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About life stressors

Stress is our body’s response to pressure. It is a formidable psycho-social predicament, and can lead to unhealthy lifestyle patterns which potentially could precipitate adverse health outcomes.

By extension, a stressor is any extraneous physical, mental, or emotional stimulus (tension) that has an effect on our body or mind.

Briefly, the hypothalamus in the brain acts as a “control tower", over biochemical decisions by the body to send out instructions for the secretion of stress hormones that trigger the body’s “fight or flight” response in emergencies.

The phenomenon of stress prevails in all spheres of society, from growing up in the womb (e.g. intrauterine growth), through infancy (e.g. learning to suckle breast milk), childhood (e.g. practising to sit, crawl, walk, and talk), adolescence (e.g. coping with peer pressure, teenage pregnancies, school performance, etc.), adulthood (e.g. seeking employment, acquiring property, raising a family, etc.), and old age (e.g. coping with the burden of being frail, a senior citizen, role model for young folks, etc.).

We feel the pressure from stress in our daily activities – waking up early to plan and prepare for the day’s work, driving in heavy traffic, struggling in a long queue to board a tro tro or taxi cab during rush hour, engaging in altercation, being uncertain about the source of income to meet social and domestic obligations (e.g. to pay school fees, medical, utility bills, dues, organise funerals, preparing for academic examinations or job interviews) can be significant sources of stress.

Types

There are three main known types of stress – acute, a transient event such as a heated argument, or getting stuck in vehicular traffic; acute episodic, having to meet strict deadlines, and chronic, unemployment, job loss, physical or mental abuse, or being in the midst of conflicts.

Naturally, many, if not all, of us experience a combination of these. Everybody is under some kind of stress – drivers avoiding traffic to save time or outwit law enforcement officers, market traders shouting to attract potential customers, teachers handling bigger-than-usual class sizes, pilots undergoing pre-flight medical checks, politicians preparing rigorously for an upcoming rally, truck pushers having to “over-push” because of deflated truck tires, etc.

I, however, have a special appreciation of the kind of stress that tertiary students face on their campuses. It begins right from having been admitted, through seeking a place of residence, moving from one department to another to register and organise their semester time tables, attending lectures and laboratory sessions according to the “dictates” of their time tables, and, above all, having to coexist with roommates whose social attitudes and academic orientation may not be compatible with theirs.

Consequences of stress

Stress can be beneficial in the short term by helping us cope with potentially serious situations. Typically, it triggers the release of certain hormones to increase one’s heart beat and breathing rates and prepare the muscles to respond timeously to perceived and/or real danger.

Chronic stress can cause symptoms including irritability, anxiety, depression, headaches, constipation, and insomnia (inability to sleep). Others manifest behaviourally as  treating disorders (e.g. anorexia and bulimia nervosa), smoking, alcohol or drug (ab)use, and social withdrawal.

Chronic stress makes the heart work harder for too long, and by so doing increases the risk of hypertension, and its associated cardiovascular accidents, CVAs (“stroke”) or myocardial infarction, MI (“heart attack”).

Other likely conditions are: obesity, diabetes, heartburn, flatulence, diarrhoea, constipation, weight gain, skin conditions, muscular and bodily pains, headaches, sleep disruption, infertility, anxiety and depression.

Serious acute stress can trigger heart attacks, arrhythmias (problems with the rhythm of the heart), and even, rarely though, sudden death.

From another viewpoint, stress stimulates the immune system to help us avoid infections and heal wounds faster. Ironically, over time, stress hormones weaken the system, thus making us prone to viral illnesses, and having prolonged illness or injury recovery periods.

The writer is a Harvard-trained freelance writer on science and public health matters. E-mail: [email protected]

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