Illness Caused by Stress

12 Key excerpts on "Illness Caused by Stress"

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  Psychology of Health

  Applications of Psychology for Health Professionals

  • Beth Alder(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  9 Stress and Illness

  Stress

  We have become increasingly aware of the effects of stress on health, although physical health has improved markedly in the last century. We may regard living in an industrialized society in the twentieth century as being very stressful. Yet a hundred years ago there must have been a great deal of stress that came from chronic poor health, worries about housing, accident rates, high infant mortality and the threat of violence. However, there is no doubt that although we may have the physical comforts of warmth, housing and food, life events can cause much disruption and distress.

  We now know more about helping people to cope with change and about managing the effects of stress. Stress is related to changes in health and the changes in morbidity discussed in Chapter 2 may be related in part to stress. Illness itself can also have stressful consequences and medical treatments themselves may be stressful. Psychobiological concepts are closely related to our understanding of stress and its relation to illness and health care,

  Definitions of Stress

  The term 'stress' is often used as a general term, meaning disagreeable stimuli. It can have at least three meanings in the context of health. These meanings tend to be confused and stress is thought to precede a great variety of life's problems or ill health (Wilkinson, 1992).

  The terms stress, stressor, and strain all have precise meanings in mechanical engineering and can be distinguished in physiology. Their distinction in health psychology may lead to a mechanistic model of health (see Chapter 2 ), but it can be useful to try and sort out some of the conflicting views about stress and health.

  Stressors

  The term 'stress can be used to mean the stimuli that produce physiological behavioural and psychological responses to stress. These might be described as stressors.

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  An Outline of Psychology as Applied to Medicine

  • John Weinman(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Butterworth-Heinemann

    (Publisher)

  5 Stress, emotion and illness It is not uncommon to hear patients say that they feel their illness has been brought on by stress in their lives. What they usually mean by this is that they have been under a certain amount of pressure at home or at work and that this has affected them mentally or physically. Doctors, too, may report that certain symptoms or illnesses are triggered or exacerbated by stress factors. What is really meant by such statements? Is it possible to characterize stressful situations and how can psychosocial pressure have an adverse effect on bodily processes? As we shall see, the answers to these questions are complex and, as yet, very incomplete. One fundamental problem lies with the use of the term 'stress' since it can be taken to refer not only to aspects of the environment but also to the individual's behaviour and to underlying physiological responses. As Lader (1979) has accurately observed, stress has become 'a convenient non-technical shorthand term which communicates our ignorance, not our knowledge'. In view of these conceptual problems, a major aim of this chapter is to examine what is meant by the term 'stress'. The concept of stress is discussed and some of the related physiological and psychological responses are described. Following this there is an outline of the relation between the psychological and physiological aspects of the emotional changes in response to a stressor. Finally, these findings are used as a basis for discussing the way in which stress factors might be associated with illness. • 5.1. The nature of stress a. Stress: what is it? One of the primary problems with the term 'stress' is that it is used in a number of quite different ways. Thus it can be used to describe various unpleasant situations or events which are considered to be stressful. Alternatively, it may be used to describe the behavioural or physiological responses which occur when an individual is confronted by an unpleasant situation or stressor.

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  The SAGE Handbook of Health Psychology

  • Stephen Sutton, Andrew Baum, Marie Johnston, Stephen Sutton, Andrew Baum, Marie Johnston(Authors)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  INTRODUCTION The view that stress can cause illness has been a part of common folklore for a long time. Patients often cite stress as an important cause of their illness, yet some authorities argue that the link between stress and illness is unproved ( Jones & Bright, 2001). Although the associa-tion between reported stress, illness, and even mortality is well established, conceptual and methodological problems mean it is difficult to establish whether stress is causal, and the pre-cise mechanisms or processes through which stress impacts on health are not well under-stood. The first part of this chapter examines the concept of stress, the causes of stress, the main theoretical models that have proved useful in health research, and factors that may moderate stress such as characteristics of demands, coping and social support. We illus-trate these processes by considering three important sources of stress: work characteris-tics, caring for disabled or elderly relatives, and low socioeconomic position. The second part of this chapter considers the problems involved in establishing links between stress and health. The pathways through which stress affects illness are illustrated by summarizing research into post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, cardiovascular disease, infectious illnesses, cancer and chronic autoimmune conditions. In the final section of the chapter, we outline approaches to stress management. THE CONCEPT OF STRESS Stress has been defined in various ways and used in different disciplines such as engineering, anthropology, sociology, psychology, physiology, and medicine. In science, the concept of stress was initially used in physics where ‘stress’ is an external force applied to a system, and ‘strain’ is the change in the system that is due to the applied force.

