Sunday, April 1, 2001		Stressbusters

• Stress influences a wide range of diseases and disorders.

• The most crucial response in this respect is the suppression of the body’s immune response.

• During stressful periods, antibody levels are lower than normal, indicating a greater vulnerability to infection.

• Aggressive type A personalities catch more colds than their more relaxed counterparts.

• There is a strong connection between heart disease and stress.

• There is a link between stress and high cholesterol levels.

• Stress is linked with many skin disorders.

• In a recent Swedish study, psoriasis sufferers showed higher levels of stress hormones than healthy subjects, when subjected to stressful tests.

• Stress poses a special threat to people with chronic hypertension. Medical research reveals the link between stress and sexual problems.

• Too little stress may be as harmful as too much stress.

• Stress researches have established that some stress or stimulation is needed for optimum performance.

• Although the relationship between stress and performance varies from person to person, the general pattern can be expressed in the curve shown above.

• Performance rises as stress increases and boredom and frustration diminish. Once an optimum point is passed, the performance drops.

• However, continuous stress impairs judgement and alertness and performance falls off.
  

We are made up of systems and sub-systems. The more effectively our systems are coordinated, the more effectively we function. Main sub-systems coordinated by the master system are:

— Cognitive (thoughts)

— Affective (feelings)

— Behavioural (actions)

— Physiological (muscle, skeleton)

Sub-systems respond according to the demands of a particular time and circumstances.

1. The cognitive (thinking) sub-system :

is composite of our expectations, interests and concerns. It gives us a complete picture. determines our perception of threat or danger. appraises the situation, checks the coping resources, selects an appropriate response plan and determines if there is a danger and activates the affective, behavioural and physiological sub-systems.

2. The affective (feelings) sub-system:

activates the anxiety and stress components by enhancing our sense of urgency.

3. The behavioural (actions) sub-system:

activates both action and inhibition patterns.

4. The physiological (muscle) sub-system:

mobilises the body’s response mechanism.