case of sequential development of stress phases, transform into their opposite, characterized by a violation of somato-vegetative functions.

Thus, it should be noted that already in the first studies devoted to the study of emotional stress, its dual nature was discovered, manifested, on the one hand, in an adaptive meaning, and, on the other, in a pathogenic meaning.

Regarding domestic research, it should be noted that the problem of emotional stress (the history of the formation and development of scientific ideas about emotional stress, its mechanisms, prerequisites for its development, etc.) is discussed in detail in the works of K.V. Sudakova and E.A. Yumatova. As methodological basis In their studies of emotional stress, scientists use the functional approach proposed by P.K. Anokhin.

In contrast to the reflex approach, the theory of functional systems focuses not on the physiological reactions that arise in response to the action of appropriate stimuli, but on the achievement of adaptive results by the body. It is on the basis of the theory of functional systems that the idea of ​​the determining role of a conflict situation in the genesis of emotional stress is formulated. It should be noted that a conflict situation is understood as a situation in which a subject, even if he has a strong need, cannot satisfy it for a long time. Systematic need dissatisfaction and associated dissatisfaction with the results of behavior, due to the inability of the subject to achieve an adaptive result, generates long-term continuous negative emotional stress, which scientists refer to as emotional stress. In this case, emotional reactions lose their adaptive nature and, as a result of summation, cause and stimulate disruption of the physiological functions of the body, which leads to the emergence of various psychosomatic diseases.

Thus, an analysis of studies on the psychology of emotions allows us to conclude that weak, short-term and varied emotions, leading to mild stress, can have a positive effect on almost all organs and systems of the body. Scientists even coin the term “emotional organ massage.” At the same time, strong in magnitude and short in duration, as well as weak and long in duration, emotions can be considered as the cause of various functional disorders in the human body. Thus, severe anger can lead to liver damage; a constant feeling of fear and sadness affect the kidneys; prolonged melancholy - mild; a constant feeling of anxiety causes organic changes in the spleen and pancreas; excessive, irrepressible joy, jealousy or envy negatively affects the functioning of the heart.

Scientists also draw attention to the fact that emotions are the most important stimuli for human behavior, and behavior itself is maximally focused on achieving positive emotions. Being associated with the vital needs of a living organism, emotions, as scientists believe, were formed in the process of evolution as an essential component of the survival of living beings.

At the same time, the rapid development of civilization and scientific and technological progress have led, paradoxically, to unwanted disharmony in human life. As we noted above, a number of scientists consider technological progress as the main prerequisite for a significant increase in the psycho-emotional stress that falls on a person. And this is no coincidence. Modern life is characterized by a rapid pace, information overload, decreased physical activity, a certain monotony, on the one hand, and the need to work, sometimes in extreme situations, increased level noise and social conflicts, etc. with another. Systematic dissatisfaction with oneself, uncertainty, and sometimes hopelessness in solving assigned tasks, a socially conditioned need to restrain one’s emotions and feelings, etc. have led to the fact that modern man rarely finds a state of peace of mind and psycho-emotional balance. Modern life “leads” to an increase in psycho-emotional stress, and ultimately to a change in a person’s spiritual world and emotional stress. In a person, for no apparent reason, negative emotional states begin to prevail, and an imbalance between positive and negative emotions develops. In addition, emotional stress leads to disruptions in the functioning of various organs and systems of the human body. The consequence of emotional stress, as modern research shows, is immunodeficiency, hormonal, cancer and other psychosomatic diseases. It is emotional stress that is considered by doctors and physiologists as one of the main reasons for the increase in mortality.

By definition O.V. Dashkevich, M.A. Kostyukhina, K.V. Sudakov, emotional stress is an integral state of the body, which is a “visceral syndrome” and is formed as a result of the summation of long-term negative emotional states generated by conflicting behavioral situations and characterized by a complex of somatovegetative disorders.

Social factors in the development of emotional stress . The origin and development of emotional stress, as scientists believe, is always based on a conflicting behavioral situation in which a person cannot satisfy his social or biological needs (we have already discussed this above).

The emergence of a conflict behavioral situation is always subjective, since it depends on the individual’s initial need, motive and opportunity for its satisfaction and implementation in a certain environment.

