A stress response can be helpful in some situations.

It can increase your

performance. But sometimes it can be detrimental to your mental
health.

Example: When you feel stressed, whether you face a real threat or
merely think that you are facing a threat, your body experiences a
collection of changes known as your stress response, or your fight-or-
flight response. Your stress response is the collection of physiological
changes that occur when you face a perceived threat, that is when you
face situations where you feel the demands outweigh your resources to
successfully cope. These situations are known as stressors.

Recognizing the different types of stress — and how your body responds
to them — can help you get help with stress when you need it.

Types of stress
There are several types of stress, including:
 acute stress
 episodic acute stress
 chronic stress

Acute stress - Happens to everyone. It’s the body’s immediate reaction

to a new and challenging situation. It’s the kind of stress you might feel
when you narrowly escape a car accident.

Acute stress can also come out of something that you actually enjoy. It’s
the somewhat-frightening, yet thrilling feeling you get on a roller coaster
or when skiing down a steep mountain slope.
Example of acute stress would be any stress you suffer from for a short
period of time -- like a traffic jam, an argument with your spouse,
criticism from your boss or someone breaking into your house when you
aren't there.

But if you're a bus driver and you get stuck in numerous traffic jams
every day, or you're in a bad relationship and you argue with your
spouse constantly, or you work for a toxic boss, or you live in a high-
crime neighborhood and break-ins are relatively common, these are all
examples of acute stress that can turn into chronic stress.
Episodic acute stress - is when you have frequent episodes of acute
stress.
This might happen if you’re often anxious and worried about things you
suspect may happen. You might feel that your life is chaotic and you
seemingly go from one crisis to the next.

Certain professions, such as law enforcement or firefighters, might also

lead to frequent high-stress situations.
Example:
 irritability
 unintended hostility
 relationship problems

Chronic stress
When you have high-stress levels for an extended period of time, you
have chronic stress. Long-term stress like this can have a negative impact
on your health. It may contribute to:
1. anxiety
2. cardiovascular disease
3. depression
4. high blood pressure
5. a weakened immune system
Chronic stress can also lead to frequent ailments such as headaches, an
upset stomach, and sleep difficulties.
Situation: if you're a bus driver and you get stuck in numerous traffic
jams every day, or you're in a bad relationship and you argue with your
spouse constantly, or you work for a toxic boss, or you live in a high-
crime neighborhood and break-ins are relatively common, these are all
examples of acute stress that can turn into chronic stress.
EFFECTS OF STRESS TO OUR BODY 
Central nervous and endocrine systems

Explanation: Fight or flight response is your body’s natural reaction to

danger. It’s a type of stress response that helps you react to perceived
threats, like an oncoming car or growling dog.

The response instantly causes hormonal and physiological changes.

These changes allow you to act quickly so you can protect yourself. It’s a
survival instinct that our ancient ancestors developed many years ago.
Specifically, fight-or-flight is an active defense response where you fight
or flee. Your heart rate gets faster, which increases oxygen flow to your
major muscles. Your pain perception drops, and your hearing sharpens.
These changes help you act appropriately and rapidly.

Chronic stress - stress that can negatively affect your health if it goes

untreated. It can be caused by the everyday pressures of family and
work or by traumatic situations.

Respiratory and cardiovascular systems

Stress can make you breathe harder, which can cause problems for
people with asthma or a lung disease, such as emphysema. In addition,
stress can lead to hyperventilation (rapid breathing) and panic attacks in
individuals prone to panic attacks.
Stress increases your heart rate and blood pressure which can, over
time, increase your risk of hypertension (high blood pressure), heart
attack, heart disease or stroke.

Digestive system
Under stress, your liver produces extra blood sugar (glucose) to give you
a boost of energy. If you’re under chronic stress, your body may not be
able to keep up with this extra glucose surge. Chronic stress may
increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The rush of hormones, rapid breathing, and increased heart rate can also
upset your digestive system. You’re more likely to have heartburn or
acid reflux thanks to an increase in stomach acid. Stress doesn’t cause
ulcers (a bacterium called H. pylori often does), but it can increase your
risk for them and cause existing ulcers to act up.
Stress can also affect the way food moves through your body, leading to
diarrhea or constipation. You might also experience nausea, vomiting, or
a stomachache.

Example: Stress can cause you to “stress eat” (over eat, under eat or eat
foods you would not normally eat) or increase your use of tobacco or
alcohol, all of which can lead to heartburn or acid reflux. When you are
stressed, you may experience stomach pain, nausea or vomiting. Stress
can affect digestion, including the pace at which food moves through
your system, causing either constipation or diarrhea.
Muscular system
Your muscles tense up to protect themselves from injury when you’re
stressed. They tend to release again once you relax, but if you’re
constantly under stress, your muscles may not get the chance to relax.
Tight muscles cause headaches, back and shoulder pain, and body aches.
Over time, this can set off an unhealthy cycle as you stop exercising and
turn to pain medication for relief.
Example: both tension-type headache and migraine headache are
associated with chronic muscle tension in the area of the shoulders,
neck and head. Musculoskeletal pain in the low back and upper
extremities has also been linked to stress, especially job stress.

