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Stress and Its Role in Our Life

• Categories: Stress Stress Management Trauma

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Words: 2555 |

13 min read

Published: May 7, 2019

Words: 2555 | Pages: 6 | 13 min read

Works Cited

• American Psychological Association. (2019). Stress effects on the body. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/body
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Coping with stress. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html
• Hansen, N. (2014). The impact of stress on the immune system. Immunology, 144(2), 147-156.
• Knowlton, S. (n.d.). The positive effects of stress on the body. Retrieved from https://www.livestrong.com/article/104523-positive-effects-stress-body/
• McLeod, S. (2010). Stress and the immune system. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/stress-immune.html
• Mills, N. (n.d.). Mental effects of stress. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/stress-effects-on-the-body-4124300
• Segal, J. (2016). Understanding stress. HelpGuide. Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-symptoms-signs-and-causes.htm
• Simon, H. (2016). How stress affects your body. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
• Stages of chronic stress. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://extension.illinois.edu/stress/stages.cfm
• Top ten causes of stress. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stress.org/top-ten-causes-of-stress

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Stress and Its Effects on Health Essay

Introduction, physical effects, psychological effects, behavioral effects.

Stress is the emotional strain or tension experienced by an individual due to a reaction toward various demanding and influential situations. The challenging or compelling situations are termed stressors. Stressors can be internal or external and include life changes such as losing a significant figure, low socioeconomic status, relationship problems, occupational challenges, and familial or environmental factors. An individual’s response to stressors influences the outcome of their life. Health is a state of complete social, emotional, and physical well-being and not merely the absence of disease. Stress is a common risk factor for negative health status secondary to negative adaptation and coping with the stressors. Stressors can create a strain on one’s physical, psychological and behavioral well-being, leading to lasting effects that are detrimental to one’s health.

Stress is associated with various physical health impacts on an individual. In an online cross-sectional survey by Keech et al. (2020) to determine the association between stress and the physical and psychological health of police officers, the findings illustrate that stress negatively impacts physical and psychological well-being. One hundred and thirty-four police officers were involved in the study (Keech et al., 2020). The findings demonstrate that stress resulted in various short and long-term physical effects that included increased heart rates, sweating, high blood pressure, and long-term development of the cardiac condition. In addition, stress resulted in the development of gastrointestinal disorders such as peptic ulcer and irritable bowel syndrome. Keech et al. (2020) note that stress’s associated physical health effects are explained by various mechanisms that include overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis.

Overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system results in increased sympathetic actions on the peripheral body organs leading to increased sweat production, heart rate, respiration rate, and urinary and bowel elimination. The study notes that chronic stress without positive adaptation measures results in the progressive development of hypertension, peptic ulcers, and irritable bowel syndrome as long-term effects (Keech et al., 2020). Within the gastrointestinal tract, chronic stress activity on the sympathetic nervous system results in increased parietal cell action. Overactivity of the parietal cells results in excessive gastric acid production, gradually eroding the mucosa, and ulceration occurs.

The effects of stress on the cardiovascular system are explained in a review by Kivimäki & Steptoe (2017) to determine the impact of stress on the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases. In the review, stress is identified to cause cardiovascular conditions secondary to the effects of sustained sympathetic action on heart contractility and peripheral vascular resistance (Kivimäki & Steptoe, 2017). The sympathetic nervous system contributes to normal heart and blood vessel contractility. However, when the system is overstimulated, a surge in contractility above the normal limits ensues, leading to the progressive development of heart conditions.

Psychological well-being incorporates a positive mental health status evidenced by an individual’s satisfaction with life, happiness, rational thinking and decision-making, and positive mood patterns. Stress has been associated with alterations in an individual’s psychological wellness. An explanation for alteration in an individual’s psychological well-being secondary to stress is negative adaptation. Keech et al. (2020) note that an individual’s response to a stressor determines whether stress results in positive or negative effects. In the online cross-sectional survey by Keech et al. (2020), the findings illustrate that pressure resulted in the development of anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorders as long-term effects among the participants. Exposure to stressful situations resulted in progressively developing anxiety among the individual secondary to persistent worry over the issue. The anxiety results in other physical manifestations, including increased heart rate, palpitations, sweating, and altered mobility. Depression and bipolar conditions were also associated with chronic stress secondary to the impacts of stress on neurotransmitter function and nerves.

Similar findings are noted in a cross-sectional study by Zhang et al. (2020) to compare the prevalence and severity of stress-associated mental health symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and insomnia among healthcare workers during the COVID pandemic. Five hundred and twenty-four healthcare workers were involved in the study. The study findings illustrate that 31.3% of the participants developed depression secondary to the stressful working environment, 41.2% reported anxiety, and 39.3% reported sleep disturbances (Zhang et al., 2020). The scientific explanation for the relationship between stress and depression was attributed to the effects of stressful periods on neurotransmitter homeostasis. Chronic stress results in the altered regulation of neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. Alterations in serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine resulted in the progressive development of depression and anxiety. Sleep disturbances reported by the participants are attributed to alterations in cortisol hormone homeostasis secondary to overstimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis.

Stressful situations can also lead to alterations in the behavioral patterns of an individual. The most common behavioral effects secondary to stress include the development of eating disorders, altered sleeping patterns, impaired concentration, and drug abuse especially alcohol. Alterations in sleep and eating patterns are linked to stress’s effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPA). Exposure to stressful events leads to increased activation of the HPA axis with a net effect of increased catecholamine production (adrenaline and noradrenaline) (Moustafa et al., 2018). Increased adrenaline and noradrenaline production results in dysregulation in the eating and sleeping patterns. Sustained high levels of cortisol results in difficulty falling asleep and increased metabolic processes. The biological clock regulates the typical sleeping pattern that relies on producing the sleep hormone melatonin. Melatonin production by the pineal gland is regulated indirectly by the concentration of serum cortisol levels and directly by light perception. Imbalances in the serum concentration cycle secondary to stress results in imbalanced melatonin production and concentration with a net effect of sleeping difficulties.