Thus, the most important prerequisite for the development of emotional stress is conflict between human needs and real possibilities of satisfying them. The conflict may be based on clashes between different public interest. Many conflict situations are provoked by the low sociocultural level of people, the inability to defend their interests without resorting to emotions and feelings, the unwillingness to take into account the opinions of others, to objectively evaluate the results of their behavior and control their emotions.

At the same time, it is possible to highlight whole line“internal” conflicts, in which a person painfully experiences irreparable, dramatic events in his life, experiences remorse, repentance, and a certain dissatisfaction with his life.

The second prerequisite for the development of emotional stress is significant expansion of the range of social communication. The intensification of socio-economic activity at the present stage of development of society has led to a sharp increase in interpersonal influences, activation and enrichment of the range of forms of social communication, which involves a wide exchange of information, coordination with a large number people, solving complex, often contradictory problems, etc. All this required a sharp increase in the level of human emotional activity and gave rise to many conflict situations (leadership, competition, self-doubt, etc.).

Another significant factor in the emergence and development of emotional stress and tension is lack of time to solve important tasks against the backdrop of high interest in achieving goals.

The next factor is discrepancy between modern production conditions and human physiological capabilities. For example, working on a conveyor belt with complex technical installations, a person is forced to “adapt” to the rhythm of production imposed on him by the machine, which is not always individually optimal for him, which naturally causes mental and physical fatigue and, as a result, constant emotional stress.

The lack of fixed, ordered periods of rest among people in a number of professions also has an impact; the load is constant and maximum throughout the working day.

It should also be noted that emotional imbalance and, as a result, stress, causes the need (due to the specifics of professional activity) to constantly switch attention from one type of activity to another (for example, concentrated work with documents and forced distractions by phone calls).

The next factor to note is special susceptibility to stressful conditions of the urban population. As we noted above, increasing urbanization, a rapid increase in the amount of information, countless forced contacts with other people, lack of time - all this sharply reduces a person’s stay in a state of emotional balance and peace. Urban factors such as noise, air pollution, etc. also disturb the peace. According to scientists such as P.K. Anokhin, G.I. Kositsky, A.L. Myasnikov, E.I. Sokolov, K.V. Sudakov and many others, the accelerating rhythm of life, the complication of social relationships, the disruption of phylogenetically established biorhythms, the emergence of many chemical and physical factors that negatively affect the body, the need for rapid adaptation to these factors also play a certain negative role in the development of emotional stress.

Scientists identify another stress factor significant decrease in physical activity of modern people(hypokinesia). It has been established that hypokinesia, causing a decrease in energy metabolism, affects various functions of the body, including reducing the possibility of an adequate physiological response of the human body to emotions.

Scientists identify another factor contributing to the development of stress: personal dramatic events occurring in a person's life. Scientists have established a direct connection between prolonged psychological discomfort, neuropsychic trauma and the development of emotional stress.

It should also be noted that the development of emotional stress is also facilitated by narrowing the circle of contacts, confining a person to his own everyday needs and interests.

Essential features of emotional stress. So, as a special mental state, stress is directly related to the origin and manifestation of human emotions and feelings. This relationship and interdependence was drawn attention to by the founder of the scientific approach to the study of the problem of stress, G. Selye, who identified three types of emotions and feelings that underlie the manifestation of the stress reaction:

positive;

negative;

indifferent.

If we turn to the research of various scientists, it should be noted that the term “emotional stress” is usually used to designate various states of the body and personality: from states that are within the physical and mental boundaries of psycho-emotional tension, to states on the verge of pathology, mental maladaptation and developing as a consequence prolonged or repeated emotional stress.

In the studies of G.N. Kassil, M.N. Rusalova, L.A. Kitaev-Smyk and other scientists, emotional stress is understood as a wide range of changes in mental and behavioral manifestations, accompanied by pronounced nonspecific changes in biochemical, electrophysiological and other indicators.

Yu.A. Aleksandrovsky connects the tension of the mental adaptation barrier with emotional stress.

According to A.V. Voldman, M.M. Kozlovskaya, O.S. Medvedev in the phenomenon of emotional stress should be distinguished:

a) a complex of immediate psychological reactions, which, in general form, can be defined as the process of perception and processing by a person of significant information contained in a signal (impact, situation) and subjectively perceived as emotionally negative (a “threat” signal, a state of discomfort, awareness of a conflict, etc.);

b) the process of psychological adaptation to an emotionally negative subjective state;

c) a state of psychological maladaptation caused by emotional signals for a given individual due to a violation of the functional capabilities of the mental maladaptation system, which leads to a disruption of regulation in the subject’s behavioral activity.

