What are the different types of stress?

ACUTE STRESS
Acute stress is usually brief. It is the most common and frequent presentation. Acute stress is most often
caused by reactive thinking. Negative thoughts predominate about situations or events that have recently
occurred, or upcoming situations, events, or demands in the near future.

For example, if you have recently been involved in an argument, you may have acute stress related to
negative thoughts that are repetitive about the argument. Or you may have acute stress that is about an
upcoming work deadline, again the stress is thought induced. However, most often when the thinking
induced stress is reduced or removed the stress will subside too.

Short-term Effects of Acute Stress

The most common signs + symptoms:

Transient Emotional distress — some combination of anger or irritability, anxiety and depression.
Transient Muscular distress—tension, headache, back pain, neck pain, jaw pain, and other muscular
tensions that lead to pulled muscles and tendons and ligament problems.
Transient stomach, gut and bowel problems, heartburn, acid stomach, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation.
Transient hyper-arousal—elevated blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, rapid pulse, sweaty palms, heart
palpitations, dizziness, migraine headaches, cold hands or feet, shortness of breath, sleep problems, and
chest pain.

EPISODIC ACUTE STRESS

People who frequently experience acute stress, or whose lives present with frequent triggers of stress, have
episodic acute stress.

The individuals who frequently suffer acute stress often live a life of chaos and crisis. They are always in a
rush or feel pressured. They take on many responsibilities, and usually can not stay organized with so many
time demands. These individuals are perpetually in the grips of acute stress overload.

There are 2 main personality types that frequently present with Episodic Acute Stress:

1. “Type A” personality”: Type A personality have an excessive competitive drive, aggressiveness,

impatience, abrupt, and a sense of time urgency. In addition, Type A personality presents as reactive
with hostility, and almost always a deep-seated insecurity about performance. These personality traits
create frequent episodes of acute stress for the Type A individual. The cardiologists, Friedman and
Rosenman found Type A’s to be significantly likely to develop coronary heart disease.

2. The “Worrier”: The Worrier presents with almost incessant negative thoughts causing episodic acute
stress on physical and mental health. “Worry warts” project probable disaster and negatively forecast
catastrophe in almost every situation. They have core beliefs that the world is a dangerous,
unrewarding, punitive place where something awful is always about to happen. These negative binge
thinkers also tend to be over aroused and tense, but are more anxious and depressed than angry and
hostile. Their thoughts are frequently filled with “What if….” statements that are with projected
negative outcomes. They are often diagnosed DSM-5 with generalized anxiety disorder.

Episodic Effects of Acute Stress

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The most common signs + symptoms are similar to acute stress, but due to the extended frequent over
arousal or extended hyperarousal there is ongoing damage and suffering.

 Emotional distress —anger or irritability, anxiety and depression, short-tempered, impatient, tense.
 Cognitive distress: compromised attention/concentration, compromised processing speed,
compromised new learning and new learning memory consolidation and retrieval, and mental fatigue.
 Interpersonal relationships deteriorate, The workplace becomes a very stressful place for them.
 Muscular distress—tension, headache, back pain, jaw pain, pulled muscles, tendons, and ligament
problems.
 Stomach, gut, bowel problems, heartburn, acid stomach, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, irritable
bowel syndrome (IBS).
 High blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, heart palpitations, dizziness, migraine headaches,
cold hands or feet, shortness of breath, insomnia, chest pain, and heart disease.
 Immune System Compromise: frequent colds/flu, allergies, asthma, and other immune system
compromise illnesses.

CHRONIC STRESS
Chronic stress is the most harmful type of stress. If chronic stress is left untreated over a long period of
time, it can significantly and often irreversibly damage your physical health and deteriorate your mental
health.

For example, long term poverty, repeated abuse in any form, unemployment, dysfunctional family, poor
work environment, substance abuse, or an unhappy marriage can cause significant chronic stress.

Chronic stress can also set in when an individual feels hopeless, does not see an escape from the cause of
stress, and gives up on seeking solutions.

Chronic stress can be caused by a aversive experiences in childhood or traumatic experiences later in life.

When an individual lives with chronic stress, his/her behavioral actions and emotional reactions become
ingrained. There is change in the hardwiring of the neurobiology of the brain and body. There by making
them constantly prone to the hazardous stress effects on the body + mind+ cognitive regardless of the
scenarios.

“People with chronic stress have the list of signs and symptoms previously mentioned, but the signs
and symptoms are chronic and can result in a physical and mental breakdown that can lead to suicide,
violent actions, homicide, psychosis, heart attacks, and strokes.”

Chronic stress is grinding stress. It wears people away day after day, year after year. Chronic stress destroys
lives, bodies, and minds. It wreaks havoc through long-term attrition. It is the stress of poverty,
dysfunctional families, violence, abuse, trauma, despised job, ethnic rivalry, war.

