Psychology for Dummies (89 page)

Extreme stressors:
Events that occur rarely and that are extremely stressful, such as natural disasters, human-made disasters (such as an oil spill), war, terrorism, migration, and watching others get hurt

Developmental and psychosocial stressors:
Events that occur as you grow and change — marriage, childbirth, raising children, caring for a sick person, and being a teenager

Common stressors:
Things you deal with in daily life — urban living, losing a job, daily hassles (like driving to work), pressure on the job, and household chores

Event	Point Value
Death of a spouse	100
Divorce	73
Marital separation	65
Jail sentence	63
Death of a close family member	63

 

One of the most well-known psychological results of exposure to extreme stress is
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
PTSD can occur when a person is exposed to a life-threatening situation or a situation that might involve serious injury. War, car accidents, plane crashes, rape, and physical assault are all examples of situations that may cause PTSD. The symptoms include emotional numbing, guilt, insomnia, impaired concentration, avoidance of trauma- related events and memories, and excessive physiological arousal (hyperactivity due to fear). Many Vietnam War veterans returned home with PTSD. During World War II, PTSD was called
shellshock.

Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be a firefighter, police officer, or emergency physician? All the death and destruction that they see every day has to be stressful. According to research, it is. People in very stressful occupations have been found to be at increased risk for
secondary traumatic stress disorder (STSD).
The symptoms of STSD are exactly like those of PTSD, but instead of the sufferers, themselves, facing a life-threatening or harmful stressor, they receive “vicarious exposure” to these stressors. In other words, they’re around people who are exposed to life-threatening and harmful situations all the time, and it takes a toll. People who witness an event and feel fear, horror, or helplessness may be at risk for developing STSD.

Hans Selye looked at the connections between stress, mental problems, difficulties adjusting, physical health problems, and disease. He found that the same things that help us cope with stress sometimes also can lead to disease. When our bodies and minds react to stress, the reactions don’t diminish right away. In fact, when Selye performed experiments with stressed out pigeons, he found that a lot of the pigeons died after his stress experiments, even if they “coped” well. He identified several conditions that he called “diseases of adaptation,” including peptic ulcers, high blood pressure, heart accidents, and “nervous disturbances.”

Based on the work of Selye and others, we’ve discovered that stress can lead to physical health problems or illness in several ways. An indirect link between stress and physical health problems may involve people who engage in potentially physically harmful behaviors as a means to cope with stress. A lot of people drink alcohol when they’re stressed. Drinking alcohol can be harmful to your health, especially if you drink and drive. Another dangerous behavior often associated with stress is increased cigarette smoking. I’ve heard plenty of patients talk about smoking as a way to relax. But it’s so unhealthy!

Another link between stress and physical illness comes from the new and exciting field of
psychoneuroimmunology,
the study of the connection between psychology and the immune system. Researchers have long suspected that there’s a connection between the two, and there actually is. High levels of stress and intense emotions have been found to suppress the functioning of our nervous systems. There isn’t really a clear-cut diagnosis of all the ins and outs, but the suspicion is that our body’s coping reactions to stress cost us in the immune department.

Ever heard of the flight-or-fight response? Walter Cannon showed that exposure to extreme stress causes us to decide whether we’re going to take off running or stand our ground and fight. It sounds animalistic, but you can also look at it as a choice between walking away or yelling at someone. Either way, these protective actions require energy. Running from someone can be tiring! So, the brain sends signals to the heart and the hormone system that causes our blood pressure to increase. Our hearts race, we breathe faster, and the sugar levels in our blood increase. When these changes occur, all of the body’s vital resources are devoted to the moment. Resources from other areas are used for the immediate purpose of fighting or fleeing.

Back to the immune system. The hormones that kick in when we’re in fight-or-flight mode are epinephrine and cortisol. Both of these hormones have been shown to have immunosuppressive effects. If higher levels of epinephrine and cortisol are present in the blood stream, the immune system doesn’t work as well. It kind of makes sense, if you think about it. If a bear is chasing you, the last thing on your mind is getting the flu. Forget the flu — you can’t get the flu if that bear rips your head off! Save the head, and you can deal with the flu later.

You’re probably saying, “Yeah, but I haven’t been chased by a bear in at least five years, so why does it seem like I still get sick from stress?” You get sick for the same reason that I used to get sick during every midterm-exam week in college. We live in a stressful time, but it’s not the same kind of stress that running from bears every day would produce. Modern stress is typically chronic and low grade. It’s always there, constantly gnawing away at our immune systems because our fight-or-flight systems are on medium alert most of the time. So instead of going from no alert (relaxed) to high alert (bear attack), most of us are on medium alert (daily hassles, work, bills, kids, and so on) all the time. It’s slowly taking its toll on our immune-system functions.

In addition to the connection between our immune systems and stress, relationships between stress and specific diseases have been found. Strong negative emotions, such as anger, chronic hostility, and anxiety, have been connected to hypertension, ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, headaches, and asthma.

A final point worth mentioning deals with something called the
Type A personality
— a personality pattern characterized by an aggressive and persistent struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time. These folks are the “real go-getters.” They’re the corporate executives who build a Fortune 500 company from the bottom up, the millionaire workaholics, and the hyper-competitive college students driven by perfection. They’re very impatient, and they view everything as urgent. So what? These people can be very successful, right? Yes, but they can also have a higher risk of suffering from
coronary heart disease
— hardening of the arteries, angina, or heart attacks. Before you quit school and make relaxing walks on the beach your full-time job, remember something. The relationship between Type A personalities and developing coronary heart disease is not one-to-one. The research shows that there’s an
increase
in
risk;
developing these health problems is not inevitable.

Risk means that these folks need to take precautions and be aware of contributing factors and warning signs. Read up on coronary heart disease if you’re worried (check out
The Healthy Heart For Dummies
by Hungry Minds, Inc.), and if you’re really worried, go see your family physician.