The relationship between emotional state and stress. As the results of experimental studies show, many people, due to certain objective (a person finds themselves in an extreme situation) and subjective (individual-typical and personal characteristics) reasons prone to rapid changes in emotional states.

However, along with rapidly changing, operational, as they are called, emotions, higher animal organisms, which include humans, have a system for ensuring fairly long-term emotional states, which are called “emotional background” and characterize a person’s mood. Stable emotional states arise as a result of a response to long-term, permanent, stable influences from the external or internal environment.

According to V.M. Krol, mood is a certain constant component of emotions, that is, a value against which emotional fluctuations occur. The scientist sees the role of mood in the process of behavior regulation in the addition of some fairly long-term component of positive or negative modality to the magnitude of current operational emotional reactions.

It is customary to distinguish between periods of cheerful, cheerful, optimistic, elevated mood, emotional state and periods of sad, depressed, pessimistic mood, which a person may experience due to certain circumstances.

Stressful conditions are a frequent consequence of long periods of depressed emotional background. It is no coincidence that R. Lazurs says that psychological stress is an emotional experience caused by a “threat” that affects a person’s ability to effectively carry out his activities.

Thus, it is possible to trace a direct, immediate connection between the emotional state and the stress reaction.

As the results of clinical studies have shown, stressful conditions, as a rule, develop as a result of prolonged exposure to difficult living conditions, shock mental stress and emotional overload. Long-term stress is considered as a cause of disorganization of human activity, nervous breakdowns, persistent neurotic states and manifestations, various functional disorders of the organs and systems of the human body. That is why modern scientists consider stress as one of the main risk factors; the problem of stress has received the attention of many scientists (psychologists, sociologists, physiologists, etc.).

At the same time, scientists believe that the emotional reaction to stress will vary from person to person. Turning to the history of psychological thought, it can be noted that Hippocrates noted that with mental excitement and disorder, some people are prone to manic behavior, others to depressive behavior. The differentiation of individual differences of this series corresponds to the widespread concept in the East of two principles - “yang” and “yin” in a person. The first (“yang”) is realized in the activity of behavior, in strength of character; the second (“yin”) – in passivity or, if its manifestations are excessive, even in depression.

A similar dichotomous division of individual differences in behavior can be found in the works of modern researchers. So, as evidenced by the results of research by V.A. Kitaev-Smyk and his colleagues, one of the indicators of the state of emotional stress in people is a change in emotional-behavioral activity under stress, its strengthening or weakening. At the same time, the purpose of active behavioral reactions is to promote, through accelerated and enhanced protective (aggressive) actions, the prevention of the unfavorable development of a stressful situation. At the same time, as the results of the study showed, excessive activation of behavior can lead to erroneous actions and even complete disorganization of activities.

It should also be noted that activation of behavior under stress, as scientists note, can be either adequate or inadequate to solving the problem of getting out of a stressful situation and preventing the adverse effects of the stressor.

Questions for self-control

What is the problem of emotional stress?

Name the social factors that stimulate the occurrence of emotional stress.

Reveal the essential features of emotional stress.

What is the relationship between stress and conflict situations?

What is the connection between emotions and stress?

What determines the activity or passivity of human behavior under stress?

The causes of emotional stress are associated with extreme influences, primarily with the influence of organizational, social, environmental and technical features of activity. It is based on violations of information-cognitive processes of activity regulation. And in this regard, all those life events that are accompanied by mental tension (regardless of the sphere of human life) can be a source of emotional stress or influence its development.
Consequently, the development of emotional stress in a person is associated not only with the characteristics of his work process, but also with a variety of events in his life, with different areas his activities, communication, knowledge of the world around him. Therefore, the division of the causes of emotional stress must be carried out taking into account the characteristics of the influence of various human life events that can be a source of stress. Chronic role tension develops under the influence of unfavorable conditions over a long period of time that do not pose an immediate threat to life. Some life circumstances are a combination chronic stress(role strain) and short periods of trauma. These life events can vary in length, but they differ from role strain in that they have a clearly defined beginning and end. Adversities (encounters or conflicts) are events of short duration, usually minor, but they can be embedded in the context of a long-term life event or role strain, which can increase their significance.