What is a Stressor?
Stressors are situations that are experienced as a perceived threat to one’s well-being or position in life,
especially if the challenge of dealing with it exceeds a person’s perceived available resources.

When one encounters stressors, the body’s stress response is triggered, and a series of physiological
changes take place to allow the person to fight or run. If this sounds like stress, it's because sometimes
when people talk about ‘stress’ in their life, they are really talking about stressors; stressors lead to the
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body’s stress response and the experience of stress. The important thing to remember, basically, is that
stressors are the cause of stress.

What is a defense mechanism?

Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from
anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.
We use defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or guilt, which arise because we
feel threatened, or because our id or superego becomes too demanding.

Defense mechanisms operate at an unconscious level and help ward off unpleasant feelings (i.e., anxiety) or
make good things feel better for the individual.
Ego-defense mechanisms are natural and normal. When they get out of proportion (i.e., used with
frequency), neuroses develop, such as anxiety states, phobias, obsessions, or hysteria.

What is Frustration?
Frustration is the hollow state of mind which occurs when a goal response is blocked. In other words, it
occurs when satisfaction of needs is interfered with or blocked.
One major element of maladjustment that is consistently repeated in almost all the causes of maladjusted
behavior is frustration. Frustration may be due to familial conditions, school atmosphere, personal
inadequacy or peer group relationship.

Frustration could take place under two circumstances:

When the biological, psychological and social needs of the students are not fulfilled or satisfied
When the individual faces conflicting situations or moral dilemmas

Before going ahead, let us understand the difference between conflict and frustration. Yes, there is a
difference between conflict and frustration. The latter (frustration) is the product or the consequence of
the dissatisfaction of needs, whereas, the former (conflict) is the process, or one of the factors responsible
for causing frustration.
Conflict is the operation of two incompatible action systems, it may be drives; needs, values, tendencies
and impulses. The individual finds it difficult to make a choice between two conflicting situations.

A conflict is caused under two situations:

First, it (conflict) arises when there is an urge to fulfill the two equally important objectives, needs, drives,
values, tendencies and impulses. This situation of conflict is exemplified in the following situation.
Second, conflict arises when two different goals are set to fulfill a single need. For example, a young girl
wants to establish herself as a social scientist. There are many ways through which she can get recognition.
She can work hard as a committed researcher and achieve her objective, or can seek the influence of the
higher authority in the department and get the academic recognition, without working on it.
She is in a dilemma, whether to seriously work or achieve the goal through easy means. Often, people find
easy means to come up in life, eventually gain, but this leads to tension and anxiety.

Types of Conflict:

Interpersonal conflict
refers to a conflict between two individuals. This occurs typically due to how people are different from one
another. We have varied personalities which usually results to incompatible choices and opinions.
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Apparently, it is a natural occurrence which can eventually help in personal growth or developing your
relationships with others. In addition, coming up with adjustments is necessary for managing this type of
conflict. However, when interpersonal conflict gets too destructive, calling in a mediator would help so as to
have it resolved.

Intrapersonal conflict
occurs within an individual. The experience takes place in the person’s mind. Hence, it is a type of conflict
that is psychological involving the individual’s thoughts, values, principles and emotions. Interpersonal
conflict may come in different scales, from the simpler mundane ones like deciding whether or not to go
organic for lunch to ones that can affect major decisions such as choosing a career path. Furthermore, this
type of conflict can be quite difficult to handle if you find it hard to decipher your inner struggles. It leads to
restlessness and uneasiness, or can even cause depression. In such occasions, it would be best to seek a
way to let go of the anxiety through communicating with other people. Eventually, when you find yourself
out of the situation, you can become more empowered as a person. Thus, the experience evoked a positive
change which will help you in your own personal growth.

Intragroup conflict
is a type of conflict that happens among individuals within a team. The incompatibilities and
misunderstandings among these individuals lead to an intragroup conflict. It is arises from interpersonal
disagreements (e.g. team members have different personalities which may lead to tension) or differences in
views and ideas (e.g. in a presentation, members of the team might find the notions presented by the one
presiding to be erroneous due to their differences in opinion). Within a team, conflict can be helpful in
coming up with decisions which will eventually allow them to reach their objectives as a team. However, if
the degree of conflict disrupts harmony among the members, then some serious guidance from a different
party will be needed for it to be settled.

Intergroup conflict
takes place when a misunderstanding arises among different teams within an organization. For instance,
the sales department of an organization can come in conflict with the customer support department. This is
due to the varied sets of goals and interests of these different groups. In addition, competition also
contributes for intergroup conflict to arise. There are other factors which fuel this type of conflict. Some of
these factors may include a rivalry in resources or the boundaries set by a group to others which
establishes their own identity as a team.

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