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12
Feb 24

I thought I was a hermit, and other great realizations…

Charismatic is the word my mother uses to describe me, others have said social butterfly and I find this very peculiar considering my adoration for solitude.  When the world shut down during the COVID pandemic it seemed like a gift, here was a reason to stay home and do whatever I wanted and never have to see anyone ever again, I could stay inside without guilt.  Living in San Diego people often suggest getting outside, it’s a nice day they say, well I say every day is a nice day, it’s Southern California, leave me alone.

That’s not to say that I don’t love to be around people, and admittedly so, to be the center of attention, but I really like my alone time.  So, looking back I found it odd that the time in lockdown had the opposite effect I had originally imagined.  In the wake of the pandemic I had put on more pounds than I care to admit, lost my motivation for going anywhere, and therefore any interaction with people outside of a gas station attendant or my kids. Now possibly it was not getting any exercise, or because I had two small boys in school online while I was in nursing school prep courses, but I was not myself to say the least. I had lost my mojo, and I felt angry, and very much inside my head, it was indescribably difficult and I felt alone.

It has been a few years now, my boys survived and so did I, life has begun to seem normal again, but only recently.  As this awareness of normalcy came to fruition, so did the realization that something had gone wrong during that time of isolation, and it wasn’t just a lack of exercise, there was more to it, there was a host of emotional turmoil to sift through, but what struck me most, why had that been the outcome and not a shining butterfly of self-care and peace of mind emerging from that time away from everything?  I loved being alone, I enjoyed binging shows, and puttering around my house without any social contact, so why was I a mess?

It was Aristotle who first proposed that we are social creatures and seek the companionship of others as a component of our well-being.  Well-being, however, has become somewhat of a buzzword and feels rather elusive to attain, like Peter Pan’s shadow, just slipping one’s grasp.  That is, until I started piecing the puzzle together, the whys and whats so to speak of what happened to me, and so many others during this time that could have, and maybe for some, was used to better oneself, in my case, felt more like crawling out of a cave.

Studies have shown that those who regularly attend church or social events tend to live longer and healthier lives (Pew Research Center, 2019), (Godman, 2023).  Many of us have heard that religion leads to happier, and thus healthier lives, but what is it that offers this life extension?  According to (Umberson & Karas Montez, 2011) when adults are more socially connected, they too live longer and healthier lives than their counterparts (isolated adults).  And, in one news brief (Godman, 2023), researchers conducted a study examining the lifestyle and social environments of 28,000 individuals for a term of five years.  Findings show that the more that people were socializing the longer they were living, if they did not socialize every day, they still lived longer than those who did not socialize at all (Godman, 2023).

There was credible information showing we are indeed social animals, and this solitude many of us lived through had a serious impact on our overall health and well-being.  As the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023) state, people who are socially connected are more likely to have stability, healthy relationships, and improved decision-making ability.  They go on to mention that the very choices we make are better for our health when we are among others and that we manage stress better, and depression (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023).

So here it was, findings that show just how important social interaction is for our overall well-being, the elusive shadow, completely within my reach.  It took baby steps, I started delivering food, and would occasionally interact with a customer, and then I started easing into grocery stores, and more.  Now about 4 years later, I have begun to lose weight, I have people over to my house again, and I go out and socialize.  I realized that I am seen as charismatic and social because although I am a social butterfly, my “me time” is imperative for recharging my energy.  However, with that being said I can see clearly now that the support of others, and those daily interactions, no matter how brief, are all part of our nature, and something I was desperately lacking.  As Thomas Kottke once said “Medicine is a social science in its very bone and marrow” (Kottke, 2011).

 

 

 

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, May 8). How Does Social Connectedness Affect Health? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/emotional-wellbeing/social-connectedness/affect-health.htm#:~:text=When%20people%20are%20socially%20connected

Godman, H. (2023, July 1). Even a little socializing is linked to longevity. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/even-a-little-socializing-is-linked-to-longevity#:~:text=Within%20the%20first%20five%20years

Kottke, T. E. (2011). Medicine Is a Social Science in Its Very Bone and Marrow. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 86(10), 930–932. https://doi.org/10.4065/mcp.2011.0444

Pew Research Center. (2019, January 31). Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the World. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/01/31/religions-relationship-to-happiness-civic-engagement-and-health-around-the-world/

Umberson, D., & Karas Montez, J. (2011). Social Relationships and Health: a Flashpoint for Health Policy. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51(1), 54–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146510383501

 

 

 

 

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09
Feb 23

Stress in Collegiate Sports

Almost all, if not all, collegiate athletes will undergo some type of stress related to academic and athletic performance throughout their college career. In an article from Frontiers called Stress in Academic and Athletic Performance in Collegiate Athletes: A Narrative Review of Sources and Monitoring Strategies, they did a study that found that “Approximately 65.7% (50.7% males and 71.8% females) reported feeling overwhelming anxiety in the past 12 months, and 45.1% (37.1% males and 47.6% females) reported feeling so depressed that it was difficult for them to function” ((Lopes Dos Santos et al., 2020). This is an extremely high number for a problem that can be prevented and dealt with. Applied social psychology can be used to help athletes and the professionals that they work with to help with mental health.

Applied social psychology can be used be using the scientific process to see how to eliminate this problem. The first step is observation of phenomena, which involves recording and researching everyday events, research results, and intervention outcomes (Gruman, 2016). For the problem of stress in college athletes, we would complete this first step by watching the athletes to determine the problem. Since we already know that this is an issue, this step is already complete. However, we could gather more data to support the idea and add to why the problem is important to fix.

The second step of the scientific process is to develop a theory and the third step is the deduction of specific hypothesis derived by theory (Gruman, 2016). Through this we would see what needs to be changed and the develop a hypothesis. While there are many hypothesis that could be developed, one important one could be that more time spent completing athletic activities, the more stress a college athlete will endure. However, there are many hyptohesis that could be created relating to the issue. Some hypothesis could include how mental health, stress, eating disorders, athletic performance, academic performance, and more are affected by collegiate sports.

