Holy Rosary Academy of Las Piñas City

Lesson #7

COPING WITH STRESS

 Learning Objectives:
 Explain that understanding stress and its sources during
adolescence may help in identify way to cope and have a
healthful life.
 Identify the sources of stress and illustrate its effect on one’s
system.
 Explain the physiological and psychological mechanisms
underlying stress.
 demonstrate personal ways of coping with stress for healthful
living.
 Topics in this lesson

 Stress and Stressors

 Stress Factors
 Managing Stress
 Motivational Question!

What causes a person to experience

stress and how could one handle it
effectively?
 Differentiate:

Stress and Stressors

 What is Stress?

Stress is a natural response to the demands of our

environment. To put it more succinctly, stress is a
physiological response to a physical or psychological threat.
It is a normal reaction to anything that can disturb our
balance, commonly termed as homeostatic state or
equilibrium.
 What is Stress?
Hans Selye, an Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist, associates stress
with mental, emotional, and physical states produced within the
organism in response to stimulus (either internal or external) that is
perceived as threat (Selye, 1976).
Walter Cannon, an American physiologist, calls it the “fight or flight”
syndrome (Cannon, 1939). It is physiologic reaction accompanied by
faster heart rate, muscle tension, or dilation of pupil when a person
perceives threat in order to survive danger. The fight or flight syndrome
is our initial reaction to stress.
 What is Stress?
Stress can be considered either positive or negative depending on
one’s capacity to handle stressors. A little amount of stress enables us
to adapt and function normally.

The term “stress” is actually borrowed from the field of Physics. It

means strain pressure or force in a system. In the context of human
begins, the strain or stress makes our mind and body threat. This is
our way to cope in order to alleviate ourselves from the effects of
stress.
 What is Stress?
How does an event, place, or even people cause us stress?
There are factors to consider such us frequency, intensity, and duration
of stress. Does the source of stress happen very often?

When it happens, how serious is it?

How is it affecting you?
How long has been going on?
Chronic and severe stress is a threat to health. Prolonged stress
dampens our immune system.
 What is Stress?
Chronic and severe stress is a threat to health. It can dull our
system because we get used to it. Prolonged stress cause
fatigue, dampens our immune system, and eventually diseases
set in.
Researches has shown that stress can lead to medical
disorders like gastric ulcers, heart disease, asthma, and even
skin disorders. (cited Miller and Blackwell, 2006; Wargo, 2007).
Thus, it is important that we identify the sources of stress before
they build up and cause us strains and serious illness.
 What is Stress?
Chronic and severe stress is a threat to health. It can dull our
system because we get used to it. Prolonged stress cause
fatigue, dampens our immune system, and eventually diseases
set in.
Researches has shown that stress can lead to medical
disorders like gastric ulcers, heart disease, asthma, and even
skin disorders. (cited Miller and Blackwell, 2006; Wargo, 2007).
Thus, it is important that we identify the sources of stress before
they build up and cause us strains and serious illness.
Stress
Not all stress are bad
It affects everyone differently and too
much stress can cause serious health
issues
It is a part of life and needs to be
managed in order to be healthy and
happy
Stress
It is the body‘s response to certain
situations.
It can be a good help in achieving goals.
It can affect your physical and mental
health as well as your behavior.
Stress
Stress as stimulus
Stress as response
Stress as relational
 Stress Factors
PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTOR
Hans Selye, an Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist, proposed the
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) to explain our body’s
response to stress (Selye, 1974)

Alarm Stage Resistance Exhaustion

Stage Stage
 HPA-CRH-ACTH
Whenever one encounters a physical or psychological stressor, the HPA axis is
activated. The HPA response starts when the hypothalamus, a part in the limbic
system, secretes corticotropin- secretes releasing hormones (CRH) that
stimulates the pituitary gland to release the hormone ACTH or adrenocorticotropic
hormones. ACTH then directs the adrenal glands to secretes more hormones,
including epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol w/c releases sugar into the
blood, helping in preparing the body to response to threat.
Thus, when a person is under stress, the hormonal level in the blood increases
and may cause high blood pressure and other diseases.
 Psychological Factors
Cognitive Symptoms Emotional Symptoms
 Memory problems  Moodiness
 Inability to concentrate  Irritability or short temper
 Poor judgment  Agitation, inability or relax
 Seeing only the negative  Feeling overwhelmed
 Anxious or racing thoughts  Sense of loneliness and isolation
 Constant worrying  Depression or general unhappiness

Physical Symptoms Behavioral Symptoms

 Headaches  Eating more or less
 Back pains  Sleeping too much or too little
 Diarrhea or constipation  Isolating oneself
 Frequent colds  Procrastinating
 Rapid heartbeat  Forgetting or neglecting obligations
 Dizziness
 Emotion-Focused and Problem-Focused Coping
Emotion-focused coping Problem-focused coping
behavior behavior
Eating more or eating less Talking with the person
concerned
Sleeping more or sleeping less Researching about the topic

Excessive playing of computer Talking with friends about the

games opinion
Crying, shouting Strategizing