Psychology, stress. --- .Introduction or sum up. (1) Stressors. Job troubles: low pay, losing job. Relationship troubles: no relationship, fighting with mate, breaking up with mate as dumper or dumpee. Opposition by people: harassed, threatened, attacked, bullied, psychological verbal or physical abuse. Illness or injury: physical or psychological. Housing situations: loss of place of residence, moving. (2) Stress symptoms or negative effects. Psychological: anxiety, depression, anger. Physical: heart rate higher, breathing rate higher, twitch tremble startle. (3) Stress reducing techniques. Physical exercise. Meditation (empty mind, relax body). Cognitive exercises (battling negative thoughts, creating positive thoughts). --- 12/18/2003
Psychology, stress. --- .This section is about various other thoughts on stress. Topics include: ( ) Self created stress. ( ) Stress is relative. ( ) What is stress. --- 1/24/2006
Psychology, stress. --- (1) An ethics based definition of stress. Stress is perceiving injustice. Stress is perceiving badness (unhealthy, etc.). Especially stressful are things that bother us just based "on the principle". (2) A power based definition of stress. Stress defined as things beyond our control. Things we have no power over. Choices we are not free to make. (3) (A) Not all stress reactions are pathological. (B) Not all stress causes and effects are physical. (C) Thus, how to categorize stress? It can be pathological or healthy. It can be psychological and physical. --- 4/15/1998
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Causes. Anything can be a stressor. Any internal mental state. Any external environment or experience. (2) Effects. The effect is usually a negative emotion and its associated physical sensations (ex. ulcers, backache, migraines, upset stomach, etc.). --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Effects. Increased stress can send people into pathological psychological states. Avoidance mechanisms: addiction (sex, drugs, food, etc.), escapism (climbing, hobbies, etc.), regression (infantilism, teen behavior in adults, running to rents, etc.). (2) Techniques. Good ways to deal with stress: first say "I can handle this". Then start attacking the problem. --- 01/02/1997
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Justified concern. When you know it is going to be stressful. (2) Unjustified concern. When you know experience shouldn't be stressful. (3) The unknown and stress. When you don't know if experience will be stressful. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Negative responses to an event. (A) Negative emotions like anger, sadness, fear, hopelessness, etc. (B) Negative thoughts. Shutdown of thinking. (C) Negative behaviors like abuse of alcohol, food, drugs, etc. (2) Positive responses to an event. (A) Positive emotions like determination and resolution. (B) Positive thoughts like problem solving, adaptation, coping. (C) Positive behaviors like taking action to solve problems. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Relaxed: no drive, deluded, repressed vs. (2) relaxed: kung fu calm, aware, focused. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Stress can drive you crazy. Stress can make you make mistakes. (2) Stress caused by others. Stress caused by self. Stress caused by nature. Which one bothers you most? --- 12/20/1998
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Stress is basically how you handle risk and uncertainty. It is an emotional response that can be healthy or unhealthy, and it affects your thinking and all other psychological areas, as well as physical areas. (2) If you are soft, tender, wimpy, fearful, or anxiety ridden, stress takes a heavy toll on you. If you are tough, and do not give two shit's, stress takes less of a toll on you. Tough experiences can toughen you up. How to stay tough in easy times times? --- 10/15/1994
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Stress results in emotional pain. When the mind is overwhelmed by a task it becomes incapacitated. (2) The ability to control how much you let things bother you is a skill that you can develop and then use to keep the world from driving you crazy, and keep you from driving yourself crazy. The counter-argument to all this is the repression argument, which says that controlling how much you let things bother you is a form of repression. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- (1) Stressed vs. relaxed, peaceful, calm. (A) Relaxed: lack of drive, lack of tension. (B) Relaxed: optimal fighting condition, optimal stress condition. (2) Resilience vs. susceptibility. (A) Resistant: how much can take. (B) Resilience: speed and degree bounce back. (C) Susceptible: how soon cave in. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- (1) When life is too difficult, opposition and conflict can lead to exhaustion. (2) There is a point when physical limits give out and when mental limits give out. (3) Your tolerance limits (coping, callousness) is greater if you have something worth living for. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- (1) You can create stress for yourself even in unstressful situations (like being a millionaire). So you have to work on not creating stress, and de-stressing all the time and in every situation. (2) You don't need stress to be creative. Let the creativity flow. Those untense, non-aspiring people invented lots of stuff and did much philosophy. --- 12/30/1996