The final step is testing the hypothesis through research and interventions (Gruman, 2016). In this step, the applied psychologists would develop studies to help prove or disprove their hypothesis. This can be done by observational or experimental studies which will test how athletes are effected by stress. Collegiate athletes are one population that has been most affected by mental health lately, however, very little prevention has been implemented. Through applied psychology, psychologists can implement ways to prevent and treat athletes undergoing stress and mental health problems.

References:

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.

Lopes Dos Santos, M., Uftring, M., Stahl, C. A., Lockie, R. G., Alvar, B., Mann, J. B., & Dawes, J. J. (2020, March 30). Stress in academic and athletic performance in collegiate athletes: A narrative review of sources and Monitoring Strategies. Frontiers. Retrieved February 9, 2023, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2020.00042/full

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10
Feb 22

Housewives: Blessed or Stressed?

“It must be nice to sit at home all day and spend your spouse’s money.” One of the many stigmas surrounding housewives is that they stay home and spend too much money. If you’ve never been a housewife or had a housewife, you may not actually understand the inner workings of what happens day to day. Not all housewives have children, but that’s a common reason women choose to stay home and assume the role. It does come with a significant responsibility and high rate of burnout.

It is always a blessing when you can spend time with your children. However, it’s not exactly a luxury that every woman chooses to take on. As it turns out, housewives are extremely stressed and may actually be more at risk for mental illness than those working outside the home. As someone who has both worked outside the home and stayed home with my child, I can say each lifestyle has their own struggles. Sadly, housewives tend to get overlooked as making the “easier” life choice.

Reports have shown that housewives are experiencing higher levels of stress and burnout than those working outside the home (Durak, Senol-Durak, & Karakose, 2022). They also report lower quality of life and less satisfaction. Take into account the things these women are facing each and every day. They wake up, take care of traditional chores like laundry and dishes, make sure the kids are fed and happy, fix all meals, sleep, and repeat. Day after day. It can almost feel like the movie Groundhog Day.

So how can you help? You can start by making sure there are good coping strategies in place. Managing everything alone can be overwhelming, so housewives need healthy ways to cope. Talk with the person and see what they do to combat daily stressors and maybe come up with a gameplan that works for them. The textbook talks about to general approaches to coping. Problem-focused coping is tackling the problem head-on, so it doesn’t continue to affect you. Emotion-focused coping is centered around emotion regulation.

Social support will also play a big role. You may have heard “it takes a village” and that is totally true. You cannot get through life all on your own. You need people to lean on during good and bad times. Having a good support system is key. Having friends to talk to, family to help out, and people to network with. Being a housewife isn’t for the faint of heart and can feel extremely lonely.

If you have a housewife or know a housewife, take some time to check in and see how they’re doing. Ask if you can help out in any way. Provide them a break from the mundane routine. If you are a housewife, reach out and make connections. Tons of people support this amazing lifestyle and don’t want to see you struggling. You are NEVER alone.

 

References:

Durak, M., Senol-Durak, E., & Karakose, S. (2022). Psychological distress and anxiety among housewives: The mediational role of perceived stress, loneliness, and housewife burnout. Current Psychology: A Journal for Diverse Perspectives on Diverse Psychological Issues, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02636-0

Gruman, J.A., Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

 

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16
Sep 21

The affects of short-term temptations in the American Culture: Obesity.

Overeating has been a major problem in America, “an estimated 60% of adults in the United States and Britain are currently overweight or obsess and they are becoming so at an earlier age than ever before (Davis 929). Overeating is caused by the human’s temptation towards food, alcohol, smoking, and many more. Overeating is a form of social traps in which they pleasure people in the short-term but affect them in the long term in a negative way instead. The choice of a person relates to their want for immediate pleasure in the short term, like eating junk food, or by waiting for the reward of the long term and staying healthy. What are some factors that cause people to overeat in their daily lives? Some factors that might cause overeating are like stress, body shame, and social media and the internet. While there are many factors that influence obesity, there are ways in which we can solve this problem.

Overeating is a major loss of control over what a person’s body is craving. There are many factors that cause obesity to happen, and recently the percentages of obesity have been increasing at a younger age as well. One factor is stress which causes many to keep eating without even realizing to express their feelings and their emotions through food. When someone is stressed, a way of coping with it is by grabbing anything they can find and eat it. Also, body shame is a way that people who do not like the way that they look try to deal with it either by cutting out all food or by overeating. Someone might be angry about the way that they look and not want to be very skinny anymore, for example, so they start eating more and their body is not used to it. Over time, continuing to eat large amounts of food will cause the person to become obese without even realizing. One large factor in what causes obesity is social media and the use of the internet. Many children, teenagers, and adults use the internet daily 24/7, causing them to eat while they are sitting on a desk or in bed on the internet. Using the internet distracts a person from realizing what they are eating and continues to let a person overeat without noticing and repeating this overtime will cause a person to become obese.

Obesity connects to social traps in which we learned in class. Social traps are the involvement of a person in choosing to have the short-term pleasure or waiting long term for the gain of something, according to the textbook (Gruman 354). This idea might not relate to everyone because some might overeat and not become obese while others will eat normally and still gain weight. This is frustrating to people that gain from the slightest things like eating past ten o’clock at night, while others might eat at twelve o’clock at night and not gain anything. This really depends on a person’s body and how it reacts to food. Not wanting to wait for the long term, many eat as much as they want but causing them to end up with some problem in their body like high blood pressure, high levels of sugar, obesity, acne, and many more. Others that wait for the long term are benefited with staying fit and not having to deal with any problem in their body. I experienced a short-term situation in which I was stuffed full after dinner on a Sunday afternoon, and I couldn’t have dessert, so I saved it for later. Still being full, I realized that I did not eat my dessert, but I ended up eating it at twelve o’clock at night even though I was full.

There are many ways that obesity can be solved and minimized in the American culture. One way of minimizing obesity is by eating more healthy food instead of processed food. The easiest thing to cook is processed food in which it would be ready in ten minutes or less. Especially in college, many students don’t take their time in cooking a healthy meal but instead find processed food. Junk food is a major factor of obesity and getting rid of it with health options will help a person see a positive outcome. Another way to minimize overeating is by having a time frame for the time of meals and knowing when you ate the last meal and not eating too late. These ways might be able to help with obesity.