The emotional strain caused by stress increases the risk of alcohol and other illicit drug use and dependence. Moustafa et al. (2018) conducted an integrative literature review to determine the relationship between childhood trauma, early-life stress, alcohol and drug use, addiction, and abuse. The review findings illustrate that stress increases the risk of alcohol and drug use, addiction, and abuse among the victims. An explanation for the increased risk is the individuals’ lack of identification and implementation of effective coping strategies (Moustafa et al., 2018). Lack of effective coping strategies results in maladaptive measures such as illicit drug use and alcohol consumption. Extensive use of the maladaptive measures results in progressive addiction and drug abuse among individuals with an increased predisposition to other health effects. Alcohol consumption and other illicit drug use over time increase the risk of developing cardiac, respiratory, and liver conditions.

Stress is the emotional strain or tension experienced by an individual due to a reaction toward various demanding and influential situations. Individual response to stressors influences their health. Maladaptive response to stress results in various physical, psychological, and behavioral negative effects. Negative effects of stress on physical health include increased heart rates, sweating, high blood pressure, and long-term development of the cardiac condition. Psychological effects include the development of anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorders. The behavioral effects of stress on an individual include the development of eating disorders, altered sleeping patterns, impaired concentration, and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Based on the research findings, it is essential for healthcare providers to identify strategic measures and health initiatives to educate and sensitize the community members on effective stress management approaches in all settings to aid in combating the health effects.

Keech, J. J., Cole, K. L., Hagger, M. S., & Hamilton, K. (2020). The association between stress mindset and physical and psychological well being: Testing a stress beliefs model in police officers . Psychology & Health , 35 (11), 1306-1325. Web.

Kivimäki, M., & Steptoe, A. (2017). Effects of stress on the development and progression of cardiovascular disease . Nature Reviews Cardiology , 15 (4), 215–229. Web.

Moustafa, A. A., Parkes, D., Fitzgerald, L., Underhill, D., Garami, J., Levy-Gigi, E., Stramecki, F., Valikhani, A., Frydecka, D., & Misiak, B. (2018). The relationship between childhood trauma, early-life stress, and alcohol and drug use, abuse, and addiction: An integrative review . Current Psychology , 40 (2), 579–584. Web.

Zhang, X., Zhao, K., Zhang, G., Feng, R., Chen, J., Xu, D., Liu, X., Ngoubene-Italy, A. J., Huang, H., Liu, Y., Chen, L., & Wang, W. (2020). Occupational Stress and Mental Health: A comparison between frontline medical staff and non-frontline medical staff during the 2019 novel Coronavirus Disease outbreak . Frontiers in Psychiatry , 11 . Web.

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Essay on Stress Management

500 words essay on stress management.

Stress is a very complex phenomenon that we can define in several ways. However, if you put them together, it is basically the wear and tear of daily life. Stress management refers to a wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies for controlling a person’s stress level, especially chronic stress . If there is effective stress management, we can help one another break the hold of stress on our lives. The essay on stress management will throw light on the very same thing.

Identifying the Source of Stress

The first step of stress management is identifying the source of stress in your life. It is not as easy as that but it is essential. The true source of stress may not always be evident as we tend to overlook our own stress-inducing thoughts and feelings.

For instance, you might constantly worry about meeting your deadline. But, in reality, maybe your procrastination is what leads to this stress than the actual deadline. In order to identify the source of stress, we must look closely within ourselves.

If you explain away stress as temporary, then it may be a problem. Like if you yourself don’t take a breather from time to time, what is the point? On the other hand, is stress an integral part of your work and you acknowledging it like that?

If you make it a part of your personality, like you label things as crazy or nervous energy, you need to look further. Most importantly, do you blame the stress on people around you or the events surrounding you?

It is essential to take responsibility for the role one plays in creating or maintaining stress. Your stress will remain outside your control if you do not do it.

Strategies for Stress Management

It is obvious that we cannot avoid all kinds of stress but there are many stressors in your life which you can definitely eliminate. It is important to learn how to say no and stick to them.  Try to avoid people who stress you out.

Further, if you cannot avoid a stressful situation, try altering it. Express your feelings don’t bottle them up and manage your time better. Moreover, you can also adapt to the stressor if you can’t change it.

Reframe problems and look at the big picture. Similarly, adjust your standards and focus on the positive side. Never try to control the uncontrollable. Most importantly, make time for having fun and relaxing.

Spend some time with nature, go for a walk or call a friend, whatever pleases you.  You can also try working out, listening to music and more. As long as it makes you happy, never give up.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Stress Management

All in all, we can control our stress levels with relaxation techniques that evoke the relaxation response of our body. It is the state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Thus, when you practice these techniques regularly, you can build your resilience and heal yourself.

FAQ of Essay on Stress Management

Question 1: What is the importance of stress management?

Answer 1: Stress management is very efficient as it helps in breaking the hold which stress has on our lives. Moreover, you can also become happy, healthy and more productive because of it. The ultimate goal should be to live a balanced life and have the resilience to hold up under pressure.

Question 2: Give some stress management techniques.

Answer 2: There are many stress management techniques through which one can reduce stress in their lives. One can change their situation or their reaction to it. We can try by altering the situation. If not, we can change our attitudes towards it. Remember, accept things that you cannot change.

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• Stress Essay

IELTS Stress Essay

This is a model IELTS stress essay. It is about stress in modern society and how to prevent it.

It is a causes and solutions type essay. In other words, you have to identify what causes stressand then suggest solutions.

Stress is now a major problem in many countries around the world.

What are some of the factors in modern society that cause this stress and how can we reduce it?

This type of essay lends itself to two body paragraphs - one explaining the causes and the next discussing some possible solutions.

As is important with any IELTS essay, you must always read the question carefully.

The topic is often narrowed down to a particular group of people or topic.

Narrowing Down the Topic

The key here is that ' modern society ' is mentioned.

If you just talk about stress in general but don't connect it to modern society you may be in danger of not fully answering the question .