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  An Herbal Guide to Stress Relief

  Gentle Remedies and Techniques for Healing and Calming the Nervous System

  • David Hoffmann(Author)
  • 1991(Publication Date)
  • Healing Arts Press

    (Publisher)

  NINE Managing Stress-Induced Illnesses

  W hen people are seen as whole beings, and not simply as bodies with minds on top of them, it comes as no surprise that there is a deep association between psychology and physiology. This association has profound implications for all illness, not just stress and anxiety.

  It is a demonstration of the inadequacies of our scientific approach to health that people are even thought of in terms of the two words, mind and body. As we have already discussed, there is, in reality, one system that should not be separated. However, since there is no one English term for this system, to talk about it in English, and say what needs to be said, is exceedingly difficult!

  It is worth examining how orthodox medicine sees the relationship between mind and body in the development of illness. While no all-encompassing explanation for their association has been put forward, the medical world has considered a number of possible explanations:

  1. Some physical illness may be psychological in origin; that is, the bodily disturbance is the result of and caused by the psychological illness.
  2. Physical illness may arise as an indirect consequence of a mental disorder, the bodily illness resulting from behavioral disturbances that are secondary to the psychiatric problem.
  3. Physical methods of treating mental illness may cause bodily disease. This is unfortunately all too common with the wide use of drug therapy today.
  4. The mental disturbance may be a manifestation of a physical illness, or an adverse effect of its treatment.
  5. A mental or emotional problem may be a “purely” psychological response to either the physical illness itself or to the significance that the illness has for the person involved.

  This might all sound a bit semantic! These explanations are, however, a way of fitting the relationship of mind and body into a pattern that will enable an orthodox medical practitioner to decide which drugs to use. Should he or she focus on the physical problems or the mental disturbance?

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  Health Psychology

  Biopsychosocial Interactions

  • Edward P. Sarafino, Timothy W. Smith(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 4 / Stress, Biopsychosocial Factors, and Illness 105 and the general public still use this term, the concept has undergone some changes and now has a new name: psychophysiological disorders, which refers to physical symptoms or illnesses that result from the interplay of psychosocial and physiological processes. This defini- tion clearly uses a biopsychosocial perspective. We will discuss several illnesses traditionally classified as psy- chosomatic. Some of these illnesses will be examined in greater detail in later chapters. DIGESTIVE SYSTEM DISEASES Several psychophysiological disorders can afflict the digestive system. Ulcers and inflammatory bowel dis- ease are two illnesses that involve wounds in the diges- tive tract that may cause pain and bleeding (McQuaid, 2015). Ulcers are found in the stomach and the duode- num, or upper section of the small intestine. Inflammatory bowel disease, which includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, can occur in the colon (large intestine) and the small intestine. Another illness, irrita- ble bowel syndrome, produces abdominal pain, diar- rhea, and constipation (McQuaid, 2015). Although these diseases afflict mainly adults, similar symptoms occur in childhood (Blanchard et al., 2008). Most ulcers are produced by a combination of gas- tric juices eroding the lining of the stomach and duode- num that has been weakened by bacterial infection (McQuaid, 2015). But stress plays a role, too (Levenstein, 2002). In a classic study, a patient (called Tom) agreed to cooperate in a lengthy and detailed examination of gas- tric function (Wolf & Wolff, 1947). Tom was unique in that many years earlier, at the age of 9, he had had a stomach operation that left an opening to the outside of the body. This opening, which provided the only way he could feed himself, was literally a window through which the inside of his stomach could be observed.

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  Essentials of Psychology

  Concepts and Applications

  • Jeffrey Nevid(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 384 CHAPTER 10 PSYCHOLOGY AND HEALTH The study of interrelationships between psychology and physical health is called health psychology. Health psychologists work in universities, hospitals, and gov- ernment agencies, conducting research and using the knowledge they gain to develop programs designed to promote health and prevent disease. Health psycholo- gists are especially concerned with the effects of stress on physical health. But what is stress, and how does it affect our health? Psychologists use the term stress to describe pres- sures or demands placed upon an organism to adjust or adapt to its environment. Stress is a fact of life. We may even need a certain amount of stress to remain active, alert, and energized. We can characterize these healthy forms of stress as good stress. But when stress increases to a point that it taxes our ability to cope, we may expe- rience distress, which is an unpleasant state of physical or mental pain or suffering. Distress may take the form of psychological problems, especially irritability, anger, anxiety, and depression, and physical health problems such as headache, fatigue, upset stomach, and such seri- ous medical conditions as cardiovascular disorders (see ■ Figure 10.1). Many Americans say that stress is on the rise. According to surveys conducted by the American Psychological Association, one-third of Americans say they are facing extreme levels of stress in their lives, and more than 40 percent report adverse health effects from stress (American Psychological Association, 2007, 2010b). About 80 percent say their level of stress has increased or stayed the same in the past year, as compared to only 20 percent who say their stress has decreased (Bethune, 2013).