In conclusion, overeating has been a major factor in the American culture caused by many factors like stress, anxiety, body shame and internet use. It is important to realize the effects that obesity can have on a person whether they are young or adults. Overeating relates to social traps in which most of the time aim for the short term instead of the long term. While some might argue that it is a human normal phase in which people fall into this trap, in my opinion there should be ways in which we solve obesity. To find ways to solve overeating, we should strive to find better replacements that will have an increase in human health and weight.

References: Davis, C., Levitan, R. D., Muglia, P., Bewell, C., & Kennedy, J. L. (2004). Decision-Making Deficits and Overeating: A Risk Model for Obesity. Obesity Research, 12(6), 929–935. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2004.113

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.

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13
Feb 20

SUICIDE: MILITARY’S WORST ENEMY

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. Suicide is a serious topic within the general population, as well as the military. Suicide rates for active-duty service members and veterans are rising. According to statistics, 20 veterans die by suicide each day (Giacomo, 2019.) It is not just members of the service that deal with stress, but families undergo many stressors and experience a variety of exposures while dealing with the military lifestyle. Veterans are victims of suicide due to many reasons, including failure to adapt back into civilian life, a process many find challenging, the feeling of helplessness, and dealing with Post Traumatic Symptom Disorder (PTSD).

One of the most significant battles is the military is seeking mental health treatment. Why? Because it goes against everything we are taught in boot camp. We are told to push through the pain and to think of everybody else before self. It is teaching us one team one fight culture, although this is contradicting because many of us associate that with keeping our needs and feelings to ourselves. There are many myths as to why service members are afraid or don’t come forward about mental health. One myth that is known amongst service members is that a psychological health condition or seeking professional help will automatically disqualify you for a security clearance. In fact, less than 1% of security clearance denials and revocations involve psychological health concerns. We can educate and prevent by bringing awareness to current trends and statistics in military health, to break the stigma regarding reprimands for seeking mental health, loss of security clearance/ active duty status, and other mental health myths.

There is no single cause for suicide. We have to pay attention to those around us and reach out if they show drastic changes and signs. The importance of knowing the warning signs is as critical as saving a life. Each suicide is one too many, and we need as much help to save lives. Suicide can’t be predicted but can be prevented. Seeking help is a sign of strength. September is the official Suicide Prevention Month.

 

Giacomo, C. (2019, November 1). Suicide Has Been Deadlier Than Combat for the Military. Retrieved February 13, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/opinion/military-suicides.html.

Staglin, Garen. “The U.S. Military Can Lead The Way In Mental Health And Suicide Prevention.” Forbes, 21 Nov. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/onemind/2019/11/21/the-us-military-can-lead-the-way-in-mental-health-and-suicide-prevention/#69e15b4e78ca.

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30
Sep 19

You, Me, We, and Stress

Stress always sounds like a frequently used bad word. If you ask a fellow student, a parent, a family member, or a coworker how they feel, “stressed” is usually one of the common words they might use in description along with sleepy, exhausted, and burnt out.

To get technical, stress results from things that happen in our environment, according to the transactional model of stress. Unfortunately, this model implies almost anything can cause stress, “people, events, and situations” (Gruman, 2017). Those categories mentioned are called stressors and there are many things that fall into those three categories.

In these situations, our brains appraise the situation. Appraisals can happen consciously or subconsciously. When this happens think of fight or flight. Either we can think this situation is threatening to us or it’s something we can conquer or get over. We also have secondary appraisals that evaluate and assess our resources to determine how we handle the stressor.

Appraisals can be different for everybody even if it’s the same situation. For example, if I saw a snake (it could be at PetSmart), I would immediately appraise the situation to be threatening. My secondary appraisal would be my resources, my legs to move away from the aisle or my car keys to escape just in case the snake escaped its cage. My husband on the other hand, would appraise the situation as something he could overcome or may not be stressed by the situation at all. If we were looking at the same snake however, his stress maybe because of my reaction to the snake, not the snake itself. What can stress one person out may not phase another.

Appraisals can also change over time. Another personal example, at one point I used to be terrified of dogs. I had been bitten as a child. If I saw a dog, my subconscious appraisal was that the situation was threatening, and I would cry, scream, and beg to leave whatever place the dog(s) were. About 7 years later my cousin, whom I was very close with, got a dog. His gentle nature and my constant appearance in his home changed my appraisal. I no longer saw the situation as threatening. Later on, I grew to be a dog lover with my own two spoiled puppies.

This is an example of coping. Coping is “thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that people engage in when trying to reduce stress” (Gruman, 2017). In essence this means what do you do to reduce the stress that the event, person, or situation caused.

In my last example, I unknowingly was involved in problem-focused coping which is exactly how it sounds. I faced my problem head on to reduce the power it had to stress me out. Did I consciously think “Hey, you really have got to get over your fear of dogs. It’s ridiculous.” No, I did not, I was 10. But I did think, “I want to be around my older cousin more so if that means dealing with her dog then fine.” Pepper was a gentle lovable dog, he made it easy to start to look forward to his cuddles when I saw him. Pepper himself didn’t make my fear of dogs obsolete, but his nature did help me cope. Eventually he was a point of stress relief and now so are my dogs.

There is another type of coping called emotion-focused coping. It deals with how people try to regulate their own emotions in order to reduce the effects of stress. It’s commonly thought of in terms of things we can not change, however, it’s important to note that this does not mean that we avoid the stress. Avoiding stress can lead down a destructive pathway which could possibly bring on more stress.

I experienced emotion-focused coping when I found out that Pepper died. I do not like to be sad, but I let the emotion come forth and I also thought about all the things Pepper opened me up to. Because of Pepper I have two dogs that I love so much. I learned how to take care of an animal because of him. I also learned how to train a dog and instill obedience. My dogs have a better life because of my own interaction with Pepper.