Sexuality and Reproductive system

Male Stress causes the body to release the hormone cortisol, which is
produced by the adrenal glands. Cortisol is important to blood pressure
regulation and the normal functioning of several body systems including
cardiovascular, circulatory, and male reproduction. Excess amounts of
cortisol can affect the normal biochemical functioning of the male
reproductive system.

Reproductive system
Male
Stress causes the body to release the hormone cortisol, which is
produced by the adrenal glands. Cortisol is important to blood pressure
regulation and the normal functioning of several body systems including
cardiovascular, circulatory, and male reproduction. Excess amounts of
cortisol can affect the normal biochemical functioning of the male
reproductive system.
Reproduction of male
Chronic stress can also negatively impact sperm production and
maturation, causing difficulties in couples who are trying to conceive.
Researchers have found that men who experienced two or more
stressful life events in the past year had a lower percentage of sperm
motility (ability to swim) and a lower percentage of sperm of normal
morphology (size and shape), compared with men who did not
experience any stressful life events.

Female
Stress may affect menstruation among adolescent girls and women in
several ways. For example, high levels of stress may be associated with
absent or irregular menstrual cycles, more painful periods, and changes
in the length of cycles.
Sexual desire
Women juggle personal, family, professional, financial, and a broad
range of other demands across their life span. Stress, distraction,
fatigue, etc., may reduce sexual desire—especially when women are
simultaneously caring for young children or other ill family members,
coping with chronic medical problems, feeling depressed, experiencing
relationship difficulties or abuse, dealing with work problems, etc.
For example, women who are more anxious may experience an
increased number of hot flashes and/or more severe or intense hot
flashes.

What are the causes of inhibited sexual desire? »

HSDD or hypoactive sexual desire disorder
A person with HSDD seldom, if ever, engages in sexual activities. They
don’t initiate or respond to a partner’s sexual overtures. And it is a
condition focused on a lack of sexual desire.

HSDD can be a primary or secondary condition. This is an important

distinction for treatment purposes. It’s a primary condition if the person
with HSDD has never had sexual desire.
It’s a secondary condition if the person with HSDD began a relationship
with normal sexual desire but later became disinterested.
HSDD is often an intimacy issue. Common relationship factors that can
impact sexual desire include:
 conflict
 toxic communication
 controlling attitudes
 contempt or criticism
 defensiveness
 breach of trust (infidelity)
 lack of emotional connection
 spending too little time alone
People who are most at risk of developing HSDD have experienced
trauma (incest, rape, or sexual abuse), or were taught negative attitudes
about sex by their family (or by their religion) while growing up.
Immune system
Example: When we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off
antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections.
The stress hormone corticosteroid can suppress the effectiveness of the
immune system (e.g. lowers the number of lymphocytes).
Stress can also have an indirect effect on the immune system as a person
may use unhealthy behavioral coping strategies to reduce their stress,
such as drinking and smoking.

Emotion-focused Coping
Emotion-focused coping is a type of stress management that attempts to
reduce negative emotional responses associated with stress. Negative
emotions such as embarrassment, fear, anxiety, depression, excitement
and frustration are reduced or removed by the individual by various
methods of coping.
Emotion-focused techniques might be the only realistic option when the
source of stress is outside the person’s control.
Examples:
Positive examples include talking or writing about their emotions
through therapy or journaling, mindful meditation, or distraction with
other activities.

Drug therapy can be seen as emotion focused coping as it focuses on the

arousal caused by stress not the problem. Other emotion focused coping
techniques include:

1. Distraction, e.g. keeping yourself busy to take your mind off the
issue.
2. Emotional disclosure. This involves expressing strong emotions by
talking or writing about negative events which precipitated those
emotions (Pennebaker, 1995) This is an important part of
psychotherapy.

3. Praying for guidance and strength.

4. Meditation, e.g. mindfulness.

5. Eating more, e.g. comfort food.

6. Drinking alcohol.

7. Using drugs.

8. Journaling, e.g. writing a gratitude diary (Cheng, Tsui, & Lam, 2015).

9. Cognitive reappraisal. This is a form of cognitive change that involves

construing a potentially emotion-eliciting situation in a way that
changes its emotional impact (Lazarus & Alfert, 1964).

10. Suppressing (stopping/inhibition of) negative thoughts or emotions.

Suppressing emotions over an extended period of time compromises
immune competence and leads to poor physical health (Petrie, K. J.,
Booth, R. J., & Pennebaker, 1988).
Problem-focused Coping
Problem-focused coping targets the causes of stress in practical ways
which tackles the problem or stressful situation that is causing stress,
consequently directly reducing the stress.
Problem focused strategies aim to remove or reduce the cause of the
stressor, including:
 Problem-solving.

 Time-management.

 Obtaining instrumental social support.