Understanding the Impact of Stress on Health

• Moorey & Greer (1989) identified three passive coping strategies for dealing with stress and disease: fatalism, anxious worry, and hopelessness.
• Fatalism: patient accepts diagnosis with a resigned and fatalist attitude, perceiving it as a real threat, and relying on others for control. Problem-focused strategies are absent, and the emotional tone is calm.
• Anxious worry: patient constantly worries about the disease and perceives any aversive sign as an essential part of it. They seek approval of others regarding the severity of their illness and exhibit generalized anxiety.
• Hopelessness: patient sinks into the diagnosis with a pessimistic attitude, adopting a feeling of hopelessness, and perceiving it as a huge threat. Both problem- and emotional-focused coping strategies are absent, and the emotional tone is depressive.
• Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a coping intervention that helps individuals manage stress reactions and negative emotions by engaging the prefrontal cortical regions of the brain. It involves an 8-week program that promotes approaching stressful situations mindfully rather than reacting automatically.
• Acceptance/Commitment Theory (ACT) is a cognitive-behavioural therapy technique that incorporates acceptance of a problem, mindfulness regarding its occurrence, and commitment to behaviour change. It does not challenge thoughts directly but instead teaches individuals to notice and respond more flexibly to them.
• Relaxation training is a coping intervention that affects the physiological experience of stress by reducing arousal. Techniques include deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation training, guided imagery, transcendental meditation, yoga, and self-hypnosis. Benefits include reduced heart rate, muscle tension, blood pressure, inflammatory activity, lipid levels, anxiety, and tension.
• Anxiety is an emotion associated with fear and anguish, characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure. It can appear in real or unreal situations and has a significant cognitive component.
• Anxiety symptoms can manifest cognitively, physiologically, motorically, or as a combination of the three. Cognitive symptoms include excessive preoccupation, insecurity, fear, apprehension, negative thinking, threat anticipation, concentration difficulties, decision-making difficulties, lost control sensation, memory related problems, and familiar and social excessive preoccupation.
• Physiological symptoms include cardiovascular symptoms like fast pulse, palpitations, heat accesses; genitourinary symptoms like frequent pee, enuresis, and erectile dysfunctions; respiratory symptoms like suffocation sensation, lack of air, fast and superficial respiration, and thoracic oppression; neurovegetative symptoms like dry mouth, excessive sweating, and dizziness; and neuromuscular symptoms like muscular tension, trembling, tingling, and rejection/avoidance behaviours.
• Anxiety can be diagnosed through a clinical interview and psychological tests such as the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and Beck Depression Inventory.
• Anxiety disorders include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Phobias, Specific Phobia, Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Separation Anxiety Disorder. Anxiety interferes with daily functioning and is highly maladaptive when it reaches severe levels.
• Anxiety can be classified as a mental disorder and can manifest as state anxiety (unpleasant emotional arousal) or trait anxiety (individual predisposition to respond with anxiety). Anxiety can be adaptive at low levels, but maladaptive at moderate and severe levels.

This quiz explores the concept of stress and its potential impact on health, based on the findings of Holmes and Rahe's scale. It provides insights into how stress levels can correlate with the likelihood of experiencing serious illnesses.