If you notice my end results in both dog examples was that they lead to a healthy outcome. Using the coping methods appropriately lead to a healthy management of stress. Other coping mechanisms for stress management are relaxation training, expressive writing, and using cognitive behavioral therapy to identify stressors, discuss appraisals, and practice coping strategies (Taylor, 2018). Stress may not cause illness; however, it can greatly exacerbate it. Other factors affect stress like socioeconomic status, negative events. Stress can also impact sleep and the time frame to recover from the physiological effects on stress on the body.

To reduce the likelihood of developing chronic stress or incur any of the negative effects of stress it’s important to also have a support system. Social support according to Taylor is information from others that one is loved and cared for, esteemed and valued, and part of a network of communication and mutual obligations. This means that people are better able to cope and have healthier outcomes with social support.

There are difference types of support such as tangible assistance, which is like a monetary gift or someone physically helping you move. Informational support is getting advice or information on situations we’ve never faced before such as getting marital advice as a newlywed. Emotional support is what we receive from people that love and care about us and our well being. Though this doesn’t list all types of support, these are just a few things to possibly reduce our haste to stress out.

Stress is something that can’t be avoided. Our bodies were made to respond to it for our survival, but it can be managed so that it won’t take over our lives and our health. Let’s make use of all of those strategies to keep up healthy and thriving.

 

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.

Taylor, S. E. (2018). Health Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill Education.

 

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21
Mar 19

The Learning Hindrances of Stress and Trauma

Bandura’s social learning theory states that people will learn behaviors in social settings from watching others, internalizing what they see and basing their own behavior on that interpretation (Social Learning, n.d.).  In order to successfully learn what one is exposed to there must be four components present.  People must be able to pay attention, retain the information, have the physical capacity to use information (motor reproduction) and have motivation and opportunity.  Without these components learning, including processing and imitating, does not occur.  As children watch someone model behavior, they internalize the precepts behind it and recreate the behavior in their own ways, moving beyond just imitating exactly.  Stress and trauma create a neurological state in which learning is compromised.  Increased cortisol inhibits brain function and the stress of having basic needs unfulfilled prevents students from paying attention.

Learning is a complex process that encompasses the whole being.  Social learning theory is described as a combination between Skinner’s behaviorism, in which children are simply motivated by reward and punishment, and cognitive learning theories, in which attention, motivation and memory play a part (Social Learning, n.d.).  If learning were as simple for children as it was for Pavlov’s dogs, we could easily train and predict behavior consistently.  But children have a lot going on cognitively.  Are they motivated to learn? Have they learned there is a benefit to what they are being taught?  Are they able to actually reproduce what they see?  Are they able to retain or remember methods and processes?  Or is there some physical or memory impairment?  Attention is a critical aspect of learning.  We can be exposed to the best teaching but if we are not paying attention, nothing will be retained.  What is underneath attention?  One key factor is whether our basic needs have been met.  For a student who is extremely tired or has to use the bathroom urgently, learning is not high on the list of necessary functions.  The body first requires basic needs to be taken care of.

A friend told me this story of his time from working in an elementary school.  He was called in to a classroom to deal with a child who had just ransacked the room, terrorized kids, violently upset tables and chairs and was now hiding under the teacher’s desk.  My friend Mark used skills he had learned through studying applied behavior analysis.  With no one else in the room, he quietly sat down near the student and calmly waited, saying nothing for minutes on end.  The dysregulated angry child’s heavy breathing slowly normalized as he realized no one was going to yell at him or pull him out of his safe place under the desk.  My counselor once told me in reference to my own out of control adopted children, “a dysregulated child regulates in the presence of a regulated adult.”  That calmness on the part of the adult creates safety.  After fifteen minutes, the child under the desk said in a small voice, “Are you mad at me?”  Mark answered, “Why would I be mad at you?”  The child answered, “Because of the room.”  Mark looked around and said nonchalantly, “Oh, doesn’t look too bad to me.  Are you hungry?”  The child timidly came out and said yes.  He desperately wanted to trust Mark but didn’t know if he could.  Would this big adult turn on him and punish him harshly now?  Mark asked if he wanted to get something to eat in the cafeteria and the boy nodded.  Outside the classroom, Mark frantically but subtly motioned to the waiting principal, psychologist and parents to get out of there, as he gently took the boy by the hand.  He didn’t need punitive treatment right now; he needed care and understanding.  Watching the boy wolf down his lunch, Mark asked him when he’d last eaten.  The reply was that he’d eaten something yesterday but no breakfast for three days.  Slowly the boy talked about his home life.  His mother had been screaming at him just before dropping him off at school.  “Tell me about the classroom,” Mark said now.  “One of the boys was making fun of my mother,” the boy said, “that made me angry.”  Mark started talking about how the other kids might have felt during the rampage and how the teacher now had a mess to clean up.  The student was able to see that his behavior had hurt others and willingly made amends.  He had first been shown care and love and his basic needs had been met; then he was able to think logically.

Aside from the violence and the risk to others, this child had been in no place to learn.  He did not have the basic needs of food and safety met and yet he was expected to sit still and listen, process information, and understand how to function well in a classroom full of other noisy, disruptive children.  An adult would have had the ability to speak up and say they needed to eat first or they needed a quiet place, but this child was just forced to comply without thought for what he needed until he made it known all too aggressively that something was awry.

There are plenty of examples of children who are unable to learn well when their attention is elsewhere or they feel stressed.  Jane Elliott’s children had a harder time focusing when they were being discriminated against because they were constantly worried about their lower class status, what the other kids thought, and how they might be treated (A Class Divided, 1985).  My own adopted daughter has a hard time focusing in class and her therapist has theorized that her deficit in attention is likely due to the trauma she’s experienced.  Much like Jane Elliott’s kids, thoughts race through her mind of stressful events she’s encountered, hypervigilance to keep herself safe and feelings of low self-esteem related to being adopted and treated roughly.

