Ch01 Print indd

 

■

Feelings of being overwhelmed with responsi-

bilities and financial struggles top the list of those 

who experience the greatest stress.

 

■

Additional stressors included work prob-

lems, health problems, family issues, and being 

unhappy with physical appearances.

This study also looked at common daily stressors and 

hassles. Topping the list were juggling family sched-

ules, disillusion with government politics, watching/

reading/listening to the news, household chores, run-

ning errands, car problems, commuting to work, 

losing cell phones, and using social media.

Whether it be daily hassles or bigger issues, both sleep 

patterns and eating behaviors were greatly (negatively) 

impacted by stress. Not all people reported having 

stress, and among those who appear to cope well, 

many credit their resilient personality traits, family 

and friends, spending time outdoors, hobbies, physical 

exercise, meditation, and time with pets.

Although major life events like getting married or 

relocating for a new job may be chronic stressors to 

some, renowned stress researcher Richard Lazarus 

hypothesized in 1984 that the accumulation of acute 

stressors or daily life hassles, such as locking your keys 

in your car, playing telephone tag, or driving to work 

every day in traffic, is just as likely to adversely affect 

one’s health as the death of a spouse. These hassles 

are often based on unmet expectations that trigger 

an anger response of some type, whereas stressors of 

a chronic nature more often than not appear to have 

a greater association with fear and anxiety. Lazarus 

defined hassles as “daily interactions with the environ-

ment that were essentially negative.” He also hypothe-

sized that a balance of emotional experiences—positive 

emotions as well as negative ones—is necessary, and 

that people who have no exposure to life’s “highs” or 

emotional uplifts are also susceptible to disease and 

illness. Further research by Lazarus (1984),  Ornstein 

and Sobel (1990), and others has proved that his 

hypothesis has significant merit regarding stress and 

disease. As might be expected, the issue of lifestyle 

habits, changes, and hassles as social influences has 

come under attack by those who argue that perception 

or cognition plays an important role in the impact of 

stressors. Suffice it to say that all stressors, regardless 

of classification, are connected to human well-being in 

a very profound way.

socioeconomic status, to name but a few. New to the list 

of social influences are global warming concerns and 

water resource issues as the global population increases, 

taxing our very lifestyles with regard to scarcity issues.

Social Stress in America:  

A Twenty-First-Century Look

Social influences linked to stress have been studied for 

decades, most notably by Holmes and Rahe with the 

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) and the 

concept of life change units (LCUs). It was their work 

that highlighted the list of top life stressors, including 

death of a spouse, loss of a job, death of a child, divorce, 

and high mortgage payments. While these stressors 

haven’t changed, the pace of society has moved into 

warp speed. With this rapid change more stressors 

have been added to the list, and the impact of stress on 

one’s health has been confirmed.

For the past 10 years, the American Psychological Asso-

ciation has conducted a yearly survey titled “Stress in 

America: Paying with Our Health.” From interviews 

with over 3,000 people in various demographic popu-

lations (gender, income levels, generational groups, 

etc.), the results are not promising. The key findings, 

published in the spring of 2015, revealed that although 

reported stress levels have decreased slightly over the 

past few years, over half of people between the ages of 

18 and 40 report their stress level above 5 on a scale 

of 1 to 10. Seniors appeared to have the least stress; 

millennials have the most. The top reasons for stress 

included (1) financial pressures, (2) work, (3) economy, 

(4) family issues, and (5) health issues. Overall, women 

report more stress than men (and the gap is widening), 

and children appear to model their stress behavior on 

their parents’. Effective coping skills appear to be in 

short supply, according to this survey. The conclusions 

drawn from this study underscore the relationship 

between stress and disease/illness and show that people 

need to harness better stress management skills.

Similar to the APA “Stress in America” study, in 2014 

National Public Radio and The Kaiser Health Foun-

dation conducted a series titled “The Burden of Stress 

in America.” Here are some of their findings:

 

■

Half of those questioned (over 2,000 people) cited 

a major stressful experience in the past year.

 

■

Health-related issues are stressful experiences 

most frequently mentioned.

