1.1 Concept of Stress and Adaptation Flashcards
Mental health
- Successful adaptation to stressors from internal and external environments, evidenced by thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are age appropriate and congruent with local and cultural norms
- Being able to adapt to stress at an age appropriate level and fits in with local/cultural norms
- Townsend’s definition
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Physiological - Food, water, warmth, rest
Safety - Security and safety
Belongingness and Love - Friendship and Relationships
Esteem Needs - Prestige and Accomplishment
Self-Actualization - Achieving Full Potential
Self-Actualization
- Fulfilment of one’s highest potential
CHARACTERISTICS
- Appropriate perception of reality
- Ability to accept themselves, others, and human nature
- Ability to manifest spontaneity
- Capacity to problem solve
- Desire for privacy and need for detachment
- Independence, autonomy, resistance to enculturation (adapting to culture around them)
- Frequency of peak experiences that validate their own self-worth
- Identification with human kind
- Ability to achieve satisfactory interpersonal relationships
- Strong sense of ethics
- Creativity
- Degree of non-conformance
Mental Illness
- Cultural elements and individual perception make mental illness difficult to define
Incomprehensibility - Inability of the general population to understand motivation behind the behavior
Cultural Relativity - “Normality” of behavior is determined by culture.
- Horwitz Definition
Physical Response to Stress
- Fight-or-Flight Syndrome
- Hypothalamus is stimulated in the brain
- Sweating
- Increased RR, HR, BP, Metabolism
- Increased blood flow to muscles
- Increased sympathetic nervous system activity
Selye’s Adaptation Syndrome
Alarm Stage - Initiation of fight-or-flight
Resistance Stage - Attempt to adapt to the stressor. If adaptation occurs, body goes back to normal and symptoms disappear, if unable to adapt, people move on to the 3rd stage.
Exhaustion Stage - Adaptive energy is depleted and diseases of adaptation may ensue
Immediate Response for Fight or Flight
- Dilation of pupils and bronchioles
- Increased RR
- Increased force of cardiac contraction which increases CO, HR, BP
- Increased secretion from sweat glands
- Decreased gastric motility and secretions
Fight-Or-Flight
- Emotional stressors usually take longer to adapt to than physical stressors
- Modern stress is a psychosocial state that is pervasive, chronic, and relentless. This promotes susceptibility to disease of adaptation
Psychological Response to Stress
- Involves anxiety and grief
- Adaptation involves how much ones feelings and thoughts affect an individuals function
Anxiety
- Discomfort and apprehension related to fear of impending danger
- May be unaware of why they are anxious but feels uncertain and helpless
- Common and almost everyone feels it
Levels of Anxiety
Mild - Seldom issues
Moderate - Perceptual field begins to diminish
Severe - Perceptual fields greatly diminish
Panic - Most intense state
Mild Anxiety
- Prepares people for action and sharpens the senses.
- Increases motivation for productivity
- Increases perceptual field and heightens awareness of the environment
- Learning is enhanced
- Individual functions at optimal levels.
Moderate Anxiety
- Perceptual field diminishes
- Less alert to their environment
- Decreased attention span and concentration, may require help with problem solving
- Increased muscular tension and restlessness
Severe Anxiety
- Perceptual field greatly decreases
- Concentration centers on either one particular detail or many extraneous details
- Attention span extremely limited with difficulty completing even simple tasks
- Headaches, palpations, insomnia
- Confusion, dread, horror
- All behavior is usually aimed at relieving anxiety
Panic Anxiety
- Unable to focus on even one detail in the environment
- Misperceptions and loss of contact with reality
- Hallucinations and Delusions
- Human function and communication with others is ineffective
- Feeling of loss of control, going crazy, emotionally weak
- May think they have a life-threatening illness
- Prolonged states can lead to exhaustion which is life-threatening
ADAPTATION
Mild Anxiety Adaptation
- Eating, drinking, sleeping, exercise
- Cursing, finger tapping
Moderate Anxiety Adptation
Ego Defense Mechanisms
- Denial
- Displacement
- Identification
- Intellectualization
- Projection
- Isolation
- Rationalization
- Regression
- Suppression
Severe Anxiety Adaptation
- If unresolved for a prolonged period of time, it can lead to physiological disorders
(Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal, Neoplastic, Neurological, Pulmonary) - Repressed severe anxiety can lead to psychoneurotic patterns of behavior
(Anxiety disorders, somatic symptoms disorders, dissociative disorders)
NEUROSES CHARACTERISTICS
- Aware they are experiencing distress and their behaviors are maladaptive
- They are unaware of the cause of their distress
- They feel helpless about their situation
- They do NOT lose contact with reality
Panic Anxiety Adaptation
- If unresolved leads to psychosis (significant thought disturbance which impairs reality)
- Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior.
Examples
- Schizophrenia, schizoaffective, delusional disorders
PSYCHOSES CHARACTERISTICS
- Exhibits minimal distress
- Unaware of maladaptive behavior
- Unaware of psychological problems
- They put themselves into a reality of a less stressful world or one where they are attempting to adapt
Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle
Denial - Stage of disbelief in which reality of loss is not acknowledged
Anger - Stage of envy and resentment
Bargaining - Stage of making promises to reverse or postpone the loss
Depression - Desperation and disengagement
Acceptance - Final stage of resignation
Anticipatory Grief
- Grief before actual loss occurs
- Experience of guilt due to “love and hate” relationship with the lost person
- Guilt lengthens grief process
- Anticipatory grief shortens grief response when loss actually occurs
Resolution
- Length of grief process is highly individual
- Length is longer for those who experience many losses and is unable to finish grief process of one loss before the next
- Resolution occurs when someone can look back at their lost relationship and accept both the pleasures and disappointments of the association.
Mourning Process Resolved
- Regain sense of organization
- Pursuing new interests and relationships
- Replacing pre-occupation with energy and resolve
Maladaptive Grief Responses
Prolonged Response - Intense preoccupation with lost entity
Delayed/Inhibited Response - Stuck in denial stage
Distorted Response - Stuck in anger stage