One study found that trauma results in four key themes of distress that relate to learning.  Anxiety, fear, difficulty with time management, and the challenging level of material present are factors that significantly add to the stress a traumatized student feels in a learning environment (Washington, 2018).  Another study showed that compared to normal children, a high percentage of traumatized children have brain abnormalities on the left side of the brain, as shown by electroencephalography (Washington, 2018).  This side of the brain is primarily responsible for functions like reasoning, numbers skills, language processing and logic, all necessary aspects of typical school-based learning.  Contrarily the creative functions of the right brain such as artistic ability, imagination and intuition are often unhindered in traumatized children.  Executive functioning is impaired in the network of the brain encompassing the prefrontal cortex, and so memory, planning and processing are all affected.  Learning and understanding are believed to originate in the hippocampus and this structure too has been shown to be underdeveloped in traumatized children (Washington, 2018).  Neuronal activity in the hippocampus shows activation during the learning state which is repeated during sleep when memories are consolidated (Sapolsky, 2004).  In children who live in perpetual fear and trauma, even this consolidation of patterns is compromised since sleep is often disrupted by nightmares or screaming.  Trauma creates increased levels of cortisol which hinders the development of many of these brain regions, leaving children with compromised learning ability.  At the same time, increased cortisol increases the functioning of the amygdala leading to an overly functioning fight or flight system, always alert and ready to react to any threat (Cacciaglia, Nees, Grimm, Ridder, Pohlack, Diener, Liebscher & Flor, 2017).

These neurological differences in traumatized children create a situation where paying attention to modeling stimuli is difficult at best, impossible at worst.  Understanding stress and trauma and how they relate to attention and learning is crucial to being able to provide a safe educational environment where children can relax and focus.

References

A Class Divided.  (1985).  Frontline.  Retrieved on Mar. 19, 2019 from: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/.

Cacciaglia, R., Nees, F., Grimm, O., Ridder, S., Pohlack, S., Diener, S., Liebscher, C. & Flor, H. (2017). Trauma exposure relates to heightened stress, altered amygdala morphology and deficient extinction learning: Implications for psychopathology. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 76, 19-28.

Sapolsky, R.  (2004).  Why zebras don’t get ulcers.  New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Social Learning Theory (Bandura).  (n.d.).  Learning Theories.  Retrieved on March 21, 2019 from: https://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html.

Washington, D. (2018). Exploring the learning experience of higher education students in a midwestern university who suffered childhood trauma (Doctoral dissertation).  Retrieved from ProQuest Information & Learning. 

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09
Feb 19

Animals: A Cure to End All Ills?

There has been plenty of research to support the idea that pets do have health benefits for their owners such as: lowering blood pressure, regulating heart rate, decreasing stress and anxiety, lower rates of depression, and increasing social support (Casciotti & Zuckerman, 2017). Because animals are known to help with stress, anxiety, and depression, there has been a recent interest in pet therapy in our country, especially in regards to students at college. According to a recent study, “over the previous six years, the number of students seeking counseling services increased by 29.6% and the total number of counseling appointments increased by 38.4%” (Green, et al., 2017, p. 50). There is a mental health crisis on college campuses, but maybe pet therapy could help.

Counseling services on campus aren’t enough to combat the rise of mental health issues in students, especially since many students do not feel comfortable using these services due to the stigmas surrounding mental health (Green, et al., 2017, p. 52). Colleges have found that Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) has helped in the regard as animals are known to help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression and most students are in favor of having pet therapy programs on campus (Green, et al., 2017, p. 52). Several studies have shown that having interactions with dogs significantly decreased stress in college students and in one study, results were seen after only ten minutes of interacting with the dog (Green, et al., 2017, p. 54).

There are some potential drawbacks of relying on animals for psychological health though. Stressful situations can occur at any time, but an animal may not be available for support at that time (Green, et al., 2017, p. 54). Many students have taken to having emotional support animals (ESAs) with them in their dorms, but ESAs do not have public access in the way that service dogs do, so the problem of accessibility remains. There are also the problems of phobias and allergies in regards to animals in public places and so schools must learn to balance the psychological needs of some students while respecting the fears and allergies of other students.

There may not be any perfect solution in regards to the mental health crisis on college campuses, but emotional support animals and pet assisted therapy could be good ways to start. In fact, some colleges are already implementing innovative therapy dog programs for their students. The Yale Law Library has started a pilot program where students can “check out”  Monty, the library’s new therapy dog, for 30 minute play sessions (Allen, 2011). The program started in 2011 and was a great success, so much so that other libraries are following suit and looking into getting their own library therapy dogs (Xu, 2015). Many of these universities, such as the University of San Francisco and Cornell, are bringing in dogs only on occasion, such as before final exams, instead of having the dog there for students all the time (Xu, 2015). No matter what the set up of the program though, the therapy dog programs have been well received by students who wait in lines to get a chance to interact with the dogs (Xu, 2015).

 

References:

Allen, J. (2011, March 24). Checking Out Monty: Yale Law Students Can Reduce Stress With Therapy Dog. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/Health/StressCoping/checking-monty-yale-law-students-reduce-stress-therapy/story?id=13206568

Casciotti, D., & Zuckerman, D. (2017, March 31). Animals play an important role in many people’s lives and often help with therapy, rehab, etc. Learn more about the possible benefits of pet companionship. Retrieved from http://www.center4research.org/benefits-pets-human-health/

Green, McEwen, S., Wrape, A., & Hammonds, F. (2017). The Mental Health Benefits of Having Dogs on College Campuses. Modern Psychological Studies, 22(2), 50–59. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.wvm.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=130798576&site=ehost-live

Xu, Q. (2015, December 9). Yale’s therapy-dog program spreads. Retrieved from https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/12/09/yales-therapy-dog-program-spreads/

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06
Feb 19

Understanding Stress

Stress affects the momentum of our life. It affects the way we think about ourselves, the way we think about others, as well as the way we think about the world around us. It also affects the way we feel about ourselves, our relationships, our choices, and our environment. “Stressors have a major influence upon mood, our sense of well-being, behavior, and health” (Schneiderman, Ironson, & Siegel, 2008). There are many factors that can affect an individual’s perceived stress level and how that stress level interacts with illness. Some of the more common aspects include categories in nature (biological vulnerability, inherited factors) and nurture (taught behavior); but equally as important as the occurrence of these factors is the volume and frequency of stressors being placed on the individual.

