Transcript Recognizing How you Learn

Stress, Health, and Wellness
COL 103
Chapter 14
Professor Jackie Kroening
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864-646-1425 (PSY office)
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Living with Stress
Cataclysmic events
Sudden, powerful events that occur quickly
and affect many people simultaneously
Personal stressors
Major life events that produce stress
Daily hassles
Minor irritants of life that , by themselves,
produce little stress, but which can add up
and produce more stress than a single
larger-scale event
Virtually any event, good or bad, can cause
STRESS if it presents you with a challenge.
Stressed Out
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Anxious
Upset
Fearful
Body effects
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Faster heart rate
Breathing becomes rapid and shallow
Produces more sweat
Long term effects are:
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Ware down the immune system
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Common cold
Headaches
Strokes
Heart disease
Stressed Out
Class exercise:
Ch. 10 Try it! #1 Page 368
15 Min.
Handling Stress
PREPARE
Readying Yourself Physically
ORGANIZE
Identifying what is causing you stress
WORK
Developing Effective coping strategies
EVALUATE
Are your stress strategies effective
RETHINK
Place stress in perspective
Prepare: Readying Yourself
Physically
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Primary way to prepare for stress is good physical
condition
Good vigorous exercise program
Vigorous exercise results in our bodies producing a
natural coping response to stress through the
production of endorphins in our brains, as well as
contributing to our general physical health
Drink healthy – stay away from:
 Coffee
 Soda
 chocolate
Eat Healthy foods
Organize: Identifying What is
Causing You Stress
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Must identify stressors in order to
design a coping strategy and activity
Class Activity 15 min:
1. Write down the stressors that are in
your life right now
2. Prioritize your stressors from most
stress to least stress
Work: Developing Effective
Coping Strategies
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Take charge of the situation
Don’t waste energy trying to change the
unchangeable
Look for the silver lining
Talk to your friends. Social Support
Relax
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Meditation
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Meditation exercise
Progressive relaxation
Remember that wimping out doesn’t work,
Keep your commitments
Evaluate: Is Strategies Working
Effectively
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Experience of stress depends on how
you interpret circumstances
Effectiveness depends on who you are
If one coping strategy doesn’t work try
another
Don’t become paralyzed
Rethink: Placing stress in
Perspective
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Don’t sweat the small stuff
Put circumstances into proper
perspective
Make peace with stress
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Some stress is a good thing, it activates
you to take action
Keeping Well
Eating Right
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Eat a variety of “whole” foods
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Fruits
Vegetables
Grains
Avoid foods that are high in sugar and salt
Seek a diet low in fat and cholesterol
Remember: less is more (moderation is key)
Schedule three regular meals a day
Be aware of hidden contents of various foods
Beware of eating disorders
Bulimia is the eating disorder in which individuals binge
on large quantities of food and later vomit or take
laxatives to get rid of it
Keeping Well
Make Exercise Part of Your Life
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Choose a type of exercise that you like
Incorporate exercise into your life (take
stairs instead of elevator)
Make exercise a group activity
Very your routine
Keeping Well
Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
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Exercise more
Have a regular bedtime
Use bed for sleeping and not as an allpurpose area
Avoid caffeine after lunch (can last 8 to
12 Hr’s)
Drink a glass of milk at bedtime
Avoid sleeping pills
Don’t try to force sleep on yourself
Keeping Well
Drug Abuse (Alcohol)
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Alcoholics – Individuals with serious
alcohol-abuse problems who become
dependent on alcohol and continue to
drink despite serious consequences
Binge drinking – Having at least four or
five drinks in a single sitting
Heavy drinking damages liver and
digestive system and effect brain cells
Keeping Well
Drug Abuse (Nicotine)
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Remain smoke-free one day at a time
Visualize the consequences of smoking
Exercise
Use nicotine patches or nicotine gum
Avoid people when they are smoking
Enlist the social support of family and friends
Reward yourself
Join a quit-smoking program
Keep trying
Keeping Well
Drug Abuse (Illegal Drugs)
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Addiction Warning Signs
Feeling you need to be high to have a good time
Being high more often than not
Getting high to “get yourself going”
Going to class or work high
Being unprepared for class because you were high
Feeling regret over something you did while you were
high
Driving while high
Having a legal problem due to being high
Behaving, while high, in a way you wouldn’t otherwise
Being high in nonsocial, solitary situations
Thinking about drugs much of the time
Avoiding family while using liquor
Hiding drug use from others
Keeping Well
Drug Abuse (getting help)
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College health services, counseling
center
Drug treatment centers
Government hotlines
Sexual Health
Preventing Unwanted Pregnancy
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Abstinence - The only totally effective means
of preventing pregnancy
Birth control pills
Implants
IUD
Diaphragms
Condoms
Contraceptive sponge
Sterilization
Withdrawal and douching is ineffective
Sexual Health
Avoid Sexually Transmitted Diseases
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Know your sexual partner – well
Prevent the exchange of bodily fluids
during all sex activity
Be faithful to a single partner
Sexual Health
Date Rape
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Date rape often occurs because of the common — but
untrue — belief that when women offer resistance to
sex, they don’t really mean it
Reduce rape by:
 Set limits – women have the right to set firm limits, and
these should be communicated clearly, firmly, and early
on
 No means no – When a partner says no, it means no –
nothing else
 Be assertive – never accept being pressured into an
activity in which you don’t want to engage
 Communicate – women and men should talk about
their views on sexual behavior and what it is and is not
permissible
 Keep in mind that alcohol and drugs cloud judgment