You need to brainstorm some issues specific to the world we live in today that may result in stress.

What things effect us today that did not (or not too such an extent) 10, 20, 30 years ago?

Using Personal Pronouns

Also, you may notice that ' we ' is used a lot in the stress essay.

Remember an IELTS essay is not quite the same as an academic essay you will normally write. It is can be more personal as you only have your own experience to support your answer with.

You should avoid too many personal pronouns if possible such as ' I ' throughout the essay but you may wish to use this to give your opinion or examples from your own experience at times. This is ok, but don't overdo it.

This question specifically says how can ' we ' reduce it. So it is already making it personal. So it is ok to write about what all of us, or ' we ', can do.

Model Stress Essay

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

What are some of the factors in modern society that cause this stress, and how can we reduce it?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

Stress Essay Model Answer

Stress is a problem that can have detrimental effects on many people’s lives, and there are various factors in modern society responsible for this. However, there are ways to limit the potential impacts.

The modern world we live in today presents us with many issues that we did not have to cope with in the past. Firstly, there are issues of terrorism that we are constantly confronted with in the media. Whether these are real or not, we are led to believe our lives are in constant danger, be it flying on a plane or travelling on public transport. Climate change is another worry that everyone has to face. The results of a significant rise in temperatures could radically affect our ways of life, and our children’s too. There are also more health issues to be concerned about than in the past, with rises in alzheimer’s, diabetes, and stroke to name but a few. All of these concerns can result in stress.

Tackling such problems will not be easy, but there are measures that can be taken. Governments and the media could play their part by ensuring that instead of persistently bombarding us with such negative images and information about the world in which we live, we are given more positive stories too. However, given this is unlikely to happen, we need to develop our own strategies to distract us from these influences. Of course exercising regularly is one thing we should do as this has been shown to increase endorphin levels and lead to feelings of happiness. Sleeping enough helps us to recuperate and restore our body. Finally, eating properly can improve our health and result in less worry about potential diseases.

All in all, although there are many factors around us today which lead to stress, we can take steps to reduce it. Given that the strains we face in modern society will likely get worse, ignoring it is not an option for many people.

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Life Stress and Health: A Review of Conceptual Issues and Recent Findings

George m. slavich.

1 Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Life stress is a central construct in many models of human health and disease. The present article reviews research on stress and health, with a focus on (a) how life stress has been conceptualized and measured over time, (b) recent evidence linking stress and disease, and (c) mechanisms that might underlie these effects. Emerging from this body of work is evidence that stress is involved in the development, maintenance, or exacerbation of several mental and physical health conditions, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety disorders, depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS, stroke, and certain types of cancer. Stress has also been implicated in accelerated biological aging and premature mortality. These effects have been studied most commonly using self-report checklist measures of life stress exposure, although interview-based approaches provide a more comprehensive assessment of individuals’ exposure to stress. Most recently, online systems like the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) have been developed for assessing lifetime stress exposure, and such systems may provide important new information to help advance our understanding of how stressors occurring over the life course get embedded in the brain and body to affect lifespan health.

The notion that psychological stress can affect mental and physical health is extremely popular nowadays. Indeed, one can hardly read the news without seeing a new article detailing the deleterious effects that stress has on health or describing how individuals can better cope with stress to reduce their disease risk, enhance their well-being, and realize their “full potential.” The television provides little relief in this regard. There, people hear about new psychopharmacological, herbal, and behavioral remedies that promise to reduce their stress levels and risk for a variety of health conditions, some of which are well known (e.g., chronic pain, depression) and others of which were recently invented (e.g., “Low T” [testosterone]).

This tremendous interest in stress makes sense given the fundamental drive that humans have to better understand life’s circumstances and factors that ultimately impact survival. At the same time, viewing stress as an obvious trigger of disease—or as a construct that has a face-valid, commonly agreed upon definition—has led to substantial complication and confusion. Even in the scientific literature on stress and health, the construct of “stress” is frequently described in different ways and often with little detail or specificity. Likewise, although it has long been assumed that stress affects health, exactly how stress gets “under the skin” to promote disease has remained largely unknown. This has occurred in part because scientists have only recently developed the tools that are necessary to assess biological processes that link experiences of stress with disease pathogenesis.

The purpose of this article is to briefly review contemporary ideas and research on stress and health. First, I examine some ways in which stress has been conceptualized and defined over the years. Second, I describe self-report and interview-based instruments that have been developed to assess life stress exposure. Third, I summarize recent findings linking stress and health and mechanisms that might underlie these effects. Fourth, I highlight the emerging focus on examining associations between lifetime stress exposure and health. Finally, I introduce some techniques that instructors can use to teach students about stress and health.

Historical Perspectives on Stress

The belief that daily life can be filled with persistent problems and unrelenting challenges goes back centuries. In Greek mythology, for example, Sisyphus is seen pushing a boulder up a mountain repeatedly, day after day, only to have it roll back down just before he gets to the top ( Camus, 1955 ). The metaphor is physical but conjures up modern images of finishing a long list of tasks, only to be given more by your boss, or cleaning out your e-mail inbox, only to wake up to 15 new messages the next morning. In more recent times, Sir Clifford Allbutt (1895) wrote about how the “whirl of the railway, the pelting of telegrams, the strife of business, the hunger for riches, [and] the lust … for coarse and instant pleasures” (p. 214) caused nervousness, disability, hysteria, and frightfulness. Fast-forward to today and the conversation involves how car traffic, the never-ending flow of digital messages, and the complexities of juggling school, work, and family life are making people anxious, depressed, and physically ill. Although the definition of stress has changed over time, therefore, the notion that stress is an inherent part of life has remained constant ( Monroe & Slavich, 2016 ).