The source of traumatic exposure can be natural and man-made disasters, war and related problems (for example, famine), as well as individual trauma. As a result of growing research interest in this problem, stressors have been identified, but there is still no clear and generally accepted categorization of them. In addition to the above categories, he divided stressors directly or indirectly involved in organizing the anxiety-stress reaction in a person into four groups:

1. Stressors active work:

· Extreme stressors

(combat, space flight, scuba diving, parachute jumping, mine clearance, etc.);

occupational stressors (related to great responsibility, lack of time);

· stressors of psychosocial motivation (competitions, contests, exams).

2. Evaluation stressors (evaluation of upcoming, present or past activities):

· “start” - stressors and memory stressors (upcoming competitions, medical procedures, memories of grief experienced, anticipation of a threat);

· victories and defeats (victory in a competition, academic success, love, defeat, death or illness of a loved one);

· spectacle.

3. Stressors of activity mismatch:

· disunity (conflicts in the family, at work, threat or unexpected but significant news);

· psychosocial and physiological limitations (sensory deprivation, muscle deprivation, illness, parental discomfort, hunger).

4. Physical and natural stressors (muscular loads, injuries, darkness, strong sound, pitching, height, heat, earthquake).

As P.K. Anokhin pointed out in 1973, the very fact of impact or its expectation necessarily presupposes the presence of anxiety as a component of stress. Test anxiety, or pre-exam anxiety, was first identified by Sarason and Mandler in 1952. From Tuckman's perspective, they proposed that test anxiety is composed of two drives: task-oriented drives, which give the individual an incentive to reduce that drive by completing the task, and An anxiety-related drive that interferes with task performance by causing a person to feel unfit and helpless. It is these anxiety-driven urges that cause people to do things that have no connection with completing the task, and thereby worsen the outcome of the task. While task-oriented urges can be viewed as facilitating performance, anxiety-related urges can be seen as weakening the effectiveness of task completion.

They divided the debilitating, anxiety-related urge into two components:

1) anxiety, or “the cognitive expression of concern about one’s performance,” and

2) emotionality, or reaction human body to the situation, such as sweating and increased heart rate.

1.3 Coping behavior.

In recent decades in foreign psychology The problem of overcoming conflict in the forms of compensation or coping behavior (coping behavior) is widely discussed. The concept of “coping”, or overcoming stress, is considered as an individual’s activity to maintain or maintain a balance between the demands of the environment and the resources that satisfy the requirements. Coping behavior is implemented through the use of coping strategies based on personal and environmental coping resources. It is the result of the interaction between a block of coping strategies and a block of coping resources. Coping strategies are the individual’s actual responses to a perceived threat as a way to manage stress. Relatively stable personal and social characteristics people who provide a psychological background for overcoming stress and contribute to the development of coping strategies are considered as coping resources.

One of the most important environmental coping resources is social support in the form of information that leads the subject to assert that he is loved, valued, cared for, and that he is a member of a social network and has mutual obligations with it. Research shows that people who receive various types of support from family, friends, and significant others have better health and are more able to cope with everyday life difficulties and illnesses. Social support, mitigating the impact of stressors on the body, thereby preserves the health and well-being of the individual, facilitates adaptation and promotes human development. Personal coping resources include self-concept, locus of control, perception social support, low neuroticism, empathy, affiliation and others psychological characteristics. Strategies such as distraction and problem analysis are associated with the cognitive sphere, with emotional release - emotional release, optimism, passive cooperation, maintaining composure, with the behavioral sphere - distraction, altruism, active avoidance, seeking support, constructive activity.

Coping behavior, along with mechanisms psychological protection, is considered as the most important forms adaptation processes and individuals' responses to stressful situations. The distinction between defense mechanisms and coping mechanisms is carried out according to the parameters “activity-constructiveness” and “passivity-unconstructiveness”. Psychological defense is passive and unconstructive, while coping mechanisms are active and constructive. Karvasarsky notes that if coping processes are aimed at active change situation and satisfaction of significant needs, then the processes of compensation and, in particular, psychological defense are aimed at mitigating mental discomfort.

