After our lecture on stress and the effects of stress, we were asked to read the Pengilly & Dowd (2000) article on Stress Hardiness. This article explained such a thing called the hardiness scale of commitment, challenge, and control on the relationship between stress and depression which allows us to research reasons into combatting this. The article discusses 4 main factors which can negatively impact your health;
– Normative life transitions.
– Non-normative life transitions.
– Lack of human contact or touch.
– Loneliness
– Lack of social support.

The first factor which can negatively impact your health is normative life transitions. Normative life transitions are life events that can be predicted or that you have planned – an example of this could be moving house or changing job. These type of events can cause a great deal of stress because they are life changing events however they are predicted and do not cause as much long term damage as non normative life transitions.

Another factor which can negatively impact your health are non normative life transitions. These life events are more damaging and have a more serious effect on someones life. These events are unpredictable and could be being fired from a job or a break up. Because of these life events, illnesses can become more occurrent – for example coronary heart disease and cancer.

Another factor that could negatively impact your health is loneliness. In our lecture, we learned the difference between loneliness and being alone. Being alone is literally being yourself in a room whereas feeling lonely means you could be in a room full of people and still feel yourself – this means you feel you cant talk to anyone. Lonely individuals are 4 times more likely to become sick and deal badly with stress. This can lead to unhealthy behaviours such as drinking and could also greatly contribute to illnesses such as depression.

One more factor that can impact your health is a lack of social support. Social support is the advice of your family, friends or colleagues about your life and them being there for you. If you feel you have nobody to talk to, then you will add more pressure onto yourself because you cant share it with someone else or get advice. This can be detrimental to ones health and can cause negative feelings about themselves which will effect their confidence, increase their stress levels, decrease their life expectancy, increase need for medical attention.

The last factor that can negatively impact your health is human contact or touch. Human contact is a necessity to a humans wellbeing and greatly contributes to ones mental health. From just giving your friend a high 5 or a hug, they are exposed to human emotion and get a sense of someone caring for them. This can help reduce stress levels and contribute to a healthier, happier life.

However, in todays lecture, we learned about ways to combat stress and avoid all of these problems which I am going to start implementing. One being exercising. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins which give you energy and make you happier. I’ve noticed this and will often go to the gym before I start studying. But now, I need to start going a run or to the gym when i feel stressed and often do not want to see or do anything. Another stress buffer is talking to people. This helps release stress and makes you feel safe which in turn, releases your stress levels. Ive found that this has helped me the most and not bottling all of my stress up means that I can in fact be more productive. Another stress buffer is religion. Religion gives individuals a sense of inclusion and can make individuals stop participating in at risk behaviours which contribute to stress.
I am going to start implementing these factors more and from the lecture and being educated more on stress, I know that I am now aware on how to cope with it.