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  Visualizing Psychology

  • Siri Carpenter, Karen Huffman(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  72 ❑ What a Psychologist Sees, p. 77 ❑ Psychology InSight, p. 78 ❑ Stop: Answer the Concept Checks before you go on. p. 71 ❑ p. 76 ❑ p. 81 ❑ End of chapter ❑ Review the Summary and Key Terms. ❑ Answer the Critical and Creative Thinking Questions. ❑ Answer What is happening in this picture? ❑ Complete the Self-Test and check your answers. information on how biological, psychological, and social factors (the biopsychosocial model ) affect illness as well as health and well-being. You’ll also discover ways to protect your health, how to manage your stress, and how to change your risky behaviors. Welcome to the practical and exciting world of Stress and Health Psychology! Understanding Stress LEARNING OBJECTIVES nything that places a demand on the body can cause stress . The trigger that prompts the stress-ful reaction is called a stressor . Stress reactions can occur in response to either internal cognitive stimuli, external stimuli, or environmental stimuli (Marks et al., 2011; Sanderson, 2013). There is a lot of discussion of stress in popular culture, but not all of it is supported by science. Check your knowledge of stress by taking the quiz in Myth Busters. Pleasant or beneficial stress, such as moderate exercise, is called eustress . Stress that is unpleasant or objectionable, as from chronic illness, is called distress 1. Explain the sources and effects of stress. 2. Review the three phases of the general adaptation syndrome (GAS). 3. Describe the SAM system and the HPA axis. A (Selye, 1974). The total absence of stress would mean the total absence of stimulation, which would eventually lead to death. Because health psychology has been chiefly concerned with the negative effects of stress, we will adhere to con-vention and use the word “stress” to refer pri-marily to harmful or unpleasant stress. Sources of Stress Although stress is pervasive in all our lives, psychogical science has focused on seven major sources ( Figure 3.1 ).

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  Health Psychology

  Biopsychosocial Interactions

  • Edward P. Sarafino, Timothy W. Smith, David B. King, Anita De Longis(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Usually the statement means they feel unable to deal with the demands of their environment, and they feel tense and uncomfortable. Because of the pervasive- ness and commonality of these experiences in our lives, you might expect that defining the concept of stress would be simple. But it isn’t. Let’s see how psychologists have conceptualized stress and what the prevailing definition is today. What Is Stress? The condition of stress has two components: physical, involving direct material or bodily challenge, and psychological, involving how individuals perceive circumstances in their lives (Lovallo, 2005). These components can be examined in three ways (Dou- gall & Baum, 2012). One approach focuses on the environment: stress is seen as a stim- ulus, such as when we have a demanding job or experience severe pain from arthritis or a death in the family. Physically or psychologically challenging events or circum- stances are called stressors. The second approach treats stress as a response, focusing on people’s reactions to stressors. We see an example of this approach when people use the word stress to refer to their state of tension. Our responses can be psychological, such as your thoughts and emotions when you “feel nervous,” and physiological, as when your heart pounds, your mouth goes dry, and you perspire. The psychological and physiological response to a stressor is called strain. The third approach describes stress as a process that includes stressors and strains, but adds an important dimension: the relationship between the person and environ- ment (Folkman et al., 1986; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). This process involves contin- uous interactions and adjustments—called transactions—with the person and environment each affecting and being affected by the other.

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  Real World Psychology

  • Karen R. Huffman, Catherine A. Sanderson(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  As you might expect, stress ex- ists on a continuum, and it’s largely in the eye of the beholder. We would all agree that what these women endured was extreme, unimaginable stress. In comparison, if you’ve done poorly on previous exams and are only just now reading this chapter at the last minute before an exam, you may be experiencing personally high levels of stress. But, if you’re a student who’s generally well prepared and performs well on exams, you’re probably experiencing little or no stress. In short, stress is largely dependent on our interpretations of events and our perceived resources for coping with them. In this chapter, we’ll focus on a general understanding of stress, its relationship with major illness, and healthy ways to manage it. ■■ UNDERSTANDING STRESS RETRIEVAL PRACTICE While reading the upcoming sections, respond to each Learning Objective in your own words. Then compare your responses with those found at www.wiley.com/college/huffman. 1 IDENTIFY the major sources of stress. 2 REVIEW the three phases of the general adaptation syndrome (GAS). 3 DESCRIBE the SAM system and the HPA axis. Everyone experiences stress , and we generally know what a person means when he or she speaks of being “stressed.” But scientists generally define stress as the interpretation of specific events, called stressors , as threatening or challenging. The resulting physical and psychological reactions to stressors are known as the stress response (Cardeña et al., 2013; Sanderson, 2013). Using these defi- nitions, can you see how an upcoming exam on this material could be called a stressor, whereas your physical and psychological reactions are your stress response? In the following section, we’ll discuss the key sources of stress and how it affects us. Sources of Stress Although literally hundreds of things can cause stress in all our lives, psychological science has focused on seven major sources (Figure 3.1) .