The idea of ​​the development of defense mechanisms has undergone significant changes; an idea has emerged about the structural and level organization of defense mechanisms, taking into account their connection with other mechanisms of personality self-regulation. Nevertheless, the criteria for their differentiation from the mechanisms of coping behavior - a repertoire of active and constructive interaction with problematic, crisis or stressful situations. On the one hand, it is argued that defense mechanisms are low-effective and primitive coping mechanisms, on the other hand, a gradation of defense mechanisms is assumed according to the degree of activity in counteracting stress. Moreover, some of them may approach coping mechanisms. In contrast to defense mechanisms as unconscious and, in a certain sense, innate reflexive ways of regulating affective conflict, coping is considered a conscious strategy for interacting with reality, mastery of which is carried out through active learning. Thus, the difference between defense and coping mechanisms is seen in the varying degrees of their awareness, reflexivity, focus, controllability, and activity in interaction with reality. It is also possible to transform protective mechanisms into coping; in particular, in psychotherapy, when the patient acquires the ability to verbalize, reflect and recognize conflict as an intentional source of a defense mechanism, he can also choose and voluntarily use certain defenses that were necessary for survival in the past, but have become useless or harmful in the present . Then the latter are able to transform into rational, constructive, fundamentally new strategies for resolving and processing subjectively complex situations. Defenses lose their obsessively repetitive dynamics and chronic ability to distort internal and external reality, are “neutralized” and rise to a more mature level of functioning.

It is well known that in emotional situations It is not always possible to clearly trace the sequence of transition from self-control to self-influence on emotional sphere due to the rather continuous flow of these processes and the speed of their succession. In people with an integral character, self-control occurs quickly, and therefore it is almost unnoticeable, but in people who are hesitant, indecisive, self-control is prolonged. According to J. Reikowski, difficulties and failures in attempts to discover the special control mechanism included in the security emotional stability, have led many researchers to become skeptical about the very assumption of the possibility of its existence.

In principle, O. A. Chernikova touches on this same aspect of the issue when she says that “great difficulties arise when controlling one’s own emotional processes. Emotional experiences of a person’s relationship to external phenomena and one’s own activities, emotional states and reactions are not always accessible to full conscious control and management. Often, even when we are aware of them, we still cannot subordinate them to our will.” The author sees the difficulty in developing techniques for consciously mastering one’s emotions in the unintentionality of their occurrence, the immediate nature of experiences, inertia and persistence, and the complexity of their awareness. And yet, the existing difficulties should not lead to the conclusion that emotions are generally inaccessible to conscious self-regulation, and, consequently, to self-control over their course.

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Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine

Krivoy Rog Pedagogical University

Department of Physiology and Valeology

Report on the topic:

"Distress"

distress psychovegetative disorder negative emotion

Krivoy Rog

Distress (from the Greek dys - prefix meaning disorder + English stress - tension) -- stress, associated with expressed negative emotions and having a harmful effect on health, author: physiologist G. Selye.

Distress is a negative nonspecific reaction of the animal’s body to any external influence. The most severe form of distress is shock.

A negative type of stress that the human body is unable to cope with. It destroys a person’s moral health and can even lead to severe mental illness. Suffering from stress the immune system. People under stress are more likely to become victims of infection, since the production of immune cells drops markedly during periods of physical or mental stress.

Psychological stress is of particular importance for a person, since many events lead to stress in a person not because of their objective characteristics, but because a particular person perceives the event as a source of stress. This leads to an important principle for overcoming psychological stress: it is easier to change a person’s idea of ​​the world than the world itself.

Symptoms of distress:

o headache;

o loss of strength;

o unwillingness to do anything;

o loss of faith in the improvement of the situation in the future;

o excited state, desire to take risks;

o partial memory loss due to shock;

o reluctance to think and analyze the situation that led to a stressful state;

o changeable mood;

o fatigue, lethargy.

· What can be a source of stress:

o trauma or crisis situation;

o minor daily troubles;

o conflicts or communication with unpleasant people;

o obstacles that prevent you from achieving your goals;

o feeling of constant pressure;

o pipe dreams or too high demands on oneself;

o monotonous work;

o constant accusation, self-reproach that you have not achieved something or missed something;

o blaming yourself for everything bad that happened, even if it was not your fault;

o hard work;

o financial difficulties;

o strong positive emotions;

o quarrels with people and especially with relatives. (Watching quarrels in the family can also lead to stress.);

o moving from one country to another.