Psychology, stress. --- A amount of B type of stressors in C amount of time for D duration, decomposes E person in F way to G degree, and takes H activity or environment for I time to recover to J degree. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- A view. Stress is the cause of mental illness. When given more stress than it can handle, a machine (the mind) breaks down. If the machine was built poorly, it will break down often and severely. Built poorly means, for example, growing up in a poor environment, or never learned skills such as social skills or coping skills. Never learned knowledge such as self-knowledge or emotional knowledge. However, a machine that is built well can handle more stress. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Acute stressors: shock response, or flight or fight response. Chronic stressors: defenses break down. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Capacity to deal with stress: Knowledge. Operational state of mind. Motivation, desire, urgency. Strength. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Causes of stress. (1) Social mistreatment. Injustice, slights whether they be perceived or actual, and also whether they have practical impact or just on principle. (2) Health injury or illness. (3) Economic unemployment, poverty, etc. --- 5/16/2001
Psychology, stress. --- Common stressors. (1) Money: lack of money, or debt. (2) Physical injury or illness. (3) Living alone, with few friends, little communication. (4) Urban areas or close quarters. (5) Small town gossip. These stressors can slowly drive people to psychological exhaustion. --- 11/7/2003
Psychology, stress. --- Common stressors. (1) Physical injury as stressful. (2) Conflict as stressful. (3) Transitions are stressful: for example, job change, relationship change, place of residence change. Stress can cause anxiety and depression. --- 12/30/2003
Psychology, stress. --- Coping strategies. Laugh it off. Talk it out. Write about it. Draw a picture or make a work of art. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Definition: stress is an emotional response. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Destressing vs. getting excited. Thrill seekers and addicts. Stress causes medical problems like inflammation. What causes stress? Not getting my work done, not relaxing, not having a good job, no girlfriend, etc. --- 07/05/1997
Psychology, stress. --- Emotion and stress. Sadness, depression, anger and loneliness are all stressful. --- 5/6/1999
Psychology, stress. --- Folk phrases about stress. How well you "handle" or "deal" with things. Vs. how easily things "get to you" or "rattle" you. --- 08/10/1993
Psychology, stress. --- How did I feel when all the stress left my mind and all the physical tension left my body? I felt like a child on summer vacation. I felt aimless. I felt like nothing. I felt non-existent. I felt empty, like it was the stress that was giving me form. Is this why people can't let themselves relax? Is it because if they do relax they feel worthless? Yet isn't this kind of "being-downtime" just what we need to rejuvenate ourselves? --- 7/11/2000
Psychology, stress. --- How it happens. How to deal with it. How to study it. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- How much of what type of stress to drive what individual to what level of nuts. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- If nothing bothers you then you won't get stressed. If you don't care then you won't get stressed. How sensitive vs. callused to be? How caring vs. apathetic should you be for mental health? --- 11/25/2001
Psychology, stress. --- If nothing has any affect on you then you are not human, in a bad way. If nothing has any affect on you then you are in an unhealthy state. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Me. Destressing. (1) Environments: sunsets and sunrises, beaches and mountains. Going there in person, or in mental images. (2) Activities: walk and run in neighborhood and mountains. (3) Mental techniques: running through your principles, inspirations, goals, knowledge. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Me. I am very uptight, tense, anxious. I am putting myself under too much stress too often. Expectations of self too high. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Me. I make a lot of stress, and I handle it poorly. I must learn to make less stress, and handle the stress that I do make better. --- 12/30/1996
Psychology, stress. --- Me. I prefer self chosen pressures. When the pressure is on I perform well. --- 04/16/1994
Psychology, stress. --- Me. Techniques. (1) What I usually do: psychological collapse. (2) What I want to do: situation analysis and problem analysis. (A) What's the problem? Why is it? How is it affecting me? (B) What can do? What's best thing I can do, and do it, or sit tight and ride it out. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Me. What are my usual stressors? What are the usual emotions they produce? How do I usually deal with stress? How do I want to deal with stress? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Mechanism steps: (1) Perception. (2) Reaction: fight/attack, flight/retreat. (3) Brain chemicals: endorphin, adrenaline. (4) Effect of chemicals. (5) Associated thoughts. (6) Conditioned behaviors. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Not being stressed enough can be stressful in itself. Not being challenged enough. Bring it on! Make it tougher! Speed it up! --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Optimal stress condition. Optimal objective stressors combos: not too much, not too little. Optimal subjective stress response: thoughts, emotions. Optimal behavior to take. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Optimal stress condition. See ideal approach vs. problem approach. Optimal problems and challenges. Optimal reactions. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Related areas. Stress and pathological psychology. (1) Effect of pathological psychology on stress handling ability. (2) Effects of stressors on creating pathological psychology. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Relationship to behavior. Stress makes you enter habitual patterns, bad and good. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Relationships to other mental areas. (1) Memory. Stress reduces memory. (2) Emotion: Stress is an emotional reaction (unconscious and conscious) you are having. (3) Thinking: stress reduces or destroys thinking. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Resistance to opposition: physical resistance, and psychological resistance. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Responses. (1) Avoidance: psychological or physical. (2) Escape. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Rising to the occasion. Stress makes some people sharper. --- 01/02/1997
