In our life, a lot of trouble happens, small and not very, they accumulate, lose their temper, forcing them to break off on their husbands and shout at the cat that has turned under their feet. Then comes the time of sedatives, which we swallow, cursing the last words of constant stress. And at this moment we do not think at all that without a nervous shock a person would simply not be able to survive. Let's figure out what stresses we need to fear, and which ones to thank for the opportunity to develop.
The concept of stress and distress in psychology
What is stress ? From the point of view of a layman, these are nervous upheavals that lead us out of balance, and therefore they must be avoided. But the enthusiasm is also stressful, so what about giving up love, traveling and good music just to not lose your precious peace of mind? Apparently, this thought also visited the minds of scientists, and as a result of research they came to the conclusion that not all stresses are equally harmful. For the first time this concept was introduced into scientific practice by Hans Selye in 1936, and he defined it as a tension arising in response to any demand. That is, stress is a natural reaction, which allows a person to adapt to the changing conditions of life. It turns out that it is not necessary to struggle with such tension, otherwise - death from the slightest change in the surrounding reality. But how then can there be an excess of nervous shocks leading to various unpleasant consequences? Selye managed to find the answer to this question, singling out two types of stress: eustress and distress. In the first case, we are talking about the physiological reaction inherent in us by nature for survival. But distress is the same overexertion that occurs under the influence of excessive unfavorable loads.
Modern psychology has somewhat expanded the concept of stress and distress, in order to determine the moment when a useful reaction transforms into a morbid state. American psychologists have developed a whole scale of stressful situations, where each important event is scored in points. If for a year the sum of points reaches 300, then we can talk about the emergence of a threat to our health. It is curious that in this scale, joyous events have quite a lot of weight, for example, the wedding and the birth of a child are estimated at 50 and 39 points respectively. Therefore, even if the year was oversaturated with joyous events, the level of nervous tension will start to go off scale. That is, trying to calm down after a strong emotional turmoil, do not forget about positive developments.