General interest and writing about stress led the way to more formal thinking about this construct during the 19th century. Claude Bernard and Charles Darwin were among the first to describe how, in order to survive, organisms must adapt to ever-changing environmental circumstances ( Weiner, 1992 ). Then, during the 20th century, specific terms for conceptualizing stress emerged. Walter Cannon was among the first theorists to discuss how common emotions have specific physiologic consequences that help the body maintain homeostasis during different situations ( Weiner, 1992 ), and Hans Selye was the first to systematically investigate how different types of social–environmental provocation affect the body ( Selye, 1976 ). Selye’s work was extremely influential in this context, and his perspective still pervades thinking and research on stress and health. According to Selye (1976) , stress is “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand” (p. 74), and stressors are “that which produces stress” (p. 78).

Conceptualization and Measurement of Life Stressors

One important consequence of Selye’s work was that scientists could now make clearer distinctions between external life stressors, such as an argument with a friend or boss, and the internal biological effects that such stressors have on the body. This distinction spurred increased interest in measuring the activity of different biological systems (e.g., brain, sympathetic nervous system, immune system) that might respond to stressors in the environment, as well as an increased focus on assessing life stressors (e.g., divorce, getting fired, being physically attacked). An early technique for assessing stressors was Adolph Meyer’s “life chart” methodology, which enabled researchers to categorize the stressors that individuals experienced ( Meyer, 1951 ). In the 1960s and 1970s, though, comprehensiveness gave way to simplicity, and researchers began using easy-to-complete, self-report checklist measures of life stressor exposure, in which respondents simply indicate whether they have experienced each stressor described on a list ( Dohrenwend, 1998 ; Monroe, Slavich, & Georgiades, 2014 ). Some of the most commonly used self-report checklist measures of stress exposure are the Social Readjustment Rating Scale ( Holmes & Rahe, 1967 ), the List of Threatening Experiences ( Brugha & Cragg, 1990 ), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire ( Bernstein et al., 1994 ), and the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire ( Felitti et al., 1998 ). The most frequently used measure is probably the Perceived Stress Scale ( Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983 ), although this instrument assesses aspects of the stress experience (e.g., “How often have you felt nervous and stressed?”) as opposed to a person’s exposure to specific stressors.

Although self-report checklist measures are inexpensive and relatively easy to administer, researchers have raised concerns about their reliability and validity ( Brown, 1974 ; Dohrenwend, 2006 ; Hammen, 2005 ; Monroe, 2008 ; Paykel, 2001 ). The first concern involves whether individuals can accurately remember life events that have happened to them without the assistance of an interviewer who can remind the person of specific events or dates. Research has demonstrated that people can reliably recall major life stressors over long periods of time, but that the quality of such reports is best when individuals’ life histories are probed in a systematic manner by a trained interviewer ( Brewin, Andrews, & Gotlib, 1993 ). Because memories of important events can change over time and can be influenced by mood, a second concern involves whether individuals can self-report on the nature or severity of past stressors in an objective, unbiased manner. This is a particularly important issue in research on stress and depression, given that depressed individuals often exhibit negative biases in attention and memory ( Gotlib & Joormann, 2010 ). Because self-report checklist measures typically describe stressors in relatively general terms, a third concern involves whether researchers actually know what has happened to a respondent given his or her endorsement of a particular item on a checklist. If a checklist item reads, “Did you experience a recent illness or injury?” for example, a person’s endorsement of that item might mean that he or she recently broke a toe, but it could also mean that the person was diagnosed with cancer. Finally, there are concerns about the extent to which self-report checklist measures of stress inadvertently assess the outcomes under study. For example, some checklist measures enquire about sleep problems, anxiety symptoms, and other affective and behavioral outcomes, and this can conflate the measurement of stress with the dependent variables being examined.

To address these limitations, researchers have developed a number of interview-based systems for assessing life stress exposure. These systems ask different questions, but they are similar in that each employs a trained interviewer who inquires about the respondent’s recent life experiences in great detail. To ensure that the stressors are properly characterized with respect to their severity and specific features, the information that is collected about each stressor is then summarized and presented to a panel of expert raters who make consensus judgments about the timing, nature, and severity of each reported stressor. Two of the most commonly used interview-based systems for assessing recent life stress exposure are the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule ( Brown & Harris, 1978 ) and the UCLA Life Stress Interview ( Hammen et al., 1987 ).

Dimensions and Characteristics of Life Stressors

A major benefit of interview-based systems for measuring life stress is that they yield a tremendous amount of information about each stressor, including when and how many times the stressor occurred, how long it lasted, and how it impacted the person’s life. This information enables investigators to verify that the stressors being analyzed occurred before (and not after) the health problems they are trying to study, to distinguish between acute and chronic stressors, and to assess the impact that different types of life experiences have on health. Interview-based systems also produce a wealth of information about the social–psychological characteristics of each stressor, and this information can in turn be used to identify the specific forms and features of life stress that are most relevant for different health outcomes.

The accumulation of stressor characteristics data from so many instruments has given rise to numerous ideas regarding what exactly makes stress harmful for health. Despite great interest in identifying the most deleterious aspects of stress, however, there is little agreement on what features of stressors are most important to measure. One early and still very dominant perspective, based on Selye’s work, is that life stress represents a singular construct, wherein stressors of different types have similar effects on the body. A second idea propagated by Holmes and Rahe (1967) is that stressors can be ranked by the degree of change or upheaval they typically cause in individuals’ lives. A third perspective derived from the work of Steven Maier, Jay Weiss, Martin Seligman, and others focuses on the extent to which people perceive stressors as controllable ( Maier, 1986 ; Seligman, 1975 ; Weiss & Goodman, 1985 ; for a review, see Maier & Watkins, 2005 ). A fourth formulation, adopted mostly by psychopathology researchers, is that stressors can be sorted into life domains, such as “interpersonal” and “achievement,” and that a stressor’s impact is enhanced when it matches the content of a person’s cognitive vulnerability (e.g., a rejection-sensitive person experiencing an interpersonal stressor; Clark & Beck, 1999 ). Finally, a fifth perspective advanced by Brown and Harris (1978) is that stressors are most impactful when they cause substantial cognitive upheaval or disrupt a person’s goals, plans, and aspirations for the future.