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  Abnormal Psychology

  • Gordon L. Flett, Nancy L. Kocovski, Gerald C. Davison, John M. Neale(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  When stress produces a psychophysiological disorder, what determines which one of the many disorders will be produced? Although answers to these questions have been sought by bio- logically and psychologically oriented researchers, theories in this domain are invariably diathesis–stress in nature. They dif- fer primarily in whether the diathesis is described in psycholog- ical or biological terms. Before we review some theories that describe how stress causes or exacerbates physical illness, it is important to note that much of the research in the field has attempted to link stress to self-reports of illness. The problem with this approach is that self-reports may not be an accurate reflection of physical tangible forms of assistance (e.g., someone helps by making dinner or paying the bills). A study by Muller, Goh, Lemieux, and Fish (2000) serves as a reminder that different kinds of support vary in their relevance as a function of the stressful situation being experienced. This Canadian study found that adult sur- vivors of abuse were more likely to receive emotional support than instrumental support and that friends were most likely to provide this emotional support. Structural support is a well-established predictor of mortality. People with few friends or relatives tend to have a higher mortality rate than those with a higher level of struc- tural support (Kaplan et al., 1994). Higher levels of functional support have been found to be related to lower rates of ath- erosclerosis (clogging of the arteries) (Seeman & Syme, 1989) and to the ability of women to adjust to chronic rheumatoid arthritis (Goodenow, Reisine, & Grady, 1990). Consistent with this theme, there is now well-designed longitudinal research leading to the conclusion that the feeling of loneliness is a risk factor for higher morbidity and mortality (Cacioppo, Cacioppo, Capitanio, & Cole, 2015).

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  Stress and Strategy

  • Shirley Fisher(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  12 A Cognitive Model of Stress and Disease: An Attempted Synthesis

  In this book there has been an attempt to understand the effects of stress in terms of the implications for strategies for achieving control. It could be argued that people use strategies to achieve desired goals in all aspects of problems in daily life. Stressful circumstances merely create additional and vital problems for the individual. Whether these problems are seen as challenging and positive or distressing and negative depends on circumstance. A particular feature of circumstance is the perception of control: If control is possible, the stress will be seen as demanding and challenging; if control is not possible but the stress is threatening, high distress is a likely outcome. Yet the perception of control is a demanding and complex cognitive process which either depends on noting contingent relationships between action and outcome or on noting progress made.

  Personality and situational constraints are assumed to influence the strategic response to stress: The individual is not free to select strategies. The relationship between a selected strategy and the ideal strategy will determine efficiency and in turn influence perceived control.

  In this chapter we consider the implications of some of these ideas for a model of stress and disease and attempt to produce a synthesis. Because this book is intended for advanced students as well as researchers, there is some attempt to provide details of existing models as well as some indication of methodological difficulties in this complex research area. Because of the confines of space, it has been necessary to be selective; where appropriate, references for further reading are indicated.

  1. METHODOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES IN INTERPRETATION OF STRESS AND ILLNESS ASSOCIATIONS

  Countless literary and folk-law sources have hinted at relationships between unhappiness and ill health. Many primitive societies incorporate the belief that disharmony in social relationships

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  Stress, Health and Well-Being

  Thriving in the 21st Century

  • Rick Harrington(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  In a review of studies examining the relationship between stress and peptic ulcers, Jones (2006, p. 407) concluded that “at present there is no definitive Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PART 2 | T HE B IOLOGY OF S TRESS AND I LLNESS 162 study proving a causal relationship between psychological stress and the de-velopment of ulcer disease.” However, he also noted that between 5% and 20% of those who have peptic ulcers do not have H. pylori bacteria present or evidence of any other recognized organic etiology such as use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (e.g., aspirin). Therefore, he argues that there may be at least a small percentage of those with peptic ulcers who have symptoms caused by psychosocial factors. Further methodologically controlled studies need to be conducted, however, to make more definitive determinations. Irritable Bowel Syndrome Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder, that is, a disorder of no known organic cause. It is characterized by episodes of abdominal pain or tenderness along with bowel disruptions in the form of diarrhea and or constipation. It is sometimes called “spastic colon” though it is different from colitis, which is a more serious inflammatory bowel disease. IBS is more common in females and affects as many as 10% of adults (Talley & Spiller, 2002). Most patients with IBS believe that stress plays a role in their symptoms, but the causal relationship is somewhat unclear (Blanchard et al., 2008).

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