Psychology, stress. --- Self-created stress. If you say all stress is self-created, then you are saying that people should be able to completely control all of their anger, anxiety and depression. That is an unreasonable request. --- 11/25/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Self-created stress. Some people argue that all stress is self-created stress. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Stress as defined by our response. (1) Positive stress is a challenge or an opportunity that we respond to with positive emotions and healthy behavior. (2) Negative stress is a stress that we respond to with negative emotions and unhealthy behaviors. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Stress can cause you to do less, or nothing, or pathological behavior. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Stress can fry your brain, requiring months of recovery. Learn to de-stress. --- 1/20/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Stress defined as a change in our environment or experience. Stress defined as change is a definition that captures why major life transitions are so stressful. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Stress is anything way beyond your current skills and abilities. So develop your abilities to deal better with stress. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Stress is relative to the individual. (1) Any thing can be interpreted by any individual as stress. For example, for an extremely sensitive person even creaking floorboards can be stressful. (2) Any thing can be interpreted by any individual as not stress. For example, some well adapted people find extremely negative experiences to be not stressful. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Stress is relative; one man's negative stress is another man's enjoyable thrill and a third man's unenjoyable boredom. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Stress types. (1) Thought stress. (2) Memory stress. (3) Emotion stress. (Examples, worry stress, anger stress, sadness stress). (4) Stress about others actions toward you. --- 1/1/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Stress will always be present for everything. Learn to relax more (degree) and more often. Prepare early for things, do your best, and then say "fu*k it" and don't care about it. Caring causes stress. --- 04/30/1994
Psychology, stress. --- Stressors, types of. (1) Simple physical stresses: Tired. Hungry. Cold. (2) Complex emotional stresses and social stresses. --- 2/14/2003
Psychology, stress. --- Stressors: Death of mate, kids, relatives. Injury or illness of same. Loss of job. Loss of fortune. Loss of status. Court cases. Incarceration. War or terrorism. Natural disasters. Physical assault. Workplace stressors. Threat of physical assault. Conflicts with people. Betrayal by friends. Attacks on you by strangers. Public turning against you. Crime victim, robbery, mugging. Psychological problems. Invasion of privacy. Spied on. Abuse. Threats. Harassment. Lies. Malicious mocking. Name calling. Stolen. Lost in fire or flood. Failures in life. Competitive losses. Mistakes made by self. (2) Imagine these stressors occurring. Figure out that you can deal with them and handle them. Figure out how to deal with them and handle them. Figure out what stressors most affect you particularly. --- 11/6/2003
Psychology, stress. --- Stressors: types, amounts, frequency, duration. Reactions: types, amounts, frequency, duration. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Sum-up. (1) Anything can be a stressor. (A) Things we normally think are not stressors can be stressors in particular situations for particular people. (B) Things we think are stressors can not be for particular people in particular situations. (2) Causes of stressors. (A) Physical environment. (B) Psychological experiences (ex. Thoughts and emotions). (C) Social phenomena or other people. (3) Effects of stressors. (A) On mind: chemicals, emotions, thoughts. (B) On body: pains. (4) Conclusion: Anything can cause stress. A stressor can have any effect. (Stress can be anything? Wrong.) (No such thing as stress? Wrong.) --- 1/15/2001
Psychology, stress. --- Symptoms of stress. (1) Head does not feel clear. Can't concentrate. Can't create. Can't think well. (2) Pessimism and negative thoughts and emotions. Depression. Anxiety. Anger. Unhappy. (3) Lethargic. Unmotivated. No energy. (4) Insomnia. (5) Can't concentrate. Distracted. Intrusive thoughts. --- 5/6/2003
Psychology, stress. --- The level of stress an individual experiences is inversely proportional to and individual's coping skills. --- 6/7/2005
Psychology, stress. --- The time you must think best is the time you are under most stress, and thus think poorly. This is the ironic problem. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- There are two types of stress, emotional stress and physical tension. Thoughts are only stressful if they produce emotional stress. --- 1/11/2003
Psychology, stress. --- There is no way to completely separate one's psychological response to a stress and one's physical response to a stress. Psychology and physiology are linked. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Things that are bugging you. Depends on your attitudes. You may have right attitudes, and things are bugging you justifiably. You may have sub-optimal or wrong attitudes, and things are bugging you unjustifiably. --- 10/10/1998