Age (a biological factor) can have a big impact on the health outcome of someone with many taxing stressors. “Because evolution has provided mammals with reasonably effective homeostatic mechanisms (e.g., baroreceptor reflex) for dealing with short-term stressors, acute stress responses in young, healthy individuals typically do not impose a health burden. However, if the threat is persistent, particularly in older or unhealthy individuals, the long-term effects of the response to stress may damage health” (Schneiderman, 1983).

Presence of illness and level of stress impacting the diseased individual’s life often times feed off of one another. For example, “the impact of life stressors has been studied within the context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spectrum disease. Leserman et al. (2000) followed men with HIV for up to 7.5 years and found that faster progression to AIDS was associated with higher cumulative stressful life events, use of denial as a coping mechanism, lower satisfaction with social support, and elevated serum cortisol” (Leserman, Pettito, Golden, Gaynes, Gu, & Perkins, 2000).

The manifestation of stressors many times will increase the symptoms of the disease, thus altering something as drastic as a person’s life expectancy. “Adverse effects of chronic stressors are particularly common in humans, possibly because their high capacity for symbolic thought may elicit persistent stress responses to a broad range of adverse living and working conditions. The relationship between psychosocial stressors and chronic disease is complex. It is affected, for example, by the nature, number, and persistence of the stressors as well as by the individual’s biological vulnerability (i.e., genetics, constitutional factors) and learned patterns of coping” (Schneiderman et al., 2008).

Identifying the stressor(s) is the first step toward a healthy mind, something that can have a real impact on an afflicted body. “Potentially stressful life events are thought to increase risk for disease when one perceives that the demands these events impose tax or exceed a person’s adaptive capacity” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). “The perception of stress may influence the pathogenesis of physical disease by causing negative affective states, e.g. feelings of anxiety and depression, which then exert direct effects on physiological processes or behavioral patterns that influence disease risk” (Cohen, & Janicki-Deverts, 2012).

To assess the degree to which people perceive their lives as stressful, The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was created. “The scale measures psychological stress associated with sex, age, education, income, employment status, and a number of other demographics. High levels of stress are associated with poor self-reported health, elevated blood pressure, depression, and susceptibility to infection. Subjects indicate how often they have found their lives unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded in the last month.” (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). It is a ten item scale that ranks questions on a continuum from 0 to 4, 0 being never and 4 being very often.

“The PSS was designed for use with community samples with at least a junior high school education, the items are easy to understand and the response alternatives are simple to grasp. Moreover, as noted above, the questions are quite general in nature and hence relatively free of content specific to any sub population group” (Cohen et al., 1983).

Psychosocial interventions have proven useful at times in influencing the outcome of chronic diseases, but these interventions require the identification of stressors in order to construct a specialized strategy for stress reduction. It is important to connect the affects that a healthy mind can have on a body, as well as recognizing the influence that a tormented one may have.

 

Resources:

Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G., & Siegel, S. (2008, October 16). STRESS AND HEALTH: Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological Determinants. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2568977/#R134

 

Schneiderman N. Pathophysiology in animals. In: Dembroski TM, Schmidt TH, Blümhen G, editors. Biobehavioral Bases of Coronary Heart Disease. Basel: Karger; 1983. pp. 304–364.

 

Leserman J, Pettito JM, Golden RN, Gaynes BN, Gu H, Perkins DO. The impact of stressful life events, depression, social support, coping and cortisol on progression to AIDS. Am. J. Psychiatry. 2000; 57:1221–1228.

 

Lazarus RS, Folkman S. Stress, Appraisal and Coping. New York: Springer; 1984.

 

Cohen, S., & Janicki-Deverts, D. (2012). Who’s stressed? Distributions of psychological stress in the United States in probability samples from 1983, 2006 and 2009. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

 

Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396.

 

Trull, T. J., & Prinstein, M. J. (2013). Clinical Psychology (Eighth ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

 

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21
Sep 18

It might as well be German

You’re sitting in class full of people you aren’t familiar with.  You open your textbook to find the entire thing is written in German.  This isn’t new to you, you’ve explained before that despite trying to be taught German you still don’t understand it.  The teacher starts to teach and everyone around you is reading out loud, they all have “caught on” as you stare at the page in front of you, unable to make any sense of the symbols on the page.  It’s your turn as you hear your name called, your breaths come faster, there’s a feeling in the pit of your stomach, your palms slide against your desk, sweating.  You feel as if every eye is on you, your anxiety is at its peak….

This seems like an unrealistic situation, but my son says it is very real.  Dyslexia affects twenty percent of the population; my son is in that twenty percent. 2 Anxiety is one of the leading emotional symptoms reported by adults with dyslexia. 2 In 2013, the US National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, published a study on the Neuropsychological comorbidity in learning disorders. 1  They found that in cases of a specific learning disability, which dyslexia falls under3 , anxiety was present in nearly 30% of the cases. 1  

My son was diagnosed at age six with Dyslexia, it only took two years for the diagnosis of anxiety to follow.  He started school with as much excitement as any child does, but it didn’t take long for the excitement to turn to dread.  During first grade there were tears and talks of being stupid, asking me if he would ever get it.  The anxiety kept building, he was chewing on his clothes, on his toys, having panic attacks, and eventually it was hard to even get him out of bed.  The stress of facing a system that seemed stacked against him had taken its toll.  At eight years old he was put on a low dose anxiety medication after cognitive behavioral therapy didn’t entirely alleviate his symptoms.   He is now ten, in the fifth grade and we’ve come a long way from those emotional first years of school.  With his medication, a strong support system at school and at home, he’s now a B honor roll student and he’s starting to like school again.

Because individuals with Dyslexia, especially when there is little understanding of their disability, feel many things are out of their control.  School can pose a serious stressor and without the proper supports, they may give up on it altogether.  People with Dyslexia can learn to read, if given the intervention early on, remediation can take only a few years.  But without those accommodations, without the proper instruction it can result in anxiety that goes far beyond just school.

