PsyChoLOGy LEsSon - Stress

alright... let's start wif a psyc lesson. *takes out my psyc books. well... since my brain haf gone on an overdrive for the past week, wats a little blog entry compared to 15oo words essays. ;) hopefully readers will understand. i'll try to make it easy, and well.. readers, u can try and fit it into your stressful situation. :)

According to Coon and Mitterer (2009), "stress is the mental and physical condition that occurs when we adjust or adpat to the environment" and "a stessor is a condition or event that challenges or threatens a person" (p. 463-464). While short-term stresses can be uncomfortable, long term ones are totally different (Coon & Mitterer, 2009).

Therefore, when there's a change in environment or situation, you get to experience stress, mentally and physically. This is due to the stressor which intimidates you based on your current condition, or if i might say, "comfort zone". While it's manageable to handle stress in the short run, continued expose to stress can lead to graver conditions in the long run.

Basically, stress depends on your personal outlook at the situation. While some people might find it distressinsg (like me in my case), it gives others a thrill, also called eustress. So, if you perceive a situation to be a threat, then a stress reaction automatically follows (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Lazarys, 1991 cited from Coon & Mitterer, 2009). However, a threat is about control. If you think you can't control a situation, then it's threatening. If you think you can, then it's not, and thus not stressful. Idea is, you've got to be in control! Take charge! There are things that you can control and there are things that you cant. For the latter, throw them out of the window and don't bother. Focus on controlling the former.

Now let's move on to handling threats or stress. To cope with emotions, we can use the emotion-focused coping method and basically, control our emotions. To cope with the situation, we use the problem-focused coping method and try to mange or correct the situation itself. Sometimes, both methods are used concurrently (Coon & Mitterer, 2009). Personally, one efficient way is to, REMOVE THE STRESSORS. Den both emotions and and situations are in check. ;) However, sometimes that is easier said than done right? For instance, how do you remove an irritating person from the face of the earth?

Let me now introduce you to the diathesis-stress model (ok, it's actually for extreme cases of disorder). According to this model, "individuals inherit tendencies to express certain traits of behaviors, which may then be activated under conditions of stress" (Barlow & Durand, 2009). Perhaps this is my B****Y self. hehe. Anyway, i'm juz using this as an oversimplified version of handling stress. Simply put, metaphorically, each of us have a glass with a certain limit to the amount of water (stress) we can fill (handle). Some of us can handle more, while others are more vulnerable due to many different reasons. As long as the water (stress) is below the limit, we are alright. But beyond that, a disorder will surface.

So, it is imparative to say that we should try, as much as possible, to keep the stress level below that limit before we drive ourselves crazy by the situation. You can try methods stated in the second paragraph. Well, there are other methods of coz, whatever that works for you.

Right now, regarding this whole matter, my glass is filled up till my limit line. I'd have to say, i would have tolerated a lot of shit in the past. But the stressor juz brought it up the the highest level. Therefore, unless i get to bring the level down, it's definately not a healthy sign, even after all this time. Any events that poses a threat to me will mean that it'll go beyond the limit and i'll juz go "crazy" again. So i'd say, I don't wanna tolerate any more shit from this whole fiasco. The ball is in your court. It's not about wat you say, coz well.. u don't seem to mean wat u say sometimes, but wat you DO. As the saying goes, Action speaks louder than words. No use being a NATO.

References:

Barlow, D. H. (2009). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach (5th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Coon, D. & Mitterer, J. O. (2009). Psychology: Modules for active learning. Thomson Wadsworth.