In addition to these formulations, some researchers have taken a more evolutionarily based perspective on what makes particular stressors stressful. Broadly speaking, these theories underscore that humans are fundamentally motivated to maintain close social bonds because of the nurturance and protection that others provide (e.g., Baumeister & Leary, 1995 ; Gilbert, 1992 ; Leary, 2007 ). As a result of this innate motivational drive, the termination of close social bonds is hypothesized to be particularly emotionally distressing, especially when such bonds are intentionally terminated. Several studies have examined predictions derived from these theories, and this body of work suggests that stressors involving interpersonal loss are some of the strongest precipitants of emotional distress, even when compared to other stressors that are similarly severe ( Kendler, Hettema, Butera, Gardner, & Prescott, 2003 ; Slavich, Thornton, Torres, Monroe, & Gotlib, 2009 ; see also Brown, Harris, & Hepworth, 1995 ). Moreover, experiences of interpersonal loss may make individuals more sensitive to subsequent stressors involving loss ( Slavich, Monroe, & Gotlib, 2011 ), with individuals’ perceptions of such events potentially playing an influential role in shaping the stress experience and response ( Blascovich, 2007 ; Crum, Salovey, & Achor, 2013 ; Lebois, Hertzog, Slavich, Feldman Barrett, & Barsalou, 2016 ). In sum, then, although the concept of stress has been viewed from many different angles over the years, one of the most recent and fruitful perspectives has been to understand the implications that stressors have for social relationships, with a particular focus on the different circumstances under which interpersonal loss can occur (e.g., death of a loved one vs. a relationship break up).

Stress and Health

These developments in the conceptualization and measurement of life stress have helped greatly advance the science of stress and health. Indeed, nowadays, there is little debate about whether life stress plays a role in affecting health. As summarized in Figure 1 , extensive research has examined these effects, and the take-home message from this literature is that stress exposure increases risk for poor clinical outcomes across a variety of major health conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis ( Cutolo & Straub, 2006 ), depression ( Kendler, Karkowski, & Prescott, 1999 ; Monroe, Slavich, Torres, & Gotlib, 2007 ), cardiovascular disease ( Kivimäki et al., 2006 ), chronic pain ( Loeser & Melzack, 1999 ), human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS ( Leserman, 2008 ), ovarian cancer ( Lutgendorf et al., 2013 ), and breast cancer ( Bower, Crosswell, & Slavich, 2014 ; Lamkin & Slavich, 2016 ). Stress has also been implicated in accelerated biological aging and premature mortality ( Epel et al., 2004 ; Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010 ; for a review, see Cohen, Janicki-Deverts, & Miller, 2007 ).

Life stress and health. Life stress has been implicated in the development, maintenance, or exacerbation of several major mental and physical health conditions, in addition to accelerated biological aging and premature mortality.

Mechanisms Linking Stress and Health

Given that life stress is associated with so many different health outcomes, researchers have recently attempted to identify whether stress increases risk for different disorders through a common biological pathway. One of the most recent and potentially important findings in this context involves the discovery that stress can upregulate components of the immune system involved in inflammation ( Segerstrom & Miller, 2004 ; Slavich & Irwin, 2014 ). Moreover, consistent with the stress–health links described above, there is emerging evidence showing that stressors involving interpersonal loss and social rejection are among the strongest psychosocial activators of molecular processes that underlie inflammation ( Murphy, Slavich, Chen, & Miller, 2015 ; Murphy, Slavich, Rohleder, & Miller, 2013 ; for a review, see Slavich, O’Donovan, Epel, & Kemeny, 2010 ). Although inflammation is typically thought of as the body’s primary response to physical injury and infection, researchers have recently identified that inflammation plays a role in several of the most burdensome and deadly diseases ( Couzin-Frankel, 2010 ; Slavich, 2015 ), thereby making inflammation a potential common pathway linking stress with several disease states.

Although life stress is a strong risk factor for disease, not everyone who experiences stress gets sick. As a result, some researchers have turned to the brain to understand individual differences in how people experience stress, as well as how the brain initiates downstream biological processes that promote disease. A recent finding in this context has been the discovery that stressors involving social evaluation and rejection, which can induce experiences of “social pain,” activate some of the same brain regions that are engaged by physical pain ( Dedovic, Slavich, Muscatell, Irwin, & Eisenberger, 2016 ; Kross, Berman, Mischel, Smith, & Wager, 2011 ; for a review, see Eisenberger, 2012 ). There is also evidence that some of the same genetic factors that regulate experiences of physical pain may influence experiences of social pain ( Slavich, Tartter, Brennan, & Hammen, 2014 ). Moreover, individual differences in neural responses to social stress in these particular brain regions predict differences in inflammatory responding to social stress ( Muscatell et al., 2015 ; Slavich, Way, Eisenberger, & Taylor, 2010 ). As a result, one emerging idea is that individuals who are more neurally sensitive to social stressors may mount greater inflammatory responses to social stress ( Slavich & Irwin, 2014 ; Slavich, O’Donovan, et al., 2010 ). Such a reactivity profile may be adaptive in the short term, as it can help prevent the spread of infection and accelerate wound healing and recovery. If repeatedly engaged, however, heightened neuroinflammatory responses to social stress may increase a person’s risk for a number of diseases that involve inflammation ( Nusslock & Miller, 2016 ; Slavich & Irwin, 2014 ).

Recent research has also begun to examine how social stressors affect the activity of the human genome ( Slavich & Cole, 2013 ). Because people cannot detect changes in their own genomic activity, they generally experience their bodies as being biologically stable over time and across the different social and environmental circumstances they experience in daily life. In reality, though, the human genome is continually shifting its activity to coordinate biological processes that are needed to sustain life and to calibrate the body to deal with the surrounding social, physical, and microbial environment. Some of the earliest work on this topic found that living in a rural versus urban environment has a substantial effect on individuals’ genomic profile ( Idaghdour, Storey, Jadallah, & Gibson, 2008 ). Around the same time, Cole and colleagues (2007) found that more than 200 genes were differentially expressed in lonely versus nonlonely individuals. Because many of those differentially expressed genes are involved in immune system activity, including inflammatory responding and the antiviral response, these data provided some of the first indications that experiences of social stress and adversity may affect disease risk and mortality in part by influencing some of our most basic biological processes—namely, the expression of our genes.