My son told me recently that giving him a 5th grade level book to read is basically like asking him to read German.  He is at a 3rd grade level, something to be incredibly proud of with where we started.  But even now there are situations that arise that I hadn’t foreseen.  Book fairs, where he comes home with books far beyond his reading level just so he wouldn’t feel so out of place with his friends.  Timed tests, standardized tests, it seems as if these stressful situations will keep popping up.  He deals with his stress better now, the medication helps, but anxiety will always be a part of his life.

So, imagine yourself in that situation, staring at a page full of words that might as well be in another language.  You’re expected not only to decipher what it says but also know what it means.  By the time you get to the end of a paragraph you feel like you’ve mentally ran a mile.  Everyone else around you have finished the first three pages and you feel like you’ve failed before you even started.  Imagine now, experiencing this at only six years old.

 

References

  1. Margari, L., Buttiglione, M., Craig, F., Cristella, A., Giambattista, C. D., Matera, E., . . . Simone, M. (2013, December 13). Neuropsychopathological comorbidities in learning disorders. Retrieved September 21, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3878726/Parents. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://ldaamerica.org/types-of-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/
  2. What does the dyslexic person feel? (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2018, from http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/parents/living-with-dyslexia/home/social-emotional-challenges/what-does-dyslexic-person-feel
  3. What is Dyslexia? (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2018, from http://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia/
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12
Feb 17

Release Social Anxiety By Doing “The Work”

Utilizing “The Work” In Reference to Social Anxiety

By:Kristen Jezek

If you are like most people, there has been a time in your life where you have felt somewhat anxious or nervous at the thought of going on an important date or attending a party with a lot of people. This type of nervousness to meet with others can be natural, even exciting for some. However, for others it is a nightmare of anxiety which develops into full-blown social anxiety disorder (Schneider, 2012), crippling their social life and self-concept. To combat the thoughts that lead to social anxiety disorder, and a host of other undesirable consequences, The Work of Byron Katie offers a way out (Do The Work, 2015).
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA, 2017) defines social anxiety disorder as “the extreme fear of being scrutinized and judged by others in social or performance situations”. While the person who experiences this may have a fulfilling and productive life in the comfort of their own company, the social phobia kicks in with the thought of socializing with other people, meeting someone new, or going on a job interview. As social creatures, this phobia can have devastating effects for a person’s quality of life. When faced with a social situation, the fear can be so great that it stops the person from attending the social activity, leading to isolation and loneliness.
The Work of Byron Katie is a method to question your stressful thoughts. The thoughts you utilize to question in the work consist of anything that is causing you stress or disrupting your quality of life. This has incredible implications for someone who is suffering from irrational anxiety due to their beliefs about what may happen in a social situation. When faced by a social situation that causes anxiety, a person would first identify and write down the stressful thought (or thoughts) they are believing. For example, the stressful thought may be “others will judge me negatively”, “this person will think I’m stupid” or “I will never get this job”. These are the types of thoughts that, when played over and over in a person’s mind, brainwash them into an anxiety which cripples and debilitates their social confidence, and can lead to intense social anxiety. Rather than believe these stressful thoughts, The Work invites you to question them.
So, what is “The Work”? The work is a series of four questions and what is called a “turnaround”, in which you turn the thought around. The four questions are as follows:

1) Is it true?
2) Can I absolutely know that it’s true?
3) How do I react when I think that thought?
4) Who would I be without that thought?

The turnaround is simply finding an opposite of the stressful thought. Examples of
the turnarounds for the thoughts presented above are “They will judge me positively”, “this person will think I’m smart”, or “I will get this job”. The next step is to find three concrete examples of how that thought could be as true, or truer than the negative thought before. I might find three examples of why I should get that job, and armed with the knowledge of those three examples, I could feel more confident that it was true. Furthermore, this increased confidence in social situations often leads to a better performance in the social situation overall.
The implications for The Work in treating and managing social anxiety are huge. Whether you are a person with slight social anxiety or suffering from full-blown social anxiety disorder, the act of slowing down your thoughts long enough to question them can offer tremendous relief. If a person could question their stressful thoughts as they thought them (and turn them around), they would be able to free themselves from the crippling fear that comes with dreading a stressful outcome. This confidence compounds over time and with regular practice of asking these four questions and turning them around, the person can facilitate themselves to greater health, social abundance, and mental freedom.

Bibliography:

1) Social Anxiety Disorder. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2017, from https://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/social-anxiety-disorder (ADAA)
2) Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage.
3) International, B. K. (2015, September 06). Do The Work. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://thework.com/en/do-work

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11
Feb 17

Let’s have a heart-to-heart about stress.

How was your day today? Were you happy, angry, sad, stressed? Many of us would answer that we felt some stress. So, what made you feel stressed? Was it class work, money issues, health, family? Maybe it’s all the above. But what does that stress do to us? In this week’s lesson, in Psych 424, we discussed health related problems due to stress. In the lesson, health psychology is defined as the science of understanding psychological issues, as well as social influences on why we become ill, how we stay healthy, and how our bodies respond.

A questionnaire, called The Dental Environment Stress Questionnaire, was given to 205 dental students enrolled in a Bachelor of Dental Surgery program in Australia to quantify and identify the sources of stress in their lives (Sanders & Lushington, 1999). D come as no surprise to us students, their greatest stressor was their grades. But what does this stress do to our bodies?

Most of us have learned that acute stress doesn’t tend to have long-term effects on our bodies. Animals experience acute stress in the wild most every day, but because the stress leaves once there is no longer a threat, the stress doesn’t have long term effects on their bodies. Chronic stress, which is what we humans have come to know so well, is the type that stays with us. It is the worries of work, finances, family, and any other thing that adds to our daily stress that makes them chronic stressors. This chronic stress is what is effecting our health. Though doctors don’t know exactly how chronic stress affects the heart, those at Harvard Medical have a good idea. They believe that it is most likely due to stress triggering inflammation, which is known as an instigator of heart disease. In addition to the inflammation, stress that leads to unhealthy behaviors such as a bad diet and lack of exercise can also lead to heart disease. (Harvard Health, 2017)

You may be thinking, “But what can I do? I’m always going to have stress in my life.” Harvard Medical School has 5 suggestions that may help.

