Psychology for Life

Ashley Griffin

December 17th, 2016        

PSY-100

Lexi Register

Psychology For Life

After taking the Holmes and Rahe stress quiz, the results presented a numerical score of 487(Holmes,1967). A score this high is determined as a very high risk of becoming ill in the near future. This was very surprising, as a score this high is not to be expected. Everyone has stressful moments in life, whether they feel it will easily blow over or be more of a bigger bump in the path of life. These personal results were more worrying although, because it basically means that if more stress is added or feeling to overwhelmed, a serious health problem is possible of happening. In order to be healthier, this should be reduced quickly and drastically to reduce the chance of a health emergency.

Stress does a lot of damage and harm to the body. Prolonged stress can cause the body to break down, cause mental depression, and many other leading problems affecting bodily systems and organs. "Stress triggers a fight flight response in the brain, therefore casing an increase in blood pressure, fast shallow breathing, and even slows or stops the digestive system."(2000). Personally, the signs of stress usually noticed are fluttering feeling in the stomach that usually leads to an upset stomach. Also, ear splitting headaches,  and a lack of sleep due to really bad anxiety. When these feelings are experienced, especially all among each other at one time, then I know that I am under a lot of stress and feeling too overwhelmed at the time.

Motivation, stress, and emotion all relate to each other.  For example, there is positive and negative stress. The negative stress is the one everyone normally experiences. According to this stress management video, "Positive effects are intensity, and give the feeling to be driven or motivated"(2000). With the good stress that drives you, it induces good emotions, and great results due to the motivation off of this adrenaline produced by good stress. After reading about this good stress, it did give a new perspective. Stress is always perceived as something that is negative and just causes a person's downfall. Rarely is it ever discussed as a motivator, or a good thing at all. Although some negative stress does affect emotion and motivation towards a good thing. If a single mother is extremely stressed from financial and physical strains of motherhood, she will continue to work hard and strive so that her children will not have to struggle in  their future.

Stress can always be relieved no matter what is causing it. Sometimes professional help is needed, but there are methods out there. Depending on the situation of how the stress was introduced, it depends on the fix. For example if it is a financial stressor, a way to alleviate that would try to get another job or a better one.  Most stress is emotional and just a sense of overwhelming situations  in day to day life. According to Eller, anything that allows you to disengage from thoughts can help you relax(2010, Eller). Everyone is different, although a way to avoid symptoms is sometimes just step away. Sometimes we overload our minds and bodies and we need to allow ourselves a break from time to time. Also, personally if getting bad digestion issues taking mint or just drinking water usually helps with calming a distressed digestive system.