Lifetime Stress Exposure and Health

In addition to this research on the biological mechanisms linking stress and health, recent work has focused on understanding the implications that different forms of life stress have for disease. At a basic level, stressors can occur as acute life events, such as getting fired or finding out that a loved one has died, or as chronic difficulties, such as living in a dangerous neighborhood or having persistent financial or marital problems ( Monroe & Slavich, 2016 ; Slavich, 2016 ). Research has shown that these two forms of stress have different effects ( Monroe et al., 2007 ; Muscatell, Slavich, Monroe, & Gotlib, 2009 ). In addition, a small but growing body of work is showing that the impact of acute life events and chronic difficulties occurring over a person’s lifespan may exert a cumulative effect on the body that has implications for the development of disease ( Lupien, McEwen, Gunnar, & Heim, 2009 ).

The notion that stress can exert biological “wear and tear” on the body that develops over time is not new. Indeed, several theorists have proposed different models for how acute life events and chronic difficulties may accumulate and disrupt biological systems that lead to altered neural and immune system function, oxidative stress, accelerated biological aging, and ultimately different disease states and premature mortality (e.g., Graham, Christian, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2006 ; Lupien et al., 2009 ; McEwen, 1998 ). What is new in this area of research, however, is the ability to measure all of the different acute life events and chronic difficulties that individuals have experienced over the life course and to relate individuals’ unique lifetime stress exposure profiles to biological and clinical outcomes.

The instrument that has been developed for assessing lifetime stress exposure is called the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN). This online system enquires about 96 different types of acute life events and chronic difficulties that a person might have experienced over the life course. For each stressor that a person endorses, follow-up questions ascertain how bad the stressor was (severity), how many times the person experienced the stressor (frequency), when the stressor occurred (timing), and how long it lasted (duration). Based on this information, the STRAIN can produce 115 different stress exposure scores and life charts that enable researchers to characterize a person’s experience of many different types of stressors over the lifespan. The tool has thus been helpful for advancing the conceptualization of stress, but also for documenting how lifetime stress exposure affects mental and physical health in the general population ( Toussaint, Shields, Dorn, & Slavich, 2016 ), as well as clinical outcomes in specific disease populations ( Bower et al., 2014 ). Looking forward, much more research is needed to understand how lifetime stress exposure increases disease risk in healthy and vulnerable populations ( Myers et al., 2015 ). Research is also needed to elucidate the biological mechanisms that link lifetime stress exposure and health ( Seo, Tsou, Ansell, Potenza, & Sinha, 2014 ).

Teaching Stress and Health

Understanding how stress affects health is inherently interesting for most people. The topic is especially salient for college students, though, given recent estimates suggesting that 19.3% of male students and 40.5% of female students feel “emotionally overwhelmed” by the demands imposed on them ( Pryor et al., 2012 ). The magnitude of this issue is compounded by the fact that less than one fourth of college students who require treatment for a mental health problem seek professional help ( Blanco et al., 2008 ). These statistics may sound alarming, but the silver lining is that a majority of individuals who experience major life stressors do not get ill. Research has begun to identify cognitive and personality factors that may make individuals more resilient to stress ( Crum et al., 2013 ; Shields, Young Kuchenbecker, Pressman, Sumida, & Slavich, 2016 ; Toussaint, Shields, & Slavich, in press ). Additionally, a growing body of research is demonstrating that several psychological, cognitive, and behavioral interventions may help to improve individuals’ academic performance, stress-related biological reactivity, and mental and physical health ( Black & Slavich, 2016 ; Free et al., 2013 ; Regehr, Glancy, & Pitts, 2013 ; Yeager & Walton, 2011 ).

In addition, stress and health is a readily teachable topic, given that the content for courses and lectures on these issues can be culled in part from students’ personal experiences. Along these lines, we recently conducted two studies in which we aimed to enhance students’ understanding of the link between stress and health by employing a new approach to classroom instruction called transformational teaching ( Slavich, 2005 , 2006 , 2009 ; Slavich & Zimbardo, 2012 ). This approach involves “creating dynamic relationships between teachers, students, and a shared body of knowledge in a way that promotes student learning and personal growth” ( Slavich & Zimbardo, 2012 , p. 576). According to the original formulation of transformational teaching ( Slavich, 2005 ), teachers accomplish these instructional goals by establishing a shared vision for a course, providing modeling and mastery experiences, challenging and encouraging students, personalizing attention and feedback, creating experiential lessons that transcend the boundaries of the classroom, and promoting ample opportunities for preflection and reflection (see Slavich & Zimbardo, 2012 ).

Two recent studies on transformational teaching provide a blueprint for how teachers can integrate the STRAIN into a course or lecture on stress and health to teach students about these concepts (see Slavich & Toussaint, 2014 ). In the first of these studies, all students completed the STRAIN online, which takes approximately 20 min. Then, 2 days later, we randomly assigned half of the students to listen to a 25-min lecture on the conceptualization and assessment of stress, the content and structure of the STRAIN, and the types of stress that were most frequently reported by students (i.e., the overall, class-averaged STRAIN results, with no disclosure of personal information). Students then discussed their experiences completing the STRAIN and reflected on stress–health links in their own lives. In the second study, we randomly assigned students to complete (a) either the STRAIN or a control task and (b) either a STRAIN-specific lecture or a general lecture on stress. The main finding from these two studies was that having students complete the STRAIN before or after a lecture on stress and health significantly improved their understanding of how stress affects health. A list of suggested instructions for how teachers might integrate the STRAIN into a lecture or course on stress and health is presented in Table 1 .

Steps for Integrating the STRAIN into a Course or Lecture on Stress and Health Using Methods from Transformational Teaching.

