PMH1011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Defence Mechanisms, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Clinical Supervision
4 Jul 2018
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PMH1011
1. WEEK 11 – REACTION IN STRESS
Learning Objectives:
Explain the difference between stress and distress
Identify the most common physical, emotional, and behavioural reactions to stressful
situations
Examine the major factors that influence the way people respond to stress
Describe the main priorities when supporting people through stressful situations
Explain the importance of the provision of information within consumer-centered health
context
Consider the different ways that health professionals can self-care
Stress Reactions
Stress: The physical, emotional, psychological, social or spiritual reaction that is
stimulated in a person in response to a situation, event, or condition
o“Non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”
oOccurs when physiological homeostasis is disturbed
oChallenges the emotional, psychological and social wellbeing.
oGAS: General Adaptation Syndrome
1. Alarm
2. Resistance
Body uses all resource they have like hormones to fight against
stress.
E.g losing hair or turning grey
Losing weight
Body defended itself from stressful situations
Blood pressure rising/Cardiovascular issues
3. Exhaustion
Lead to life-long disorder e.g high blood disorder
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Eustress: Beneficial stress – either psychological, physical or biochemical/radiological
(hormesis).
oE.g submitting work at last minute and using that as motivation to work to
complete the task.
Distress: Where a person’s wellbeing is compromised due to an ability to adapt to
acute, severe or prolonged stressors, or multiple and cumulative stressful events.
oPsychological discomfort that impacts level of functioning
oMaladaptive response to acute, severe, prolonged or multiple stressful events.
Different Reactions to Stress
Physiological Reactions: Increased heart rate, activation of the sympathetic nervous
system.
Acute Stress Reaction (ASR): Physiological response to a highly stressful or traumatic
event.
oA transient anxiety condition that develops physiological in response to a
traumatic event; usually begins within minutes of the event and disappears after
hours or days.
oSymptoms of ASR can occur within a few minutes of the event and usually
disappear within hours.
oSymptoms may include:
An initial state of ‘daze’
Reduced levels of consciousness
Agitation or overactivity
Withdrawal
Anxiety symptoms
Normalizing: The process of reframing a person’s feelings or perceptions of an event or
situation so that these feeling or perceptions become more acceptable to that person
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Diagnosed mental health condition
characterized by the development of a long-lasting anxiety reaction following a
traumatic or catastrophic event.
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Emotional and Behavioural Reaction
Emotions: A complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a
subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioural or expressive
response.
Subjective and have a neurological and chemical basis
Includes feelings, moods, sensations
Difficult to measure empirically.
Prime Emotions: Simplest emotion that cannot be divided. Instinctive responses also
seen in animals.
Suppression and Repression
Explain why some people may shut down or minimize their emotions by:
oLabelling the emotions as irrational and ignoring them
oDistancing themselves from their feelings through work, exercise, music
oDisplacing their feelings onto other people or things (projection)
oCompensating for the emotions (e.g through eating, substance abuse, spending
money, work).
Behaviours that shut down or minimize the emotions are learned.
Suppression: The process by which the person consciously puts feelings aside so he or
she can cope with an event.
oShort-term Suppression: Is a helpful coping strategy
oLong-Term Suppression: Can cause increased physical stress-high BP, heart
disease, etc.
Repression: An unconscious long-term process where feelings are minimized or ignored.
Trigger: A word, comment event or other experience that produces an immediate or
instantaneous feeling or reaction within a person; a trigger is most often linked to a past
event or experience.
oPersonal triggers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Learning objectives: week 11 reaction in stress. Identify the most common physical, emotional, and behavioural reactions to stressful situations. Examine the major factors that influence the way people respond to stress. Describe the main priorities when supporting people through stressful situations. Explain the importance of the provision of information within consumer-centered health context. Consider the different ways that health professionals can self-care. Body uses all resource they have like hormones to fight against stress. Lead to life-long disorder e. g high blood disorder. Eustress: beneficial stress either psychological, physical or biochemical/radiological (hormesis): e. g submitting work at last minute and using that as motivation to work to complete the task. Physiological reactions: increased heart rate, activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Normalizing: the process of reframing a person"s feelings or perceptions of an event or situation so that these feeling or perceptions become more acceptable to that person.