Psychology, stress. --- Things that contribute to stress. (1) Too many stressors at once. (2) No escape from stressors. Daily stress. Chronic stress. Repeating stress. (3) Isolated, no one to talk to. (4) Getting beat up and abused is bad. These are all bad things. --- 7/20/2003
Psychology, stress. --- Total Stress Complex. (1) Types, amounts. (2) X event in Y situation causes Z amount of A stress to B individual, causing D amounts of E behavior. (3) How much are you experiencing objectively. How much are you feeling subjectively. (4) Total stressors, total reactions, total ability to deal with both. (5) Momentary vs. in any time period. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- Trauma (i.e., stress) induced psychopathology is common. Who is to say what is stress? Anything can be traumatic, acutely or chronically. Anyone can crack anytime, temporarily or permanently. --- 5/15/2001
Psychology, stress. --- Two bad extremes. (1) Nothing bothers me at all. (2) Everything bothers me greatly. (3) Somethings should bother us, but not overwhelm us. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Two common stress reactions. (1) Total withdrawal. Give up. (2) War by any means. Explosion. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Two types of self-induced stress. (1) Putting too much expectations on oneself. (2) Imagining, exaggerating or overestimating a situation, and letting it stress you out. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Types of stress. (1) The stress of instantaneous, extreme events that take one by surprise. (2) The stress of mild, chronic stress that slowly wears one down. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Types of stress. (1)(A) Stress about yourself. (B) Stress about others. Ex. worrying about your kids. (C) Stress about the world. (2)(A) Stress about money, stuff and rent. (B) Stress about your health. (C) Stress about love. (3)(A) Stress about injustices like abuse and neglect. (B) Stress about needs denied. (C) Stress about tastes. Likes and dislikes. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Types of stressors. Social stressors. (1) Being stalked, hounded or monitored. Invasion of privacy. Ex. the paparazzi. (2) Being constantly teased. (3) Being bullied. (4) Being ganged up upon. (5) Being threatened. (6) Being physically or verbally assaulted. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- Types of stressors. Social stressors. When you become unpopular for your views. When people are against you. When they mock and jeer. When they are wrong. Fug them. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- We are always under stress and having stress reaction, and then doing stress relieving technique: Optimal vs. suboptimal. Unconscious vs. conscious. Type, degree, frequency, intensity. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- We use the term stress to mean a negative stress, as opposed to a positive stress or a challenge that helps us grow. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- Weak character, emotional wrecks. As compared to situation faced with, or as compared to average person in average situation. It can lead to bizarre, self destructive behavior (ex. Addiction). But we can adapt to stress, like Eskimos to cold? Can you adapt well enough and fast enough? Yes, I can. It is like getting in shape, and you can get out of shape if you don't work at it. Mental health takes work. --- 02/10/1994
Psychology, stress. --- What is stress? (1) Problems, challenges. (2) Awareness of same. (3) Perception of same. (A) Unconscious and conscious incognizance. (B) Conscious incognizance, unconscious cognizance. (C) Overestimation vs. underestimation. (4) Life = problems = opposition = pain = stress. (5) Life is a problem, life is stress. (6) Stress is a problem. (7) Everything is a stress, by degree. (8) Tension, pressure. (9) Stress is cumulative. (10) Blown of by speed and degree. (11) Stress incapacitates by degree. (12) Stress is relative to the person. (13) The emotional response, the physiological response. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- What is stress? (1) Stress defined as experiences and events. Objective stressors. (2) Stress defined as our perceptions of experiences and events. How bad we think it is and why. Subjective stressors. (3) Stress defined as our reaction to experiences and events. How we feel, emotionally and physically, about the stressors we perceive. --- 11/20/2004
Psychology, stress. --- What is stressful to one person may not be stressful to another, based solely on their attitude toward life. --- 4/5/2000
Psychology, stress. --- What the average person considers stressful and why. What do you consider stressful and why. Not interested in it, unknowledgable about it. Goes contra to you, your goals, and your beliefs. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- What. Stress is perception of a problem. If you don't know a problem exists, or if you don't consider it a problem, then it won't stress you out. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- When stressed and don't know why. Recognized the stressed feeling. Do physical exercise. Feel care free, like an 11 year old. Think about other things; distract yourself. --- 4/4/2007
Psychology, stress. --- Why do we have the stress reaction? Why should we study it: to handle things as best we can. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, stress. --- You are stressed by your perception of a situation and by your attitudes toward that perception. Your perception of the situation may not be 100% completely accurate. Your attitude toward your perception of the situation may not be totally optimal. Try to re-perceive the situation. Try to develop better attitudes about your perceptions of the situation. Try to look at it a new way. --- 11/25/2001