Stress is a type of response, it consists of the tension, discomfort, or physical symptoms that arise when a situation, called a stressor, a type of stimulus, strains our ability to cope affectively. Stress if commonly confused with trauma. A traumatic event is a stressor that is so severe that it can produce long-term psychological or health consequences. Until the 1940's stress was not a common word used by scientists.
There are three main approaches to stress. The first one is stressors as stimuli. Stressors as stimuli approach focuses on identifying different types of stressful events, ranging from job loss to combat.The second one is stress as a transaction. Stress as a transaction is how people interpret and cope with stressful events.The third one is stress as a response. Stress as a response assess people's physical and psychological reactions to stressful circumstances.
One thing that struck me in this chapter was the four steps to a healthy lifestyle. Stop smoking was number one, followed by curb alcohol consumption. So many people smoke these days and nothing is really being done about it. I feel some things have changed like the laws in bars, restaurants, campuses, but still when I see doctors and nurses smoking a cigarette outside a hospital, it really makes me think. They try to say smoking is bad for you but they do it themselves.
Another thing that struck me was that in the United States strokes causes more deaths than all types if accidents combined. That is scary. This fact helps people realize that they should change their lifestyle and start being healthier before it is too late.
I learned that stress affects your everyday life, and there are many things you can do to manage stress or prevent it from ruining your life.
-Emily Sirek
Chapter 12, Stress
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Its interesting to think about the different kinds of stress and how/why they occur and how we can prevent them. I agree with Yao in that stress and lifestyle can go hand in hand but how will we can we change our lifestyle? Especially when our job and other factors that are not easily changeable are involved.
I also thought that the four steps to a healthy lifestyle stood out to me. I am currently taking a public health class and I have noticed that for almost every disease smoking and being overweight are two risk factors. I don’t notice too many people on campus who smoke but I think that it should be banned on campus. It is an extremely unhealthy habit for those that do smoke and it affects those around the smoker because of second hand smoke.
Sounds really sarcastic, and sometimes those people see smoking as one of the way to release from stress. actually I think stress and lifestyle sometimes affect each other, one of the way to prevent from stress is to change our lifestyle.