· Risk group:

o elderly people and children;

o people with low self-esteem;

o extroverts;

o neurotics;

o people who abuse alcohol;

o people with a genetic predisposition to stress.

Methods for neutralizing stress:

o Psychological (Autogenic training, meditation, rational psychotherapy, etc.)

o Physiological (Massage, acupuncture, exercise)

o Biochemical (Tranquilizers, herbal medicine)

o Physical (Sauna, hardening, water procedures)

Manifestations of distress.

Distress manifests itself differently in everyone, but there are universal characteristics. One of the obligate signs of distress is anxiety. A certain level of anxiety is characteristic of an individual, and everyone has their own optimal level of anxiety, which allows a person to function best. However, along with the productive anxiety that accompanies eustress, there is unproductive anxiety that is characteristic of distress. Unproductive anxiety disrupts cognitive and autonomic processes. It impairs attention and memory, reduces performance, increases irritability, causes excessive muscle tension, reduces appetite, and disrupts sleep.

Distress and the formation of psycho-vegetative disorders

The role of distress in the formation of psycho-vegetative disorders is enormous. Autonomic changes following distress are very diverse and can manifest themselves in almost all organs and systems of the body. Symptoms from the cardiovascular system are often manifested by an increase in heart rate, a feeling of pulsation, an increase or fluctuation in blood pressure, and a tendency to lipothymic states. From the respiratory system, there may be a feeling of lack of air with the formation of hyperventilation syndrome. From the gastrointestinal tract, nausea, retching, vomiting, loss of appetite, dyspeptic symptoms or constipation, and abdominal cramps are common. Other vegetative manifestations are also characteristic of distress: increased sweating, chills, sensations of heat or cold, a feeling of dizziness, and frequent urination. Discussed important role stress in origin panic attacks or vegetative crises. A panic attack should be considered one of the most striking manifestations of a psychovegetative syndrome, in which a polysystemic pattern of autonomic disorders and a strong emotional accompaniment in the form of panic are observed. Among the situations that can lead to the debut of panic attacks, the following stress-related events are distinguished: significant changes in life - a long-term illness or death of a loved one, divorce, separation from loved ones, etc.; events associated with changes in one’s own health - physical overload, prolonged fasting, pregnancy, abortion, childbirth, surgical interventions, somatic illness and, finally, exacerbations of conflict situations provoked by stress.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, stress-related diseases appeared - chronic fatigue syndrome and karoshi. The symptoms of CFS follow from its name. Karoshi, translated from Japanese, means “death from overwork.” Both diseases usually affect people of working age.

In the post-Soviet space, stress factors have an even more detrimental effect on people than in the relatively stable Western community. Until now, huge masses of people have not been able to adapt to the new conditions of existence. Some people think in old categories and experience constant anxiety in search of minimal means of subsistence. Others, who have a good financial situation, find themselves in stressful situations due to the conflict between imperfect laws, real life, their own conscience and at the highest pace modern life.

Destructive Thoughts Cause Distress

According to the founder of the modern doctrine of stress, Hans Selye, “destructive” thoughts, feelings and emotions, such as envy, greed, hatred, anger, vindictiveness, contempt, mistrust, suspicion, fear, jealousy, etc., shorten life and weaken the strength of personality. .d.

But not all stress is harmful to health. There are moderate, activating personality - eustress and distress - strong, long-lasting, destructive and damaging. Below we will talk mainly about distress. One of its first and main manifestations is a decrease in success in usual activities.

Growling is normal!

The body responds to any impact with adaptive reactions. Hormones and other biologically active substances are released into the blood. The lungs begin to intensively saturate the blood with oxygen, the heart contracts faster, and the arterial pressure, the muscles prepare for immediate work, the brain for a quick response. These reactions are the same for both animals and humans. An animal in a threatening situation growls, runs away, defends itself, attacks, and thereby avoids the damaging effects of stress. If an animal is placed in “human” conditions, when it cannot react in a natural way, then it will develop stress with all the consequences.

Stress chooses a target organ and stays with you forever

A person cannot react to a conflict or dangerous situation like an animal. Therefore, in any conflict or extreme situation, if not constructive activity aimed at overcoming it, tension or weakness occurs in the muscles, trembling in the body, rapid heartbeats, rapid breathing, etc. These are physical manifestations of stress, they are usually accompanied by unpleasant emotions. If stressful situation was immediate and strong or prolonged, but not intense, then soon with one memory of it all the symptoms described above may appear. In the future, these symptoms can arise as if on their own - this is how neuroses arise. Over time, stress can “choose” a “target organ” for itself. At first, the pain in it is functional in nature, and then organic changes appear. This is how a person develops hypertension, coronary artery disease, stomach ulcers, cholecystitis, colitis and many other diseases.