First, they suggest staying positive. Have a laugh! It’s been found to lower stress hormones, reduce that instigating inflammation, and it can help increase “good” cholesterol!

Next, try meditating. The focused, deep breathing has been known to reduce some risk factors associated with heart disease.

Then comes the exercise. Though it may seem like a pain at the beginning, exercise releases mood-boosting chemicals that can help lower blood pressure, strengthen your heart muscle, as well as keep you healthy and stress free.

Unplug. Leave those work calls and emails until tomorrow if possible.

Lastly, find other ways to de-stress. Is listening to music, getting a massage, or reading a book your idea of releasing some stress?

What you think contributes to stress the most? Would any of these help YOU?

 

 

References

Harvard Health: 5 ways to de-stress and help your heart, February 11, 2017, Harvard Health Publications. Retrieved from: http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/5-ways-to-de-stress-and-help-your-heart

Sanders, A. E., & Lushington, K. (1999). Sources of stress for Australian dental students. Journal of dental education, 63(9), 688-697.

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07
Oct 15

Stress and health

Stress comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes stress can save our lives and sometimes stress can inhibit our body’s basic functions causing damage to multiple systems. Short-term stress is usually not cause for concern since most everyone will experience a stressful situation one time or another. Chronic stress is the type of stress that is cause for concern. Chronic stress can lead to many negative effects with in the body such as a suppressed immune system, over active HPA axis, which can cause internal tissue damage, and eventually lead to mental illness. Some studies have shown sex has a large part in who develops stress related illnesses.

 

Girls and women have been shown to have higher rates of stress-induced mental illnesses (Anderson, 2009). Women are also more likely to have social anxiety disorders than men (Anderson, 2009). This has been said to be due to women experiencing more traumatic events such as rape, or domestic violence (Anderson, 2009). This does not mean men do no get anxiety disorders, but they are less likely.

 

Stress can also make a work environment very hard to work in. When there is stress in the work place, a group setting, then productivity will go down. I remember when I bartended I had a regular who would be paid to go into a work place and help increase productivity by solving what ever social problems the employees had. His largest project was in Portland, OR. He described most of the tension being due to poor communication between administration and the workers, and when something would go wrong the administration would have harsh penalties. The problem was the administration wasn’t giving their employees good direction. It wasn’t until I started taking this call that I realized he followed the step of intervention almost perfectly.

 

It is extremely important to maintain stress levels not just for health reasons but also for social and mental reasons. Lower stress levels keep the immune system happy, helps keep the mind happy, and helps with relationships. Social psychology has the potential to relieve stress from everyday lives if used correctly especially in the work place.

 

Works Cited

 

Anderson, & McLean. (2009). Brave men and timid women? Clinical Psychology Review.

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28
Sep 14

The toxicity of stress

A recent CNN article titled, “’Toxic stress’ can harm your child” by Nadine Burk Harris, discusses how chronic stress in childhood due to adverse experiences can cause a slew of health concerns.  According to Harris, a Pediatrician who works in one of San Francisco’s low income neighborhoods, chronic stress can affect brain and body development; increasing the chances of developing chronic pulmonary obstructive disease in addition to other chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.  She states that research has discovered that these same children will possess increased inflammatory markers as adults.

Stress has been defined as “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being” by Lazarus and Folkman (as cited in Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012, p. 183).  Their view is called a transactional model of stress (Schneider, et al., 2012) and supports Harris’ claim that “toxic stress” is chronic stress caused by negative experiences.  Lazarus and Folkman would call these experiences “stressors” since their model states that some experiences induce stress and others do not (Schneider, et al., 2012).

While Harris mainly refers to negative experiences common to low-socio economic areas, they are not confined to those areas alone.  Lazarus and Folkman state t  hat experiences are appraised by the individual and that “no two people will experience [a situation] in exactly the same way” (Schneider, et al., 2012, p. 183).  Additionally, some researchers argue that stress is not only a result of negative experiences, stating that positive experiences can also cause stress (Schneider, et al., 2012).  For example, a study involving couples planning their wedding illustrated high levels of stress when compared to other typical couples (Schneider, et al., 2012).  These findings could imply that children may experience “toxic stress” even when involved in positive experiences –again, if the individual appraises the experience as stressful.

If stress is perceived by the individual, the next step in the transactional model is coping –which “refers to thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that people engage in when trying to reduce stress” (Schneider, et al., 2012, p. 184).  Similar to the way in which each individual appraises an experience as stressful or not, so too will be determine their coping mechanism (Schneider, et al., 2012).  However, coping mechanisms can be generalized in two categories: problem-focused and emotion-focused (Schneider, et al., 2012).  Problem-focused coping refers to when an individual is direct in dealing with the issue; whereas emotion-focused coping refers to when an individual adjusts their emotions to offset the feelings of stress (Schneider, et al., 2012).  Harris suggests that by simply interacting with children in positive ways such as talking and playing, it will support healthy development.  Her approach aligns with problem-focused coping since it is action based and deals directly with the problem.

Ultimately, research agrees that stress can negatively impact health; which agrees with the last stage of the transaction model: health outcomes (Schneider, et al., 2012).  Harris’ argument also aligns with these findings, indicating that children with “toxic stress” are more susceptible to many chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.  Research findings by Sarafino (2002) and Brannon & Feist (2000) concur, illustrating higher incidences of health issues that ranged from headaches and asthma to respiratory diseases and infectious diseases (Schneider, et al., 2012).  It is safe to say that stress is something everyone should be wary of.  When faced with a stressful experience, it is imperative to control the situation through a coping mechanism of choice.  If stress levels are controlled, it can positively impact one’s health and longevity.

References

Burke Harris, N., (2014, September 26). “Toxic Stress” can harm your child. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/26/opinion/harris-toxic-stress/.

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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