Question

Stress and it's management, discuss three main stressors. Stressors are the things that upset or excite us. Basically, they are the things that cause us stress. In at least four paragraphs, describe some three main stressors. Discuss how you can currently manage them. If you are not consciously managing them, discuss how you could be managing them based on the some techniques.

Answer 1

Stress management would be complicated because there are different types of stressors: acute stressors, episodic acute stressors, and chronic stressors. They come with its own distinctiveness, symptoms, interval and healing approaches.

1. Acute stressors

Acute stressor is the most common form of stressor. It comes from demands and pressures of the recent past and predictable demands and pressures of the near future.

Acute stress is thrilling and exciting in small doses, but too much is exhausting. A fast run down a challenging ski slope is exciting early in the day. That same ski run late in the day is strenuous and tiring. Skiing beyond your limits would lead to falls and broken bones.

By the same token, overdoing on short-term stress would lead to psychological distress, tension headaches, upset stomach and other symptoms.

Acute stress symptoms are accepted by most people. It's a laundry list of what has gone awry in their lives: the auto accident that crumpled the car fender, the loss of an important contract, a deadline they're rushing to meet, their child's occasional problems at school and so on.

Because it is short term, acute stress doesn't have enough time to do the far-reaching damage associated with long-term stress.

The general symptoms are:

• Emotional distress — some mixture of anger or bad temper, anxiety and depression, the three stress emotions.
• Muscular troubles including tension headache, back pain, jaw pain and the muscular tensions that lead to pulled muscles and tendon and ligament problems.
• Stomach, gut and bowel problems such as heartburn, acid stomach, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation and irritable bowel syndrome.
• Fleeting over-arousal leads to rise in blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, heart palpitations, faintness, migraine headaches, cold hands or feet, dumpiness of breath and chest pain.

Acute stressors are often treatable and manageable.

2. Episodic acute stressors

There are those who suffer acute stress frequently, whose lives are so chaotic that they are studies in chaos and crisis. They're always in a rush, but always late. If something would go wrong, it does.

They take on too much and would not categorize the slew of self-inflicted demands and pressures clamoring for their attention. They seem continually in the clutches of acute stress.

It is common for people with acute stress reactions to be over aroused, short-tempered, bad-tempered, nervous and tense. They are always in a hurry, they tend to be abrupt, and sometimes their bad temper comes across as hostility.

Interpersonal relations get worse quickly when others respond with real hostility. The workplace becomes a very stressful place for them.

Another form of episodic acute stress comes from ceaseless worry. "Worry warts" see disaster around every corner and negatively forecast catastrophe in every situation. The world is a dangerous, unrewarding, punitive place where something awful is always about to happen. These persons tend to be over aroused and tense, but are more anxious and depressed than angry and hostile.

The symptoms of episodic acute stress are the symptoms of extended over arousal: persistent tension headaches, migraines, hypertension, chest pain and heart disease. Treating episodic acute stress requires interference on a number of levels, generally requiring professional help, which may take many months.

Standard of living and character issues are habitual with these individuals that they see nothing wrong with the way they conduct their lives. They hold responsible their woes on other people and external events. They see their lifestyle, their patterns of interacting with others, and their ways of perceiving the world as part and parcel of who and what they are.

The persons affected by this stressor would be fiercely resistant to change. Only the promise of relief from pain and discomfort of their symptoms would keep them in treatment and on track in their recovery program.

Chronic stressors

This is the grinding stress that wears people away day after day, year after year. Chronic stress destroys bodies, minds and lives. It wreaks havoc through long-term attrition. It's the stress of poverty, of dysfunctional families, of being trapped in an unhappy marriage or in a despised job or career.

Chronic stressors come when an individual never sees a way out of a unhappy situation. It's the stress of unrelenting demands and pressures for seemingly interminable periods of time. With no hope, the individual gives up searching for solutions.

Some chronic stressors stem from traumatic, early childhood experiences that become internalized and remain forever painful and present.

A view of the world is created that causes unending stress for the individual. When personality or deep-seated convictions and beliefs must be reformulated, healing requires vigorous self-examination, often with professional help.

Chronic stressors kills through suicide, violence, heart attack, stroke and even cancer. As the physical and mental resources are exhausted through long-term attrition, the symptoms of chronic stress are not easy to treat and may require comprehensive medical as well as behavioral treatment and stress management.