Note . STRAIN = Stress and Adversity Inventory

Summary and Conclusions

In summary, our understanding of how stress affects health has come a long way since the days of Sisyphus and Selye. Researchers now have clearer distinctions between life stress exposure and response and better frameworks for conceptualizing and defining different forms and features of life stress. This research has been very impactful, as it has highlighted that not all types of stressors are equivalent with respect to their impact on health. This work has also helped investigators elucidate psychological and biological mechanisms that might link experiences of stress with disease. Some of the most recent studies on this topic have adopted a life-course perspective on examining links between stress and health, and this approach has already proven fruitful to the extent that researchers now have an instrument for assessing lifetime stress exposure and new ideas on how adverse experiences might accumulate over time and become embedded in the brain and body to affect lifespan health. Given the relevance of this work for disease onset and progression, it is critical that students understand how stress affects health, as well as what they can do to mitigate these effects. Stress increases individuals’ risk for a variety of diseases, but people also hold substantial power to reduce these effects and improve their personal and collective psychosocial well-being.

Acknowledgments

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Preparation of this review was supported by National Institutes of Health grant K08 MH103443 and by a Society in Science—Branco Weiss Fellowship to George Slavich.

George M. Slavich is an associate professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and a research scientist at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, where he directs the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. His research aims to advance the conceptualization and assessment of life stress and to elucidate psychological and biological mechanisms linking stress with disease. He developed the first online system for assessing lifetime stress exposure, called the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN); formulated the first fully integrated, multilevel theory of depression; and has helped pioneer a new field of research called human social genomics . In addition to research, he is deeply devoted to excellence in teaching and mentorship. Early in his career, for example, he founded the Society of Clinical Psychology’s Section on Graduate Students and Early Career Psychologists, the Western Psychological Association Student Council, and the Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference. He has also developed a new approach to classroom instruction called transformational teaching . He has received 16 major awards for research, teaching, and mentorship since 2009. These honors include the Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Early Career Research Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, the Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the Wilbert J. McKeachie Teaching Excellence Award from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and the Raymond D. Fowler Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Professional Development of Graduate Students from the American Psychological Association.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Modern Life Changes the Brain. Here's How to Change It Back

What is "frontal fatigue" and how do we treat it.

Posted June 6, 2022 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• The demands of modern life are relentless and can have negative effects on our brain's prefrontal cortex (PFC).
• A weakened PFC can make us more vulnerable to mental disorders and poor well-being.
• I call this weakened and vulnerable state "frontal fatigue," and argue that most people in the modern world have it to some degree.
• There are ways to minimize frontal fatigue and protect ourselves from its effects.

Suicide . Depression . Anxiety . Medication . Psychiatric hospitalizations.

The signs are everywhere. Across the industrialized world, urban and rural, east and west, our mental states seem to only get worse by the year. The biggest commonality in this passage of time is that our societies become increasingly more modern and more technological. In spite of the many priceless benefits of modernity, it is also true that for any group, the more modern they become, the more mental illness and less emotional well-being they tend to have.

In a recent article , I explored ways to understand our modern predicament. Modern life is a constant flood of choices, decisions, and tasks, each more complex and abstract than the last. The most common and the most momentous parts of our lives are equalized by calendar reminders. Many cultures and traditions that formerly guided us in the work of living are now the stuff of nostalgia . Meanwhile, social media can distort our identities into cartoon versions, often depressed and alone.

How did we build such a world? In my last post, I argued that we built the modern world to run on the sizeable power of the human prefrontal cortex (PFC). We use our mighty PFCs to manage our current world, often enough with success. However, there’s a chink in the armor. The incessant and stressful demands we put on the PFC tend to weaken it. Weakened, it fails at its work while releasing vulnerabilities to mental illness and negative emotions.

This weakened, tired PFC is what I call "frontal fatigue" and describe in my book, Frontal Fatigue. The Impact of Modern Life and Technology on Mental Illness. Frontal fatigue is the vulnerability we all carry due to the demands of the modern world, our dearth of personal connections, and the effects all this has on our brains.

Unfortunately, the pace of modern life’s demands shows no sign of slowing down—in fact, they are escalating. Any individual person can, however, take steps to moderate the effects of this assault on their brain. Unplugging and leaving stress behind are not options for most of us. For those of us who must remain plugged in, there is still much we can do to attend to the health of our PFCs, and thus our minds.

3 Steps to Take Care of Your PFC

In the middle of the 20th century, it became obvious that, for the first time in human history, we had to exercise and diet to have a healthy body. A similar time has come for our minds. Disciplines such as meditation and yoga are wonderful but take considerable practice. I believe a more targeted approach affords control and relief without such efforts.

There are three methods I recommend to address this broad personal project. These are different from general stress reduction. They are aimed more directly at the PFC by supplying both outlets and control over these brain functions and hopefully restore some balance to our lives.

These three categories summarize my approach.

• Know when the PFC is strained. This is different from just stress or fatigue, and we need to recognize it.
• Have reliable ways to disconnect not just from technology, but from engaging the world only through the PFC.
• Because much of the time we will remain stuck in our own minds, and thus PFCs, we need to be greater masters of our thoughts and feelings.

These approaches are not intended to reinvigorate us so we can jump back into the thick of things. Instead, we should strive for a better sense of balance and control over how our lives and PFCs interact. If, as you examine these plans, they seem like one more thing to add to your to-do list, then you may not have time available. Rest may be what you need the most. Otherwise, focus on and practice the tasks that resonate with you.

1. Know the signs of PFC strain.

• Do you strain to maintain attention ? Especially reading difficult material or repetitive data such as numbers in a column—do you often need caffeine to continue?.
• Do you forget words and small things? Where you put things; what you thought a moment ago; the word you are looking for, often a name or a word you uncommonly use? This is a breakdown of working memory .
• Do you struggle to multi-task? This is really rapid-shifting as in cooking multiple dishes or managing multiple tasks simultaneously by jumping from one to the next.
• Do you let emotions slip through? Usually irritability. Or, do you say emotionally charged things you would not normally say?