 

The Nature of Stress

11

9781284103625_CH01_Print.indd   11

12/4/15   4:20 PM

---

Stage 3:  Stage of exhaustion.  Exhaustion occurs when 

one (or more) of the organs targeted by specific meta-

bolic processes can no longer meet the demands placed 

upon it and fails to function properly. This can result 

in death to the organ and, depending on which organ 

becomes dysfunctional (e.g., the heart), possibly the 

death of the organism as a whole.

Selye’s general adaptation syndrome outlined the param-

eters of the physiological dangers of stress. His research 

opened the doors to understanding the strong relation-

ship between stress and disease and the mind-body-

spirit equation. In addition, his work laid the foundation 

for the utilization of relaxation techniques that have the 

ability to intercept the stress response, thereby decreasing 

susceptibility to illness and disease. Congruent with 

standard medical practice of his day (and even today), 

initial stress management programs were geared toward 

reducing or eliminating the symptoms of stress. Unfortu-

nately, this approach has not always proved successful.

Bad Stress in a Good Light

More research comes to light about the stress response, 

and we now know that the hormone dehydroepian-

drosterone (DHEA) is produced and released by the 

adrenal glands, just as cortisol is. Cortistol is consid-

ered a catabolic (breaks down) hormone, whereas 

DHEA is considered an anabolic (builds up) hormone. 

In a perfect world (in which we only experience short-

term stress) these two tend to balance each other out. 

During chronic stress, however, much more cortisol is 

produced than DHEA. This creates an imbalance that 

can wreak havoc on the body’s physiological systems 

over time. Kelly McGonigal, author of the popular 

book The Upside of Stress, suggests that if we can take a 

positive attitude about stress (accept the challenge and 

rise to the occasion), we can promote a better hormonal 

balance between cortisol and DHEA. Putting a new 

spin on the term “fight or flight,” McGonigal refers to 

the stress response as “excite and delight,” an expres-

sion aimed at placing bad stress in a good light, though 

not all experts agree with her perspective.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 101

There is stress and then there is STRESS! Although 

most people claim to live (or even brag about) stressful 

lives, the truth of the matter is that few people 

The General Adaptation Syndrome

Following Cannon’s lead early in the 20th century, 

Hans Selye, a young endocrinologist who created a 

name for himself as a leading researcher in this field, 

studied the fight-or-flight response, specifically the 

physiological effects of chronic stress, using rats as sub-

jects. In experiments designed to stress the rats, Selye 

noted that several physiological adaptations occurred 

as a result of repeated exposures to stress, adaptations 

that had pathological repercussions. Examples of these 

stress-induced changes included the following:

1.  Enlargement of the adrenal cortex (a gland that 

produces stress hormones)

2.  Constant release of stress hormones; corticoste-

roids released from the adrenal cortex

3.  Atrophy or shrinkage of lymphatic glands 

(thymus gland, spleen, and lymph nodes)

4.  Significant decrease in the white blood cell count

5.  Bleeding ulcerations of the stomach and colon

6.  Death of the organism

Many of these changes were very subtle and often went 

unnoticed until permanent damage had occurred. 

Selye referred to these collective changes as the gen-

eral adaptation syndrome (GAS), a process in which 

the body tries to accommodate stress by adapting to it. 

From his research, Selye identified three stages of the 

general adaptation syndrome:

Stage 1:  Alarm reaction.  The alarm reaction describes 

Cannon’s original fight-or-flight response. In this stage 

several body systems are activated, primarily the ner-

vous system and the endocrine system, followed by 

the cardiovascular, pulmonary, and musculo  skeletal 

systems. Like a smoke detector alarm buzzing late at 

night, all senses are put on alert until the danger is over.

Stage 2:  Stage of resistance. In the resistance stage, 

the body tries to revert back to a state of physiolog-

ical calmness, or homeostasis, by resisting the alarm. 

Because the perception of a threat still exists, how-

ever, complete homeostasis is never reached. Instead, 

the body stays activated or aroused, usually at a lesser 

intensity than during the alarm stage but enough to 

cause a higher metabolic rate in some organ tissues. 

One or more organs may, in effect, be working over-

time and, as a result, enter the third and final stage.

Chapter 1

12

9781284103625_CH01_Print.indd   12

12/4/15   4:20 PM

---