Physiological Mechanism Underlying the Stress Symptoms Essay Example

Introduction

The Cognitive Appraisal Theory of stress offers a tremendous view of the stress symptoms that the patient in the case study undergoes. Fundamentally, Cognitive Appraisal Theory focuses on the cognition of an individual about the stressors, and this informs their emotional responses. Cognitive Appraisal Theory is a theory of emotions and implicates people's interpretation of an event to establish their emotional reaction. How the patient in the case study interprets the stressors is critical. In the view of Folkman and Lazarus, human being responds to the stressful events through making the primary appraisal (Rush and Sharma, 2017). During this stage, they assess whether the event is harmful to them either physically or in terms of their esteem, core values as well as their beliefs. In the case study, this argument is portrayed whereby the patient insisted that she be hospitalized overnight for extensive diagnostic tests and that her internist is consulted after her next severe attack that occurred after a fight at work with her boss over a new marketing campaign (Tetrick and Winslow, 2015).

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The secondary appraisal involves a strong consideration by the stressed individual regarding whether or not they have the necessary resources to manage the conditions or the situation and its outcome greatly influenced the coping strategies of the affected. The coping strategies to the effects of stress can be understood in terms of being a problem based or emotional based. The problem-based, in this case, means that where the stressor is viewed as a challenge, people generate the coping strategies and solution remove it (Holman, Johnson, and O'Connor, 2018). On the other hand, when it is emotionally based, the stressor is perceived as an insolvable threat and thus the coping strategies such as the avoidance, distancing and acceptance are adopted. Cognitive Appraisal Theory, therefore, perceives that we should establish if there is a threat, employ coping strategies and then reassess the threat which results in the identification of the emotional responses as part of the response to a stressor. The stress, in this case, is treated in a more transactional sense, usually as a two-way process whereby the individuals can respond dynamically to their environment.

Evaluation of the sources of stress

The stress in human beings has been for a long time linked to various activities that people do in their daily lives. Stress generally involves the emotional and physiological responses to circumstances that people view as threatening (Holman, Johnson, and O'Connor, 2018). Majority of theories of stress argue that stress is the interaction between problems people face and their resources for dealing with them. According to the transactional theory, the stress is a direct by-product of the transaction that emanates between the individuals and their environment, which may tax their resources, and thus threaten or disrupt their wellbeing. This means that any aspect that endangers the wellbeing of an individual in work can be perceived as the stress. However, the individuals' appraisal of demands and capabilities can be influenced by other factors that include the personality, situational demands, the coping skills, the time lapse as well as the current state of the stress that is already influenced.

According to the interactional model, the interaction of the environmental stimulus and the associated personal responses constitute to stress. For example, various models have shown that the effort at work is spent as a part of the psychological contract. These are based on the norms of social reciprocity, where the efforts at work are renumbered with the rewards as well as the opportunities. In these circumstances, the imbalance caused may result in stress or distress to the person involved. Other theories such as the Person-Environment Fit Theory suggest that work-related stress occurs based on the lack of fit between the individuals' variables. This implies that the interaction between the objective reality and the subjective perceptions constitute to stress. The stress is therefore as a result of the lack of fit between the degree to which the attitudes of an employee and the abilities to meet the demands of the jobs. Other sources of stress have also been proven to exist. These include the unfair treatment at the workplace, little or no acknowledged or rewarded at the workplace, loss of job security, loss of control which is mainly caused by the micromanagement.

Effects of stress on Life

Stress has been shown to have significant effects on the life of an individual. The stress can affect both the physical and psychological health, and this, therefore, means that these can deteriorate rapidly. It can further contribute to severe problems of depressions and burnout if left uncontrolled. About the influence of the stress in the body, it becomes evident that stress can lead to muscle tension. Ideally, this kind of tensions can further propagate to other symptoms such as severe headaches. Individuals with a chronic type of stress often experience headache symptoms in most cases. Other than this, stress can lead to a tremendous disruption of an individual's rhythm, which will later lead to the fatigue in addition to susceptibility to other risks. In this way, an individual's immune systems become lowered especially when one sleeps poorly. The stress can further hurt the circadian rhythm. This means that the affected individuals may end up waking up tired and exhausted (Powell and Enright, 2015).

Stress has also been shown to affect the mental wellbeing of an individual tremendously. It can introduce a severe state of worrying, which is a sped-up version of thinking in circles. Under these circumstances, an individual may get stuck up on something for a long time without getting the right solution. Depression and burnout may emerge as a result.

Coping with Stress

The stress and its related conditions are not medical diagnoses. This means that there is no specific treatment for it. However, it is advisable that individuals who experience stress especially through the associated systems should seek variously available help. These include taking the medicines, ecotherapy, and medication, complementary and alternative therapies.

Taking the treatment involves talking to the experts and professionals who will help the affected person learn about ways of dealing with the stress and develop the knowledge regarding their thoughts and feelings (Tetrick and Winslow, 2015). The common types of talking treatments related to stress reduction include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness-based stress reduction. The medical prescription for stress can consist of sleeping pills or minor tranquilizers especially when the affected person is having trouble sleeping. The antidepressants can also help to relieve the patient from depression and anxiety.

The coping strategies involve embracing optimism as part of daily life (Tetrick and Winslow, 2015). This will help to predict the success in making the health changes associated with the lower risks of cardiac diseases. The confidence is significantly and directly related to the enhanced health outcomes, and these include the reduced levels of saturated fats and the global risks of coronary.

Bibliography

Holman, D., Johnson, S. and O'Connor, E., 2018. Stress management interventions: Improving subjective psychological well-being in the workplace. Handbook of wellbeing. Salt Lake City, UT: DEF Publishers. DOI: nobascholar. com. Retrieved from https://nobascholar.com/chapters/44/download.pdf

Powell, T.J. and Enright, S.J., 2015. Anxiety and stress management. Routledge.

Rush, S.E. and Sharma, M., 2017. Mindfulness-based stress reduction as a stress management intervention for cancer care: a systematic review. Journal of evidence-based complementary & alternative medicine, 22(2), pp.348-360. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2156587216661467

Tetrick, L.E. and Winslow, C.J., 2015. Workplace stress management interventions and health promotion. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav., 2(1), pp.583-603. Retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111341