Stress from kristydillon's blog

Stress is a mental or rather emotional state that leads to tension, and it results from circumstances that are very demanding or adverse. Stress has some adverse impacts on the physical, mental and social activities of individuals. The first physical effect of stress is numbness. It is the situation whereby one fails to feel anything in a specific body part. The second physical effect is a headache. In a stressful situation one can notice pain in the region of neck and head. The third effect is sweating. When one is subject to stress, sweat appears for no reason even when it is cold. The fourth effect is tension. Tension is the strong feeling that comes along with a high will to perform everything even when the task is unclear. The fifth effect is nightmares. These are the terrible dreams that one often has when stressed up. An example of a physical effect of stress is sleepwalking during the nightmare among those feeling stressed.

Mental effects

The first one is depression. Stress hormones produce some by-products that act as chemical substances that result in fatigue or indifference. In a situation of chronic stress, the by-products of the stress hormones lead to depression (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014). The second one is anxiety. People who are under stress feel fear as a result of chronical activation of the stress hormones. The third effect is problems with cognitive functioning. When stress hormones stay in the body over an extended period of time, they change the structure and the way in which the nervous system operate (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014). To be specific, stress hormones reduce the functioning of the brain cells. The next impact is personality change. The word personality means a person’s pattern of thoughts, behavior or emotions specific to each person across situations and time. Some individuals experience a change of personality as they respond to stress hormones. The last effect is difficulties with adjusting to stress situation which individuals with bipolar disorder experience. Such difficulties lead to dramatic change of moods. An example of a mental effect of stress is when one becomes insane due to the stressful job.

Social effects

Stress affects the society in many ways. Firstly, the families where one member experiences stress suffer from his/her changes of character and mood. Individuals under the stress become liable to conflicts which may also cause family breakups (Bodenmann et al., 2015). The second effect touches upon the sphere of the medical services. Stress results in health problems which put much strain on the health services. The third effect is related to the economy sphere (Bodenmann et al., 2015). When stress rises, this results to low productivity, increase in accidents as well as an increase in relations issues in the workplace. Poor performance causes low revenues which has an adverse effect on the economy and, consequently, the society. The last effect to the community is an effect to the clubs, associations and social organization. Stress causes individuals to quit clubs and social organizations thus making a club to strain to survive. An example of social effect of stress is when an individual is not able to build good relations with others as the affected puts all the blames on others thereby hating all the people.

There are six effective ways that are helpful in managing stress. The first way is exercising. An exercise is something that everybody can do for free. It does not necessarily require one to be a member of any fancy gym to be able to exercise. A person can just run or walk in safe areas for about 10 or more minutes and benefit from this activity (Seaward, 2013). Exercising assists in sleep and moods regulation, lowers the level of stress. The second way is practicing a ‘mindful’ approach to work. Many people have the habit of multitasking, performing several duties at the same time. Multitasking makes people less productive or slightly less efficient (Seaward, 2013). The mindful approach to work implies being focused on what one is doing at the exact time and at the exact place. It means a person should focus on one job at a time. The third technique of stress management that any person can do at no cost is journal writing. It involves noting down all the thoughts that one had throughout the day at the end of every day (Seaward, 2013). The process of writing down the thoughts assists person in emptying the brain from all the stressors. It helps the stress victim to let go all the stressors and enable him/her to relax enough and fall asleep. The fourth technique involves gratitude. Here one has to write down at least one thing that made him/her grateful each day. Noting down the things one is being grateful for helps in increasing the level of happiness and thus managing stress. The fifth way of stress management involves expressing personal appreciation for someone. It calls a person to take time and write a positive email or a text message to someone. The sixth way is breathing. Here one has to concentrate on the breath. Taking a deep breath helps to supply the brain with more oxygen which improves thinking activity and increase oxygen needed by the muscles to assist in relaxing.

The six ways of managing stress discussed above are useful in controlling college stress and assist student’s cope with the college environment. Exercising assists in the reduction of fatigue, alertness improvement and increase in concentration as well as cognitive functions (Seaward, 2013). Whenever a student is free from weariness and experience increase in concentration, he/she they can manage the stress and adjust to the environment. Secondly, mindfulness helps a student to concentrate on a specific task which results in high performance. Journal writing enables a student to let go of all the stressor at the college and also note the changes in the environment that are different from the homeland environment. Thus, the journal writing becomes an effective tool which helps students cope with academic stress and adjust to the surrounding. Writing down things a student is grateful for, helps to appreciate new people and find positive things in the college environment thereby managing stress. Lastly, expressing personal appreciation for someone helps to build relations with the students and other people who may, possibly, help one to adjust to the college environment.