RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTS OF STRESS ON YOUR LIFE

Effects of Stress on Your Life

Introduction
Have you ever felt so stressed out that it alters your life? Or have you ever not been able
to sleep because you have so much on your mind or that you need to do that is stressing you out?
This happens to many people in the world it is not just you. Stress is simply a reaction to a
stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. It causes chemicals to release in our
body such as adrenaline. It causes the fight or flight response to happen in our body and mind.
Literature Review
Stressors for most people are personal events that affect the comfortable patter of our
lives and little annoyances that bug us day after day. There are two different types of stress,
chronic stress which is the long term effects of stress, and acute stress the short term effects of
stress. It is proven that stressful events can cause illness. Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe
followed up on this study in 1967 proposing that major life changes cause stress and that stress
causes illness. They created a scale that measures the events that cause the highest stress. This
scale was later readjusted to fit the life event of college students (CUSS). Chronic stressing is a
source of stress that happens repeatedly. Strained relationships, discrimination, bullying,
overwork, and money troubles are just a few examples. It is well known that first depressive
episodes often develop following the occurrence of a major negative life event Furthermore,
there is evidence that stressful life events are causal for the onset of depression. A study of
13,006 patients in Denmark, with first psychiatric admissions diagnosed with depression, found
more recent divorces, unemployment, and suicides by relatives compared with age- and gendermatched controls (Kessing et al. 2003). The diagnosis of a major medical illness often has been
considered a severe life stressor and often is accompanied by high rates of depression. For

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RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTS OF STRESS ON YOUR LIFE

example, a meta-analysis found that 24% of cancer patients are diagnosed with major depression.
The acute stress response can become maladaptive if it is repeatedly or continuously activated.
For example, chronic SNS stimulation of the cardiovascular system due to stress leads to
sustained increases in blood pressure and vascular hypertrophy. That is, the muscles that constrict
the vasculature thicken, producing elevated resting blood pressure and response stereotypy, or a
tendency to respond to all types of stressors with a vascular response. Chronically elevated blood
pressure forces the heart to work harder, which leads to hypertrophy of the left ventricle
(Brownley et al. 2000). Over time, the chronically elevated and rapidly shifting levels of blood
pressure can lead to damaged arteries and plaque formation.
Application
If you are one of the many people who want to alleviate your stress, you can learn some
simple techniques to help you get out of the vicious cycle of leading a stressful life. Your
stressful life does not just affect you, but everyone around you. It affects your relationships as
well as any children or co-workers. Most of all, it can actually make you physically ill.
There are many facets to stress. Stress manifests itself in many differnet ways and can be either
self induced or something that occurs in life. We can never eliminate stress from our lives as
stressful situations are part of life. However, we can learn to react to stress in a positive manner
and take control of the situation rather than allowing the stress to remain in control. Everyone
experiences stress. Stress can come from a variety of different situations that can be good or bad.
It can also come from within. The trick to managing stress in your life is to be able to identify
stressors and understand if they are from outside sources or if they are self induced. Learning
how to eliminate some stressors an simply deal with others is not difficult once you learn the
proper ways to deal with it. In order to develop an effective stress management programme it is

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first necessary to identify the factors that are central to a person controlling his/her stress, and to
identify the intervention methods which effectively target these factors.

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RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTS OF STRESS ON YOUR LIFE

"Result Filters."National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S.

National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 12 June 2016.

"Decisions under Distress: Stress Profiles Influence Anchoring and

Adjustment."Decisions Under Distress Stress Profiles Influence
Anchoring and Adjustment. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2016.

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