Life Situation Interventions: Intrapersonal

1. Life Situation Interventions:Intrapersonal Chapter 5

2. Chapter Overview • Eliminating unnecessary stressors • Nutrition and stress • Noise, life events, hassles and stress • Determining what success means to you

3. Intrapersonal: What Is Between You and Yourself • A management system for adjusting your life is described • If followed, will lead to a healthier and happier life

4. Eliminating Unnecessary Stressors • Start at the top of the stress theory model • Identify and eliminate as many distressors as possible (e.g., keep a three-week diary for identifying stress components) • Use the diary to identify generalizations

5. The Stress Diary

6. Stress and Nutrition • Relationship between the two is still unclear • To be healthy, eat a balanced diet according to My Pyramid (Figure 5.2) • A balanced diet is one that has a variety of nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water) • Stress can lead to eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia) • Eating too much or too little can cause stress

7. MyPyramid

8. Stress and Nutrition (cont.) • Reducing saturated fats and increasing fiber and Vitamin A and C can reduce risk of heart disease and certain cancers • Avoid an overemphasis on dieting or following unhealthy diets

9. Pseudostressors • Food substances that produce a stress response • Caffeine is a sympathomimetic agent • Sympathomimetics stimulate the sympathetic nervous system • This creates a pseudostress response and makes a stress response more likely

10. Vitamins and Minerals • Chronic stress depletes vitamins from our bodies, especially B complex vitamins and vitamin C • Vitamins are needed for production of adrenal hormones • Vitamin depletion can worsen the stress response, creating a vicious circle

11. Did You Know? • Chronic stress can deplete the vitamins we take into our bodies, particularly theB-complex vitamins and vitamin C • A deficiency in B-complex vitamins and vitamin C can lead to anxiety, depression, insomnia, muscular weakness, and upset stomach

12. Vitamins and Minerals (cont.) • Stress interferes with calcium absorption and increases excretion of potassium, zinc, copper, and magnesium • Salt can increase blood pressure, resulting in even greater pressures during stress

13. Relationship of Sugar to Stress • Vitamin B is needed to break down sugar • Sugar reduces production of adrenal hormones • Large amounts can result in hypoglycemia • Chronic stress can burn out beta cells, resulting in reduced production of insulin

14. Noise and Stress • Noise can increase blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension • Related to job dissatisfaction • Results in irritation, anxiety, headaches, increased blood pressure, and sleep problems • At 85 decibels, stress responses develop • “White noise” is used to drown out other noise

16. Life Events and Stress • G.E. Anderson (1972) developed a life events scale to measure stress (Lab 5.2) • Holmes & Rahe (1967) developed a second scale for identifying unhealthy life events (Lab 5.3) • Stachnik et al. (1990) showed social support is an effective roadblock to stress • Lazarus (1984) hypothesized that daily hassles are more detrimental to health than major life events

17. How to Experience Success? • Use the success chart (Table 5.3) • Success is multi-faceted and is in the eyes of the beholder • Other views of success are based on competing and winning • Identify what “success” means to you and how to achieve this by using your strengths

18. Life Situation Interventions:Intrapersonal