If you're unlucky, smile

Failure is only a response. If you want to be successful, develop strategies and tactics to overcome failure. It is not what circumstances or people do to you that is important, it is how you act in these circumstances that is important. Convert distress to eustress.

How to avoid the manifestations of stress, acquire resistance to it and remove its harmful influence?

Hans Selye believed that the main defense against stress are positive thoughts, feelings and emotions, such as love, respect, friendliness, selflessness, a sense of humor, and many others - they increase vitality and personal strength.

If you are experiencing difficulties in life, do not rush to give in to emotions, do not blame yourself, others or the current circumstances for the problems that arise. Negative emotions do not create anything, they only destroy.

Neutralize adrenaline

If you are in an acute state of stress and experience unpleasant sensations in the body and negative emotions, then try to relieve them as follows:

1. Sit comfortably, close your eyes and take ten deep breaths.

2. While sitting, place your feet on the floor and push off slightly. Hold the tension for 5-6 seconds. Then relax for the same amount of time. Repeat the exercise two to three times.

3. Clench your fists tightly for 5-6 seconds, relax your hands for 5-6 seconds and repeat the exercise several times.

4. While inhaling deeply, raise and tense your shoulders high and hold them in this position for 5-6 seconds, relax and repeat the exercise.

5. Close your jaws, clench your teeth and frown for 5-6 seconds, relax and repeat the exercise.

6. Widely, as for a smile, part your lips and raise your eyebrows for 5-6 seconds, relax and repeat the exercise.

Relax completely, close your eyes and take 5-6 deep exhalations and feel free to open your eyes. Excess adrenaline after these exercises will be neutralized. If necessary, repeat the exercises after some time.

Resistance to the physical manifestations of stress is best enhanced by jogging, as it not only trains the heart and blood vessels, but also perfectly relieves anxiety. The entire civilized world runs from stress to longevity in the morning.

