The purpose of this article is to investigate the effects of social support, hardiness, challenge, and the control on the relationship between stress and depression.

Stress has a major impact on a person’s life. In some cases stress can be positive, for example having nerves when carrying out a presentation may aid you and show that you care about presenting well. On the other hand, stress can have a massive negative impact on a person’s health, such as anxiety and mental breakdown’s. To combat stress social support is very important. Social support is the degree to which a person’s basic social needs are met through interaction with others. This is extremely important in combating stress because engaging with other people can allow people to relieve their stress through speaking or even from a sense of touch.

Depression is another factor that negatively affects a person’s health. There is no positive effects of having depression. To conquer depression, social support is also very important. Being able to interact with family, friends and helpful networks are essential in make a person feel more important and less alone.

Being unable to have control over your life has a negative impact of a person’s health because it can cause things such as stress and depression. Being unorganised and out of control can lead a person to become very anxious and more likely to have a mental breakdown. A way to allow control in a person’s life is to keep updated with workloads, for example when you are in University.

In the Holmes- Rahe life stress inventory test I scored 216 points. This implies that I am 50% more likely to suffer a major mental breakdown in the next two years. When completing the test, I felt like I had avoided a lot of the high scoring events, such as the death of a close friend/ family member and divorce which may be deemed as a life event that may have ‘more impact’ on a person than what the likes of a vacation may have.

I was very shocked to be in the second category because I don’t feel like I have had a massive major event that has changed me as a person in the previous year. It makes me a little nervous to think that a test can determine what changes may happen in my life in the next few years. This does not mean I particularly agree with this test. In my opinion, I would put myself in the first category because I don’t believe I have gone through a lot of major changes in the previous year, with coming to University being an exception. I am still struggling with the differences in University and school, for example being a lot more independent in your studies. This causes me some stress but I wouldn’t say a massive amount.

To combat my stress, I believe that I have to be organised and keep on track with the workload given. Being in control of my workload will decrease my stress levels massively and keep me up to date with my Modules.

The Glasgow Effect focuses on the different health outcomes in UK cities. The main question The Glasgow Effect looks at is why the health outcomes in UK cities differ. Why is it that equally deprived cities have different outcomes?

Scotland has a very poor health profile compared to the rest of Europe. In Scotland, we have the highest mortality rates and lowest life expectancy in the west of Europe. This makes Scotland the most unhealthy country in the UK.

Scotland is well known for its fried food, Irn Bru and excessive drinking, which have massive impacts on a person’s health. Society play’s a big part in Scotland culture. It could be said that Scottish people may be forced to eat fattening foods and drink alcohol because of the massive influence around them. For example, parents could lead a child to eat unhealthily, and peer pressure may lead people to drink excessively. Looking at deprivation in Scotland, fruit and vegetables can be expensive which may lead or force people to pick the unhealthier option. For example, you can get a burger at McDonald’s for 99 pence.

Looking at the deprivation profiles of Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester we can see that they are very similar, Manchester being the lowest at 23.4% and Glasgow being the highest at 24.8%. This is very small difference in percentage, but Scotland’s health profile still suffers.

Comparing mortality profiles of Glasgow to that of Liverpool and Manchester, we can see that mortality in Glasgow was 14% higher in all deaths. ‘Excess mortality’ in Glasgow has showed that 2,090 people under the age of 65 in excess. It has showed that almost half of excessive deaths in Scotland are related to alcohol and drugs.

From looking at The Glasgow Effect and the Scottish survey, I have determined that  I do not believe Scotland is a healthy country. According to the Scottish survey, men drink 5.2 units of alcohol and day and women 2.8 units a day. This is over the daily recommended amount adults should consume therefore this could be a major factor in the death rate in Scotland.