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STRESS
Florina Nechita, PhD.
 WHAT IS STRESS
• general non-specific reaction of the organism to the external action of some factors -
stressors - of a varied nature (physical, chemical, biological and psychic)

MEANING…
• The intense psychological and psysical tension people feel during, after or while confronting
events (adaptive)
+
• The belief that this is hurting them (distress, impedes change and adaptation)
 WHAT CAUSES STRESS
• The inconsistency between the perception of one's resources or vulnerabilities and the perception
of imposed requirements (subjective character)

• There are too few perceived resources AND the requirements of the situation appear to be too high

• Stress is used to adapt

• To external reality – healthy
• To my lack of resources - unhealthy

• Examples of expressions describing stress

• It’s too hard for me
• I’m too weak
• I can’t do it
 HOW STRESS WORKS
1. We perceive the threat (our mind – conscious or unconscious)
2. Our body AUTOMATICALLY goes into fight/flight/freeze mode (the limbic system triggers
the reponse in the body)
3. We react:
A. If our control is threatened we fight
i. We defy
ii. We get involved (defense or attack)
B. If we already lost control we hide
i. We abandon
ii. We obey (passivity)
 STRESS RELATED SITUATIONS
1. Threat
2. Frustration
3. Conflict
4. Solving some difficult issues
5. Loss
6. Overload
7. Underload
8. Prolonged negative affective states
 TYPES OF STRESS
• ACUTE stress – something bad, overwhelming just happened and I have to
deal with it

• CHRONIC stress – something bad happened at some point and I’ve been
trying to deal with it ever since
 ACUTE STRESS (1 OF 2)
1. Mimic - tense / anxious / depressed
2. Muscle tension - tension / fainting
3. Behavior
a. Active: talkativeness, anger, agitation motor, sexual inhibition
b. Passive: blockage, horror, vertigo (dizziness)
4. Cardio-respiratory changes
a. Breathing: hyperventilation
b. Pulse: tachycardia, bradycardia, extrasystoles
c. TA: growth, collapse (fainting)
d. Circulatory manifestations: cold, pale extremities
 ACUTE STRESS (2 OF 2)
5. Stress hormones
a. catecholamines
b. plasma, urinary and salivary cortisol
c. other hormones (GH, ACTH, PRL, etc.)
d. opioids (endorphins)
6. Blood sugar levels
7. Free fatty acids, cholesterol
8. Psychophysiological indicators (eg. reaction time)
 HOW ACUTE STRESS BECOMES
CHRONIC STRESS
• If acute stress is dealt with in a healthy way, then it heals (it’s a process)

• If acute stress is dealt with in an unhealthy way, then it becomes cronic stress
• As long as there is an inconsistency between the perception of one's resources or vulnerabilities
and the imposed requirements
 CHRONIC STRESS
• Acute prolonged stress to which the individual has adapted (to stress, not to
reality) and is trying to survive

• Cognitive impairment
• Affective disorders
• Behavioral disorders
 COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN
CHRONIC STRESS
• Decrease of attention, memory
• Ideological jam
• Decreasing imagination and creation
• Self-Mistrust
• Lack of hope
• Helplessness
• Over-estimation of difficulties
 AFFECTIVE DISORDERS IN
CHRONIC STRESS
• irritability, rebellion, anger
• shame, embarrassment
• unexplained anxiety, panic (different degrees of anxiety), horror
• fear, phobiaimpatience, aggression, annoyance
• apathy, boredom, asthenia
• sadness, reduced joy of life, feeling of futility
• psychogenic insomnia
• indecision vs. obstinacy
• the decrease of will vs. too much effort
 BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS IN
CHRONIC STRESS
1. Excessive "consumption„ = addiction
• Coffee, alcohol - food in general
2. Low control over personal life
• negligent appearance, delays in work, non-compliance with commitments
3. Problems with legislation/authority
• debts, fines, rampage, theft etc.
4. Self closing, isolation, refusal to work
5. Excessive and contrasting attitudes towards the disease
• the refusal to acknowledge and accept the there’s something wrong vs. excessive
concern over the possibility of the illness
 CHRONIC STRESS
1. Psychological Symptoms:
• focus of attention disorders, attention, memory = loss of intellectual performance
• Physical (and psychic) exhaustion, frequent illnesses
• Functional and psychosomatic disorders (insomnia, fatigue etc.)

2. Physical Symptoms:
• Weight Changes (Slimming / Fattening)
• Appetite disorders (loss of appetite / hyperphagia), transit (constipation / diarrhea)
• Sexual dynamics disorders
 EMOTIONS USED IN COPING
• Annoyance/offense (the result of the threat of loss of self-esteem and
social self-esteem) - we blaim the other person

• Guilt (the same - violation of moral norms) – we blaim ourselves

• Fear / anxiety - danger / threat

• Sadness - irreversible loss, helplessness related to weights or losses.

 EMOTIONS USED IN COPING
• Shame – the intensely painful feeling or experience of beliving that we
are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging – Brene
Brown

• Humiliation – being reduced to a lower position and fighting it

 COPING MECHANISMS

• Conscious strategies of adjusting to tension

• Automatic + conditioned by the situation

1. Behavioral coping: Example - Problem focused coping (cognitive and emotional)

2. Emotional coping: Example - Emotion focused coping
3. Cognitive coping: Example - Appraisal focused coping
 PROBLEM FOCUSED COPING
• Reversible situations
• Mental evaluation of possibilities

1. evoking previous experience (successes in the same situations);

2. counting on social support;
3. seeking information and means;
4. developing an action plan (reassurance, easement).
 EMOTION FOCUSED COPING
• Hopeless/irreparable situations
• Passive strategy, used for "forgetting„ the experience

• denial (partially conscious behavior);

• resignation;
• fatalism;
• aggressiveness (this as a reaction of blind rebellion against destiny).
 APPRAISAL FOCUSED COPING
• Reducing the difference initially perceived between the degree of threat
and one's resources => tolerable situation

• Positive reinterpretation

• Examples:
• Changing our opinion about someone when we see them in a different
situation than usual