Role that stress plays in an individual’s health and wellbeing

Introduction

Stress is caused by different events called stressors and it is considered to be the stimulus that triggers the feeling of stress among the individuals. Stress has its critical impacts on human being where the health and wellbeing of the individuals are being affected negatively for excessive stress (Afifi et al., 2020). The study provides a scope to identify the factors of stress as well as analysing the impacts of stress on the physical health and wellbeing of the individuals in the society. Through this study, it is possible to analyse the theories and practice of stress including cognitive appraisal, general adaption syndrome of stress as well as the Chronic and acute stressors and its impact health and wellbeing. The discussion is hereby beneficial to understand the factors of stress and its impacts on human life.

Cognitive appraisal

Cognitive appraisal is based on Lazarus & Folkman’s transactional approach (1984), which focuses on identifying the factors of primary and secondary cognitive appraisal, which stimulates stress among the invidiously. It focuses on analysing whether there is threatening situation for the individuals, as well as analysing whether there is sufficient resources to meet the own perceived needs. In order to fulfil the demand of the individual, it is mandatory to identify the resources availability as well as analysing whether there is dangerous situation or not (Gomes and Teixeira, 2016). These are primary cognitive stimuli that have crucial impacts on individual stress. In a certain situation or event, the person first find the primary threats, if there is no threat, there is also stress for the individual (Afifi et al., 2020). On the other hand, if there is primary threat, the individual is trying to cope up with it and mitigate the stress level, and if the person is not able to handle the threat, there arise serious stress. Hence, environmental resources and atmosphere play a crucial role in maintaining the individual stress level (McCarty, 2016). As per the theory, there are also coping strategy through which it is possible to cope up with the threatened situation and individual stress. Stressors are the events or condition surrounding the individual that may trigger stress over the body of the person response to the situation depending on the intensity of the situation (Saraiya et al., 2019). It is considered to be a particular event or environment that influences the individuals to become restless and raise anxiety among the human being (Essaimathi and Sidorenko, 2019). There are several types of stressors such as acute time limited stressor, stressful event sequences, chronic stressors and distant stressors which have crucial impacts on the stress level of the individual (McCarty, 2016). There are several stressors in the environment which create stress among the individuals and the major stressors are such as lots of pressure, facing big issues, dangerous situation and unavoidable environment, having responsibility, work pressure and time of uncertainty (Martin et al., 2018). As per the cognitive appraisal, the individuals can overcome their stress kevel and stabilize their health condition over the period of time as stress has its negative impacts on health and wellbeing of the individual (Gomes and Teixeira, 2016).

General Adaptation syndrome

General Adaptation syndrome described the pattern that body responses with being promoted by a stressor. There are three stages of General Adaptation syndrome which are alarm, resistance and exhaustion. Alarm is related to acute short term intense response where the individual can cope up with the stress level in short time (Essaimathi and Sidorenko, 2019). On the other hand, resistance is a chronic long term and less resistance response among the individuals as well as exhaustion refers to body to longer able to resist the stressors. These three phases are important to identify the level of stress and its impacts on the wellbeing of the individuals. Minor stressors are such as for example running for the bus, falling on roads or missing cell phones and on the other hand, the major stressors are such as death of family members, developing chronic illness and undergoing surgery (McCarty, 2016). These gave crucial impacts on the body of the individuals where the mind set and health condition both are hampered for such stress level. The minor stressor may exist in the first stage which is alarm where the individual is able to cope up with the situation and mitigate the stressor within effective period of time (Martin et al., 2018).

On the other hand, in the alarm stage, there is activation of the sympathetic nervous system and if the stressor is acute the individual can easily emerge from the alarm stage through activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (Martin et al., 2018). In the resistance stage, the stress level is chronic and the body may be able to adjust with the dangerous satiation and repair the damage of the stressor over the period of time where body function may be able to return to normal. If the body function is not able to resist the situation and cope up with the stressor, it enters into exhaustion stage, where the individuals face difficulties to avoid the stress (Gomes, Faria and Lopes, 2016). Stressors trigger the individual body in the exhaustion stage where there is progressive physiological damage and vulnerability to disease related to hypoglycaemia, suppression of the immune system of the invidiously, adrenal failure, decrease tolerance of stress as well as Ulceration of the GI tract, Psycho physiological disorders/ death and muscle wasting (Saraiya et al., 2019). These are the major impacts of chronic stress where the individuals enter into the exhaustion stage as per the General Adaptation syndrome proposed by Selye (1956) (Serikov, 2017). It can be stated that there is serious impacts of the stress level on the health and wellbeing of the individuals and it is important for the person to choose effective tactic to overcome the dangerous situation and cope up with the stress.

