Chapter 3: Stress

Chapter 3 teaches us about stress. As college students, this is a highly relatable and important chapter. Tuition, roommates, dating, grades, life after graduation, everything we face every day makes us collegiate balls of stress. Key terms associated with this chapter are stress, stressors, distress, and eustress. Stress is the response our bodies and minds have to real or perceived challenges. Stressors are these real or perceived challenges that cause stress. Distress is negative stress, and eustress is the positive stress that promotes growth. Stress is also broken down into different categories: acute, episodic acute, chronic, and traumatic stress. Our body’s response to stress is amazing. General Adaptation Syndrome, or GAS, is made up of the alarm, resistance, and exhaustion phases. The alarm phase is when we perceive a stressor and our nervous system reacts. The resistance phase is when our body tries to resist these alarms and return to calm. The exhaustion phase is when our body comes down from this whole ordeal and returns to balance. The fight-or-flight response, also known as the alarm stage of GAS is the physical response we have to stress. The autonomic nervous system is the portion of the central nervous system that regulates the body functions that we cannot control, like heart rate and breathing. It is composed of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. These responses to stress vary among men and women. Men are more likely to fight or fly, while women are more likely to “tend and befriend” through social support. These differences in responses are based on the way men and women perceive stress.

Stress not only influences our minds, but also our health in general. Physical effects include CVD, weight gain, alcohol dependence, hair loss, diabetes, digestive problems, and impaired immunity. Stress can also impact our memory and concentration through prolonged exposure to cortisol. Rates of mental disorders, like depression and anxiety, are also associated with environmental stressors. Sleep, which is hard enough to get as college students, can also be impacted by stress. More than 60% of students said they felt tired, or dragged out for three or more days in the past week. Unfortunately for us, sleep deprivation is associated with poor performance academically, weight gain, and even depression. It also compromises our immune system, leaving us susceptible to disease. Since we control how we sleep, though sometimes difficult, we need to take steps to make sure that we get enough quality sleep. The chapter provides a detailed list of ways we can do this.

Psychosocial stressors refer to social factors that impact our stress levels. These include adjustment to change, relationship problems, academic and financial pressure, and overall stressful environments. Although these are all external sources of stress, internal factors can be just as impactful. The way that we recognize stressors affects how we respond to them. Self-esteem and how we feel about ourselves also determines how we respond to stress. Our personalities can also be what cause our stress. Type A, C, and D are exceptionally prone to stress because of the way their minds work. Type B personalities make people more resistant to stress. Psychological resilience is our ability to keep our heads. Shift and persist is our ability to view stressors in a more positive light.

Stress is painful and extremely difficult to overcome. However, there are ways to manage it. Being in school makes a lot of us feel alone at times. However, we can take advantage of this to take charge of our own lives and make ourselves into the people we want to be. There are mental and physical approaches that are addressed in this chapter. Mental approaches include making a list of things you’re worried about, taking a deeper look into your personal stressors and their impact, listing your options, outlining and acting on a plan to manage your stress, and evaluating it. We can also use cognitive restructuring to adjust our negative way of thinking and break those habits. Mindfulness is another technique that is revisited in this chapter. It allows us to bring more awareness to our thinking patterns and refocus our stressful thoughts. Cultivating happiness involves positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement. Physical action can also be taken against a mental threat. Exercising, getting enough sleep, self-nurturing, and eating right can all help to manage stress. We can’t avoid all of life’s stressors, but we can train ourselves to react differently to them. Dispositional mindfulness refers to the awareness of our own thoughts, feelings, and reactions. To practice it, start a journal, examine causes of stress, live in the moment, take a step back, and focus on the stressor.

It is also important to manage our emotional responses to stress. We cannot always control the actions and reactions of others, but we can control our own. Learning to laugh and be joyful even in the most trying of situations can help us to overcome those situations. One thing addressed in chapter 3 is learning to resist anger. This is an area of challenge for me. So, the tips provided in the chapter were great for me to read. Recognizing my anger patters and learning to de-escalate them, verbally or otherwise, should be my first step. The chapter then says to plan ahead, vent to friends (I am great at this), develop realistic expectations for myself, turn complaints into requests, and leave past anger in the past. I am notoriously good at holding grudges. It is not something I’m proud of, and I see how it affects my anger in the present. Making time for family and friends is also very important. Having a strong support system can be very powerful.

Money and time are both huge stressors. Time management can be a great tool in managing stress. Do one thing at a time, keep a clear desk, prioritize, find a comfortable place to work, reward yourself, work when you’re in the right mindset, and learn to say no. I am someone who tends to say yes whenever my friends ask to do anything. It has put me behind on work plenty of times, so learning to say no is something I definitely need to practice. Managing my finances is also something I need to practice. I spend too much which results in stress. The chapter proposes creating a budget, using credit cards wisely, and creating a financial inventory. It also suggests voluntary simplicity, or downshifting. I have recently decided to make this change for myself in order to save money to move out of my house. I have decided to stop going out with my friends for drinks or food, and I have plenty of clothes to keep shopping the way I do anyway.

Relaxation techniques have been practiced for centuries, and are still just as useful. There are plenty of options to choose from, which makes this management technique open to everyone. Yoga, diaphragmatic or deep breathing, meditation, visualization, and hypnosis are all examples of relaxation techniques. I have integrated yoga into achieving my personal goal. The weight training I’ve been doing to increase my muscle mass has also made my muscles very tight and sore. It is a good sore, but yoga and stretching helps with that tightness. It also keeps my muscles from growing to be too bulky. It lengthens and tones the muscles in a way that also relaxes my mind. So, I guess through seeking to achieve this goal I discovered a relaxation technique that is perfect for my mind and body.