Health psychology

Coping with stress

There are different triggers and means of coping with stress. Name at least 3 triggers of stress. Discuss both negative and positive means of coping with stress. What role do substances play in stress relief? How can substance users in recovery learn healthier coping mechanisms for stress?

Student 1

Prof Pover and class

Money is a stress trigger because finanicial woes has become a commonplace to so many people. Stress about money may be caused by insufficient income and getting behind in bills, arguing with your spouse about spending habits or fears of not having enough to fund retirement.

The work place is also a stree trigger as well the Workplace demands are placed on all employees, and expectations must be met. Jobs can become stressful when a person feels unable to meet these demands, is overworked or even becomes bored with the job. According to the Mayoclinic (2016), states that impossible bosses or changes at work also can cause stress symptoms. Fears of being fired often prevent workers from speaking up or requesting changes that would decrease their stress levels.

Life changes

Marriage, pregnancies, divorce and death are some major life events that can be extremely stressful. While many positive life changes are planned for and welcome, even those can cause stress due to new responsibilities and expectations. Also if you want to add health issues would be a major stress trigger because Physical ailments, such as chronic pain, can be a daily burden on the sufferer.

People tend to react differently to stressful situations, positive coping could be playing with a pet, listening to music, going shopping, taking a bubble bath, going to church or talking with a close friend about the situation. The list can go on but the negative side of it could be criticizing yourself, drinking alcohol, eating to much, drugs, yelling at family or friends, or even avoiding family and friends. Substance abuse provide a temporary stress relief, many people that are dealing with chronic pain will turn to substance abuse. It's self medicating to get through the pains and the depression that a person may be going through.

Healthy coping mechanisms can be exercise can help maintain a healthy weight, feel better, sleep better. Also focusing on the positive things in life just positive, no negative thinking or talking. Practice gratitude because it does not come naturally. Write a journal on what is positive and what is negative keep tabs with that.

Deep breathing it helps alotalong side meditation to block everything out, clearing your mind. Talking it out and not holding it, that way it won't be a build up of things that need to be addressed. last but not least turn your anger and pain into something useful like a charity, volunteer with different organizations.

Reference; Mayoclinic, 2016

Student 2

Coping with stress

Coping is defined as how we cognitive, emotional, and behavioral ways in which we handle stress (Straub, 2014). There are different ways to handle stress some ways are healthy or positive and other ways are unhealthy or negative. Triggers are things that cause a person to feel stress. Three common triggers of stress are money, school, and relationships. Money can be a trigger for stress if a person is worried about having enough to pay for the things that they need. School can be a trigger for stress if a person doesn't have the grade that they want or if they are in jeopardy of failing a class. Relationships are a huge trigger for stress because we have to deal with other people and things are bound to go wrong when dealing with other people.

Positive ways to cope with stress are: exercising, relaxing, and doing fun things. Negative ways to cope with stress are: using alcohol or drugs, over eating, and ignoring the problem. Substances can play a huge role in stress relief. Smoking can be a huge negative stress reliever for a lot of people. When my dad smoked a lot (is quitting now) he would always tell me that smoking was a form of stress relief for him. With alcohol, alcoholics tend to use alcohol as a form of stress relief because they would use it to numb their feelings of stress so that they wouldn't have to deal with it. Substance users can learn healthier coping methods by avoiding the substance that they use to cope, learning to relax, and being honest with themselves about why they are using (Melemis, 2016).

References:

Melemis, S. M. (2016) The tools of recovery from addiction. Retrieved from http://www.addictionsandrecovery.org/recovery-skills.htm
Straub, R. O. (2014). Health Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Approach (4th ed.). Worth Publisher.