Chronic and acute stressors and its impact health and wellbeing

Chronic and acute stressors have its impacts on the human being, where the individuals are suffering to lead a normal lifestyle. There are physical health and mental health impacts. High blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes are the most common physical health issues, arose from stress. On the other hand, the mental health issues are also increasing at a rapid rate and the mental health issues are such as anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, or frustration, social isolation, restlessness, irritability, helplessness as well as depression and personality disorder, where the human being is not able to lead a normal healthy life. Evidence Vulcano et al., (1984): The prevalence of psychosomatic disorders among a sample of police officers suggests that the police officers are suffering from physiological and psychological issues over the period of time due to high stress level in their occupation and personal life (Essaimathi and Sidorenko, 2019). There are high chance of having high blood pressure, asthma, ulcers, and colitis among the police officers.

On the other hand, another study Costa et al. (1995): Psychophysical conditions of air traffic controllers evaluated by the standard shift-work index revealed that the air traffic controllers also face issues to maintain their work life balance due to shifting work and it has critical health impacts among them. Former controllers are suffering from minor psychological disorders and chronic fatigue as well as other diseases including dysfunction of nervous system, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular systems (Serikov, 2017). It is hereby explored that, the chronic and acute stressors have critical impacts on the health and wellbeing of the individuals, where it becomes difficult for the individuals to cope up with the stress level and lead a normal life. The mental disorders and psychological problems are rising at a rapid rate among the people recently due to high stress level, where they fail to lead a healthy life style due to depression, anxiety, and social isolation and personality disorders.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that stress is considered to be a serious issue in everyday’s life, where the people in the recant years are facing challenges to cope up with different stress. There are critical impacts of stress on human being where the individuals are suffering from physical health deterioration and poor mental health condition. The major physical health impacts of stress are such as cardiovascular diseases, headache, high blood pressure, fatigues, insomnia etc and on the other hand, ether are mental health impacts of chronic stressors which are social isolation, restlessness, helplessness as well as anxiety disorders, insomnia, dementia, Difficulty concentrating, trauma, Emotional numbness, irritability and hyper vigilance. The mental illness is being rising at a rapid rate among the individuals for the acute and chronic stressors, where the individual’s health and wellbeing is also being hampered in long run. The evidences above also suggest the same, that there are serious effects of stress including chronic and acute stressors on the individual health and wellbeing, where the people fail to lead a normal and healthy lifestyle in long run and it is difficult for them to cope up with the critical situation.

Reference List

Afifi, T.D., Harrison, K., Zamanzadeh, N. and Acevedo Callejas, M., 2020. Testing the theory of resilience and relational load in dual career families: relationship maintenance as stress management. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 48(1), pp.5-25.

Essaimathi, S. and Sidorenko, L., 2019. General adaptation syndrome. In NANO-2019: Limits of Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies (pp. 66-66).

Gomes, A.R. and Teixeira, P.M., 2016. Stress, cognitive appraisal and psychological health: testing instruments for health professionals. Stress and Health, 32(2), pp.167-172.

Gomes, A.R., Faria, S. and Lopes, H., 2016. Stress and psychological health: Testing the mediating role of cognitive appraisal. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 38(11), pp.1448-1468.

Martin, L., Oepen, R., Bauer, K., Nottensteiner, A., Mergheim, K., Gruber, H. and Koch, S.C., 2018. Creative arts interventions for stress management and prevention—a systematic review. Behavioral Sciences, 8(2), p.28.

McCarty, R., 2016. The alarm phase and the general adaptation syndrome: two aspects of Selye’s inconsistent legacy. In Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior (pp. 13-19). Academic Press.

Saraiya, T., Fareri, D., López-Castro, T., Hien, D., Fertuck, E. and Melara, R., 2019. The social cognitive appraisal of trustworthiness in individuals with dimensional levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms: a translational study. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10(1), p.1697582.

Serikov, K.V., 2017. Changes of the stress-limiting system indicators in patients with hemorrhagic stroke at the stages of the general adaptation syndrome development during intensive therapy. EMERGENCY MEDICINE, (6.85), pp.62-66.

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