Background material by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. for Year 1 Semester 1 Medical PPSD session on 13th August 2008
Definition of stress
Stress is a psychological, emotional, and physiological reaction to a stressor. It is considered part of normal human adaptation if it is within certain limits. It becomes abnormal or pathological in situations of over-reaction such that the adverse consequences of the stress reaction cancel out the advantages. The stress threshold varies from person to person and from stressor to stressor. What stresses one person may not stress another one. The same individual could react to the same stressor in different ways depending on the social and personal context. The underlying cognitive and spiritual qualities modulate reaction to stressors.
Causes of stress
Stressful events are traumatic, uncontrollable, and unpredictable. Examples are: trauma, temperature, emotions. It is part of human nature to be inpatient. Thus when confronted by a problem that cannot be resolved quickly they become stressed. Life is full of difficulties.. Each difficultyis accompanied by what makes it easy. Patience is called for in moments of difficulty. However many people when in trouble forget this and fall into stress.
Reaction to stress
Psychological reactions to stress is anxiety, anger, aggression, apathy and depression, cognitive impairment. The physiological reaction to stress manifests as the usual signs of adrenaline releases. Long-term stress affects good health.
Coping with stress
People cope with stress in different ways. Coping with stress may be by denial, projection, repression, rationalization, or reaction formation. The type of reaction also depends on the personality type, spiritual preparation, and experience in life.
The quickest treatment for stress is to remove the stressor. This however does not always succeed in returning the person to the normal state because memories of unpleasant stressors may continue eliciting stressful reactions for a longer time. Cognitive approach to stress is to make the person realize that there is no rational basis for the stress over-reaction. Spiritual approaches involve repairing the relation to the Creator so that the victim feels empowered to cope more effectively with the stressor or even ignore it altogether.
Eliminating the trigger: Emotional disequilibrium is a disease that must be treated. Every disease has a treatment. Once emotional disorders have occurred, the best approach is to remove the cause if it can be identified. Then we undertake the task of rebuilding, repairing, and restoring faith. This is supplemented by supplication,
Restoration of faith: The most effective approach to dealing with emotional disorders is to correct the faith. This requires clarifying certain relationships and clarifying the issues of causality. A person must know the correct relation with God, with his own body, with other humans, and with the eco-system. Any defect in any one of these relationships will lead to emotional disequilibrium. Understanding causality removes a big burden of guilt from a person for what has gone wrong. Nothing happens without God’s permission. This however does not remove personal responsibility for actions.
Cognitive approach: empirical analysis of the problem may lead us to conclude that it is not worth worrying over. We need to understand that problems are a test. The final result is not having a problem but knowing how to deal with it. Ignorance of human limitations (physical, cognitive, sensory) makes humans stress themselves over failures. If they were wiser they would not blame themselves because they would known that some tasks are beyond their ability. Human perception is not accurate. What is perceived as a problem may not be a significant problem or may not a problem at all and this would become obvious with passage of time.
Supplication
Supplication is very effective in dealing with emotional disturbances. Its effects are dual. On one hand there is supplication to God to relieve the stress. On the other hand there is the feeling of relief because the problem has been referred to a higher and stronger power
