35 - Stress, Chronic Stress and Traumatic Stress Flashcards
Describe the level of stress that allows the highest level of functioning
- Normative stress or “just a little stress”
- This is motivational and helpful for performance
What are the other levels of stress?
High level stress
- Inhibits functioning
- Does NOT improve performance
Traumatic stress
- Terror
- Does NOT improve performance
Describe an acute stressor
- You go from baseline to acute stress
- After the acute stress response, you go through a period of recovery then go back to baseline
Describe a chronic stressor
- Stressor continues over time
- There is an alteration in the psychophysiology
- There is NO period of recovery or baseline, you are constantly under stress
Growing up in an abusive house or serving as a soldier in Afghanistan
Define stress
a disruption of the body’s normal balance
Define stress response
the body’s attempt at regaining homeostasis
What did Hans Selye label environmental challenges or “stress”?
The body’s stress response is unrelated to the type of stressor (key = whatever the individual views as a threat)
What are the three stages of the adaptation response?
The three stages of the adaptation response are:
- Alarm – the body’s natural initial response
- Resistance – mobilization of defenses
- Exhaustion – response to prolonged stress
What does prolonged or chronic stress cause?
Prolonged (chronic) stress can cause disease, “diseases of adaptation”
Define homeostasis
the collective processes that maintain an internal equilibrium
Define stress
the presence of significant physiological or psychological threat resulting in acute or persistent strain on the body’s compensatory systems
Define allostasis
the activity that is required for the individual to “maintain stability through change, i.e., to adapt.”
Laying on the floor takes no energy to balance, but doing yoga takes a lot of energy to balance
Allostasis is the PROCESS of maintaining hoeostasis by ACTIVE means
What is the allostatic load?
Cost of maintaining homeostasis to the body and brain –> physiological wear and tear
What are the two branches of the ANS?
- Sympathetics
- Parasympathetics
Describe what stress does to the sympathetic nervous system
When you’re stressed, the sympathetics are the first thing that are activated
- Fight or flight response
- Increased HR, BP, SV, bronchial dilation, metabolism, circulation to brain, muscle, heart
- Decreased circulation to stomach, skin, kidney, reproductive organs
Describe what stress does to the parasympathetic nervous system
- Aroused in states of rest and relaxation but ALSO the FREEZE response
- If you have been a victim of abuse, the freeze response may have been the best choice, so now when you’re under stress, you feel as if you can’t move, you”freeze”
What are the two major sources of stress?
- Outside environment (physiological/biological)
- Inside our mind (psychological)
Describe the outside environment as a source of stress
Bottom up physiological response
- Signals from the body’s sensory system progress through the spinal cord to reach the brainstem, followed by the hypothalamus and limbic system that evoke reflex responses to maintain homeostasis
- Higher brain centers shape appropriate emotional & behavioral responses
Describe inside our minds as a source of stress
Top down response
- Top-down response mechanisms originate as thoughts or learned reactions and behaviors in the higher cognitive centers in the brain
If you’ve been raped before, and you hear foot steps behind out, your stress reaction is more so from your psychological state than the actual stressor
What do you need to know about chronic stress?
Chronic stress is NEUROTOXIC ***