When these signs appear, it likely means your PFC is at its limit due to stress, fatigue, or overuse. If you can, disengage from what you’re doing. Do something simpler, or nothing at all. The PFC is the only part of the brain that actually fatigues like a muscle with overuse. As with muscles, rest is essential.

2. Disconnect.

We need to engage with the world in ways other than just our PFCs. The PFC is always working, but we can use other brain systems to directly engage with life. There are no tricks or unusual techniques to learn here. These are fully human activities. Your body and mind will feel at home with their practice. We did these things every day in pre-modern societies:

• Engage life with your hands. Do crafts, cooking, art, play an instrument, garden, or take on a DIY project. Physical (as opposed to virtual) experience brings a level of care and easy focus.
• Engage life with your senses. We are starved for common beauty. Enrich your senses. See, smell, hear, and taste what life offers. Investigate new foods, art, music, and especially nature. Whatever pulls you in via a sense door, follow it (within reason). Green environments are very important in this endeavor. More and more, research finds them to be calming, restorative, and necessary for a healthy mind.
• Engage life with others. Talk with, question, greet, or chat with others—and not just those close to you, but people you see, work with, pass by, and wait in line with. People love to talk about themselves. Let them and hear their stories. I do not believe that chit-chat is mindless and trivial. Connecting dilutes the minor struggles of the day: the weather, traffic. It relieves stress by spreading out concerns among more people. Participate in some chit-chat even if it’s not your concern at the moment.

3. Better manage your thoughts and feelings.

As I mentioned above, you will not always be able to get out of your head and away from PFC-based activities. So, you must cultivate certain skills to use on an ongoing basis. These are not intended to conquer the mind or any similar grand spiritual goals . Rather, they give you more options when the effects of frontal fatigue build up.

• Practice a way to quiet your mind. You can hear, see, and feel the mind. You want it quiet sometimes such as before bed, but it can be so during the day. This need not be meditation, which can require practice and skill—although breathing exercises are easier and can accomplish this goal. Most people commonly quiet their minds with diversion. I have taken up landscape painting. Others use sports, crafts, or long walks. Learn to listen in on your mind to see how noisy it is. You will find things that quiet it down. Practice these.
• Read deeply. This is western meditation. It focuses, engages, and slows the mind all at once. Find something to read that intrigues or entertains you, but with a challenge. In other words, not page-turners. We have become skim readers due to the amount we digest from the internet’s constant flow. Read slowly on purpose.
• Begin to own your emotions. Observe that you are not irritat ed , but rather, irrit able . This halts the arguments in your mind and the search for blame. I mention this, of all the ways we can explore our inner selves, because it allows you to reassert control over emotions that the PFC has lost. This is a large project in itself. Begin with one pair of feelings, contrasting an external and internal source then owning the internal one. Irritated/irritable is a good choice for most (other choices are: angered and nearly angry; saddened and already sad).

Lastly, disconnect from tech and social media whenever you can. This will enhance the effects of all the tools listed above. As we further develop our understanding of how modernity fits into our lives, we can better refine what a mentally healthy life means for each of us.

Mark Rego, M.D., is a psychiatrist and a clinical assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine.

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Ielts essay # 1217 - life has become much more stressful, ielts writing task 2/ ielts essay:, life has become much more stressful compared to our parent’s generation. as a result, stress-related illnesses are increasing around the world., why is stress such widespread in the modern world what do you think can be done to overcome the problems caused by stress.

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• Stress in Modern Life

Stress in Modern Life - Essay Example

• Subject: Psychology
• Type: Essay
• Level: Undergraduate
• Pages: 7 (1750 words)
• Downloads: 7
• Author: auerskyla

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Explain in detail why stress is a normal reaction to a demanding situation, stress in the modern life, stress in modern life and its consequences, comparison on consequences of stress on modern and past life, stress is a problem of modern life, modern life and stress, the meaning of stress and how modern lifestyle aspects cause stress, stress is a common problem in modern life.

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English Essay on “Stress – The Curse of Modern Life” English Essay-Paragraph-Speech for Class 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 CBSE Students and competitive Examination.

Stress – The Curse of Modern Life

The man of today leads a fast-paced competitive life. Ambition is the buzzword and success, money, affluence—the ultimate goals everyone strives for. This rat race for a comfortable and well-heeled lifestyle surely takes its toll by generating ‘stress’ which is an inevitable outcome of burning the candle at both ends.

What is stress? It may be defined as pressure, anxiety syndrome or strain. In layman’s language, it is generally referred to as ‘tension’. An inability to cope with the hectic lifestyle generates emotional, physical and mental stress. Stress is often generated by a high degree of commitment to one’s goal—vis-a-vis the time available at one’s disposal, and the fear that one is likely to be left behind. People hasten their pace, inevitably leading to a lot of stress. The lure of money often tempts one to work more than one’s capacity, breeding stress and strain. Moreover, in today’s world, money and prestige have become synonymous with each other. It is a matter of prestige to do better than one’s relations and friends, to earn more money, even if it wreaks havoc with your emotional and physical well-being.

A mechanical lifestyle further aggravates stress. Lack of exercise or being confined to one’s `workstation’ for long, results in obesity and stress. Not having balanced meals and compounding this lack of proper nutrition by consuming endless cups of tea and coffee makes one more prone to stress.

It’s time we think about how to overcome stress. Perhaps following a disciplined lifestyle and managing one’s time better can help one to overcome stress to some extent. It is also necessary to priorities as to which areas need more attention than others. One can counter stress to some extent by taking breaks while working. Regular holidays provide the much-needed relief from monotony of daily life. Treks in the mountains bring you closer to nature as well as your own heart. Meditation, yoga or other such spiritual forms of relaxation enables one to counter the stress generated by everyday routine. ‘Meditate—don’t devastate your peace of mind,’ should be the maxim one should follow. Diet control and physical exercise are other ‘ways to minimize if not eliminate stress completely. Yet, another way of overcoming stress is spending quality time with near and dear ones that promotes the sense of emotional well being. Though taking recourse to all these measures may not completely remove stress, it might make stress more manageable.

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