There's no escaping it!  But while we can't eliminate all the sources of stress in our lives, we can learn how to more effectively manage the stress we experience.

In this lesson we will explore what stress is, how it can affect our health and how we can take steps to manage it more effectively.
 
 

Stress is your body’s physical and psychological response to anything you perceive as challenging or overwhelming. 
 

Dr. Hans Seyle first defined the term "stress" as "the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it."  In other words, your body reacts to "stressors" in the same way, regardless of whether they are perceived as being positive or negative. 

When stressed, your body goes into a crises mode and many of your physiological functions are altered.  Seyle's General Adaptation Syndrome (pictured here) describes the body's response to a stressor. 

During the ALARM stage, the body experiences the "fight-or-flight" response. 

In simple terms, the fight-or-flight response is instigating a series of biochemical and physical changes which prepares you to either stand and FIGHT or to get the heck out of there (FLIGHT.) 

Notice in this cartoon of the fight-or-flight response that most of these changes will help you either fight or run.  This response was very adaptive for our cavemen or cave women ancestors, but since very little of our stress results from physically facing a foe, the fight-or-flight response is of little use in the 21st century. 

In fact, if the fight-or-flight response is not quickly resolved, it can threatened our health.  This response is in conflict with the body's need to maintain a stable and consistent physiological state, or "homeostasis."  Our cavemen ancestors returned to homeostasis relatively quickly because they actually did what the fight-or-flight response had prepared their bodies to do: fight or run.  You, on the other hand, rarely get the opportunity to do either because your stressors are most likely psycho social in nature.  Unfortunately, you are a 21st Century creature with a 10,000+ B.C. stress response! 
 

Situations, circumstances, or any stimulus that is perceived to be a threat can cause stress.  As you might imagine not only is the list of stressors infinite, but it varies from person to person.Yes, everyone differs in what is stressful or potentially stressful. What for one person might seem to be a catastrophic event may be only a minor setback for another. However, researchers have identified some key categories of the causes of stress.

Change Causes Stress
Change and our reaction to it...that's the primary source of stress in all our lives. All change produces stress, even positive changes. For example, marriage is a positive change, but it is also a period when profound adjustment is necessary. For most people, this adjustment can be stressful. Entering college can be extremely stressful: you're living on your own for probably the first time; you have academic deadlines with no parent there asking "have you done your homework?"; you are making most all of you life decisions, etc.  Unless you live at home while attending school, the college experience is the period when you transition from a life of dependence to one of independence. 

Stress experts Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe have devised a scale in which they rank 43 of life's most stressful life changes.  Click Here to determine how many of these events you have experienced in the last year.  Notice that even changes you view as positive going to college, marriage, having children, retiring are still considered stressful. Change demands your adjustment to the particular situation, whether you desire the change or not. 

Uncertainty Causes Stress
In each person’s life there are uncertainties that can cause stress. Life is filled with uncertainty. It is discomforting not to know what is going to happen. College is a time of moving from the known (dependence on parents) to the unknown (independence).  This uncertainty may cause feelings of being out of control, which can cause stress.  The list of common stressors that college students encounter is quite a long one.  Researchers have documented the following as being major sources of stress for college students:
 
 

Attitudes and Perceptions Cause Stress
A positive or negative attitude influences your reaction to stressful situations. For example, if you are in a major that seems right for you, you may see some of the school problems you encounter as challenges. Seen as pluses, the problems or potential problems become motivators. However, if you have no idea what you're doing at school or are in a major you don't feel like is right for you,  similar experiences create stress.  This stress will frustrate instead of motivating you.

Similarly, past experiences and the resources you feel you have available to meet life’s demands will affect the degrees of stress you may experience. The degree of stress experienced will be affected by your perception of your ability to meet the particular demands ("self efficacy"). How you perceive the situation determines if it is or is not stressful.

Perception can be broken down in the following ways:
* Self:  Your sense of competency, self-esteem, values, interests, needs.

* Resources:  (1)  Personal resources: Past experience in handling stress, health;
(2) Material resources: Finances, equipment, storage; and 
(3) People resources: Other people who can assist you, such as friends, coworkers, family members, professionals.
 

Not all stress is bad.  In fact,  without some stress our lives would be boring.  However, too much stress can cause both mental and physical health symptoms. These include headaches, backaches, sleeplessness, irritability, increased susceptibility to colds, stomach problems  and/or depression.  How do you know if stress is becoming a health problem for you?  Check this list of warning signals of stress:
 

It is normal to feel stress and almost every college student has some stress in his or her life.   However, too much unmanaged stress can serious physical, psychological and social problems for a college student.  In fact, about 25% of all college students have reported that they have felt like dropping out of school because of too much stress. 

Many scientists are convinced of a link between stress and disease. According to immunologist Myrin Borysenko, stress-induced illness is the result of changes that chronic stress creates in the autonomic nervous system and/or the immune system.  The nervous system is responsible for several symptoms of stress-related illness and disease because of the release of stress hormones during the fight-or-flight response.  These hormones include epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol, and aldosterone.  Equally important in the disease-causing process is the suppression of the immune system by these same stress hormones. 

  Type A and Type B Personalities
Most stress researchers agree that certain personality types are more vulnerable to the negative health effects of unmanaged stress. In the 1960s, cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman compared the behavioral traits of "tense" individuals (termed "Type A") with those who were regarded as "laid back" ("Type B").   In these and many subsequent studies, Type A behavior was found to be one of the best predictors of heart disease.  Physiologically speaking, research shows that Type A individuals are more prone to sympathetic nervous system arousal, hypertension, and elevated levels of cholesterol.  Friedman and Rosenman called Type A the "hurried sickness" and developed instruments to designate individuals as either Type A or B.  Generally, Type A individuals seem to have more negative stress in their lives and react more negatively to this stress.  Listed below are the personality traits that are considered to be typical of Type A individuals.  Friedman and Rosenman would designate you as Type A if you had even one of these traits.  How many do you have?
 

Type C: Stress Resistant Personalities

In 1979, Dr. Suzanne Kobasa defined a third personality type: "Type C" or "Stress Resistant" personality.  While Type As are negatively affected by stress and Type Bs hardly seem to notice it, Type Cs actually seem to thrive on it.  Dr. Kobasa found that Type Cs have three specific personality traits that collectively act as a buffer to stress.  These traits are:  commitment, control and challenge.
 
 

Think you might be a "Type C"?  Click Here to find out.

Although there will always be stress in your life, that doesn't mean that you cannot take steps to prevent it from becoming a health risk for you. 
 
 

Meditation, which in its most simple  form is little more than "calm thinking," has been found to be effective in creating a deep sense of relaxation in a relatively short period of time.  It has been shown that alpha brain waves, which are present with deep relaxation, increase in intensity and frequency during meditation.  While meditation techniques can be learned in just one session, research shows that they must be practices for at least one month in order to receive the most profound stress-reducing effects. 

Here  are three meditation programs that you can keep on your computer.  Try all three and see which one is best for you.  Click Here to download (1) Breath Awareness, (2)  Focused Meditation and (3) Deep Relaxation to your computer (in RealPlayer or Windows Media format). 

Yoga is an ancient discipline that has real benefits in our stress-filled modern world.  Click here to download a yoga program that is certain to reduce the impact of stress in your life.