DISTRESS and INSOMNIA

Unlike stress, distress is such a strong irritant that the body cannot quickly compensate using its own resources. Serious biochemical changes occur in it, a blow is struck immune system, defenses decrease and insomnia develops. Thus, it is not stress that is scary, but distress. Especially often our fruitless expectations, efforts and actions lead to distress. They do not give success because they are too high and lead to the collapse of our own hopes (frustration). Such emotional stress leaves behind noticeable biochemical consequences. Accumulating in the body, they wear out, age tissues and lead to insomnia, which requires treatment. This type of condition is called post-traumatic emotional stress reaction. It must be remembered that emotional trauma is a serious health problem and therefore you should be aware of it in order to avoid insomnia. Sleep disturbances within one month after emotional trauma are one of the main criteria for diagnosis. The main situations in life that cause stress are the loss of a job, a deterioration in the financial situation, the loss of a loved one or information about a serious illness. In today's life, pressing problems include unsuccessful search for work, family breakdown, loneliness, approaching unsecured old age, raising disabled children, and loss of one's own health. All these circumstances cause distress. There is also persistent insomnia and other manifestations of the so-called post-traumatic stress disorder nervous system that occurs following traumatic events that go beyond normal human experience. They would be a serious shock for any person. Here are tips for overcoming PTSD leading to sleep disturbances that you can try to manage on your own. - Tell your friends about your situation and listen to their opinion. Find people who can truly support you. - Describe your situation in the first person, for example, like this: “It happened to me..., I think..., I’m worried..., I feel..., I’m behaving...” Describe in detail everything that happened to you is happening. Read the text again and make corrections. After that, describe this situation in a third person. For example: “Someone is experiencing a situation..., trying to cope with it...” At the end, ask questions: - What does he (she) really want? - What can he (she) really change? - After you have formulated your thoughts on paper, try to relax: play with your child, go to the pool or gym, listen to your favorite music, walk the dog, pet the cat, dream, remember simple rules autogenic training. - Before making a decision, you need to rest and relax, or, as they used to say, “cool your head” and not make hasty decisions. Use the following relaxation techniques: 1) Take a few deep breaths to reduce nervousness and anxiety. Force yourself to breathe slowly, feeling your stomach bulge as you inhale and then fall as you exhale. 2) Stretch to relieve muscle tension. 3) Massage the target muscles. Most people have special muscles that, when stressed, tighten sharply, hardening due to the release of adrenaline. These muscles are located on the back of the neck and in the upper back in the area of ​​the shoulder girdle. Massage them for 2-5 minutes to relieve tension. 4) Press on your temples. Acupressure of the nerves at the temples indirectly relaxes certain muscles, mainly in the neck. 5) Don't clench your teeth. Open your mouth and move your jaw from left to right to relax the muscles. 6) Expand your chest to make breathing easier. Take a deep breath and exhale. Then, lift your shoulders up and back, and then relax. Inhale deeply (shoulders back) and exhale, relaxing your shoulders. Repeat 4-5 times, and again take a deep breath and exhale. Do this cycle 4 times. 7) Relax completely. Starting from the top of your head or your toes, simultaneously tense symmetrical muscle groups on the right and left, hold for a few seconds and relax. Work consistently with the muscles of the legs, chest, arms, head and neck. 8) Hold your hands under the stream hot water until you realize that the tension is passing. 9) Rinse your face with cool water. Move around, do some exercises, because tired muscles are relaxed muscles. Exercise burns off chemicals that are produced during stress. 10) Listen to soothing music. This is very powerful tool combat stress. There are cassettes with relaxing music on sale, although it is enough to listen to any recording of a pleasant melodic nature. This way, you don't have to go to a special lecture or class and waste time dealing with stress. Are you prepared enough for independent work. You can be sure that your decision after following these tips will be correct and the result will be successful. Remember: “no matter what your health is, it will last for the rest of your life.” Here alarms, which indicate that stress threatens health and requires immediate contact with a specialist: - chronic insomnia; - drowsiness; - insurmountable anxiety; - attacks of dizziness or loss of consciousness; - increased heart rate that does not decrease; - sweaty palms; - trembling of the limbs and a feeling of internal trembling; - rash; - chronic or acute headache; - pain in the back or neck. The general rule is that you need to see a doctor for treatment if you have never had these symptoms before and their occurrence is difficult to explain by anything other than stress.

American scientists have discovered how emotional distress can cause heart attack-like symptoms.

Colleagues (Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore) found that stressful life events (eg, death of a relative, car accident, speaking in front of an unfamiliar audience, etc.) can cause severe, but fortunately reversible, left ventricular dysfunction ( LV). Stress-induced cardiomyopathy is apparently a type of myocardial “stunning” caused by sympathetic hyperstimulation. The authors observed 19 patients with LV dysfunction that developed after sudden emotional stress. The participants were predominantly female (n=18); average age was 63 years old. Clinical manifestations included pain in chest, pulmonary edema and cardiogenic shock. Most patients had T wave inversion and QT interval prolongation. Troponin I levels were slightly elevated in 17, but only one patient had angiographic evidence of CAD. Despite the significant severity of LV dysfunction upon admission, it disappeared quite quickly, within 2-4 weeks. The mean ejection fraction increased from 20% to 60% (p<0.001). Пяти участникам была выполнена биопсия миокарда, выявившая мононуклеарную инфильтрацию и некроз сократительных мостиков. Уровни катехоламинов плазмы сравнивались у 13 больных со стрессогенной дисфункцией ЛЖ и 7 больных с инфарктом миокарда, классом III по Killip. В первой группе были достоверно выше уровни адреналина (1264 против 376 пг/мл), норадреналина (2284 против 1100 пг/мл) и допамина (111 против 106 пг/мл) (р<0.005). Признавая, что связь между симпатической стимуляцией и оглушением миокарда до сих пор мало изучена, авторы, тем не менее, предполагают, что стрессогенная ишемия может быть вызвана спазмом эпикардиальных коронарных артерий, спазмом микрососудов или прямым повреждением сердечной мышцы. При адекватной медицинской помощи на начальном этапе, прогноз при стрессогенной кардиомиопатии хороший. При необходимости терапия может включать вазодилататоры, диуретики, механическую циркуляторную поддержку. Прессоры и бета-агонисты лучше не назначать, ввиду массивного выброса катехоламинов при данной патологии/

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