Tag Archives: Stress

Pengilly and Doud (2000) Stress Hardiness

There are many factors that can negatively impact individual(s) health within society, one being stress. Stress achieves a very negative impact on individuals as this often results in depression which shows that stress and depression must be linked and that they both work in turn with one another. This therefore shows that high-hardiness individuals are actually less likely to have signs of depression when stressed compared to that of low hardiness individuals.

Hardiness was also found as a factor which can negatively impact on individuals health as it was used to moderate the relationship between stress and depression. This can be said as high stress low hardiness individuals were more depressed than were low stress–low hardiness individuals. From the reading I seen that Individuals with high hardiness also had similar levels of depression regardless of the level of stress that they experienced.

Commitment was found as a factor which negatively impacted health as the conditional affects of commitment on depression was significant. This could be due to individuals having high anxiety or stress towards the thought of committing to someone or something.

Major life events such as the experience of normal life transitions that usually always happen such as retirement and moving as well as the experience o events that may not seem so normal such as divorce or job loss. The reading says how  these such major life events have also been explained as those that damage usual activities either awfully or can be very long time damage and pain. This could then result to further health complications such as chronic anxiety or depression which are also linked to further health difficulties.

Methods that can support a healthy lifestyle for individuals include self help support groups or grouped therapy where individuals can go and communicate with individuals who used to feel stressed and depressed who may have got over it and they can share experiences and how they came to improve and get over these hurdles. Another example could be support groups for individuals to turn to when in need, such as for encouragement, motivation, where it could be a non judgemental environment, with sense of trust and a need for knowledge. Individuals could set small goals so that they can improve bit by bit instead of trying to tackle it all at once which would most likely result in more stress. Within the area of commitment it would also be beneficial if individuals were educated more and  attention could be profitably paid which could result in increasing an individual’s hardiness levels so that they can handle stress and depression more significantly.

 

 

Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory

From completing the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory my score was 115, therefore I fall into the category of ‘150 or less’ which means a relatively low amount of my life should change and ill have a lower susceptibility to stress or an induced health breakdown. My score of 115 actually came as a surprise to me, I thought I was going to be in the second or the third category due to how much things have changed within the past few years especially since last year. So therefore, I was happy about the category I ended up in as I did expect worse.

I would say one of the signs of stress in my life  could be university doing assignments and exams for the first time as I just feel sometimes I don’t know what is expected of me as it’s one of the first times I have ever had to produce work for university and know that it’s much more independent and  a higher quality of work is expected. In the past year, I have also experienced problems with being overly anxious and nervous when doing several things which should be fairly easy for me to do but do not feel easy. These include things such as presenting as my nerves just get the better of me, I also have a very bad habit of stressing about stress before I even have something to stress about as I overthink the situation many times in my head to the point I couldn’t be anymore stressed if I tried. I also have a sleeping disorder called narcolepsy and due to lack of sleep and my lack of concentration it can sometimes get very frustrating when coming to studying and having a fairly high lack of understanding which can sometimes just add to the stress that was already there about exams.

I can combat the stress in my life by visiting my nurse at the hospital who is specialised on narcolepsy where I can speak through things with her and also meet up with other men/women across Scotland who also have the same condition. This makes me feel more at ease as I know they understand and can contribute to the discussion effectively due to this. This allows for me to help to support these people and I know that it’s non judgemental due to them feeling the same way. I have a good relationship with my family and friends and can talk about things that may be bothering me with them and I know I can lean on them whenever I need too. Lastly I feel that including physical fitness into my routine could be really helpful for combating stress and getting time away from the triggers of stress.