Everyone has experienced, or may even feel right now, a state of overactivation called stress, stress, although it is always associated with an unpleasant feeling, exists because it is useful, however, there is also a relationship between stress and psychophysiological disorders.
When stress is very high, both in intensity and duration, it can have negative consequences, in fact, the relationship between stress and mental disorders has been extensively studied, so the origin of many disorders can be found in this physical response of our body.
J. Carrobles (1991), professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, defines stress as follows:
Is stress a state of lasting overactivation experienced by a person in certain situations considered excessive, which occur in conditions of lack of means of control and social support on the part of the subject?
However, it is necessary to better understand the term stress, as there are two conceptions. Stress can be differentiated in distress and ass.
To understand the relationship between stress and psychophysiological disorders it is necessary to differentiate the first from anxiety, whose body response may be similar.
When we talk about anxiety, we always talk about danger, whether real or interpreted by a person, this is something that does not happen under stress, because the situation does not have to be considered unpleasant or dangerous, since the situation is not. People considered dangerous and stressed do not usually flee, making it easier to cope.
When faced with anxiety, on the contrary, the typical response is flight, which is usually maintained by the anxiety-avoidance-anxiety mechanism; If something in anxiety is perceived as dangerous or harmful, the typical response should be flight.
If the situation is dangerous, tools are needed to combat this danger, and people generally do not have this reasoning or that sense of self-efficacy: the perception of evil occurs precisely because the person feels unable to fight what happened.
In addition, for stress to have adverse effects, it must be continuous in time, in the case of anxiety, even if it only appears for a very short period of time, it can be harmful, since it can have great effects in a short period of time. time both in the social and family functioning of a person and in the emotional sphere.
Homeostasis? Homo – return to,esis – balance? It refers to a return to body balance, all human beings have internal and vital constants, which always tend to balance, that is, the body creates actions to solve the imbalances that a person has automatically confronted.
When homeostasis cannot be achieved, the person is stressed. If the subject has to implement conscious strategies, when the mechanism does not work automatically, it is normal that that state of equilibrium is not reached, but a state of imbalance called homeocinesis.
While we all know that stress can lead to irritability, apathy, anxiety, anxiety or anger, what many don’t know is that it also generates physiological or bodily responses that we often don’t even notice, feelings that are very relevant to the relationship. between stress and psychophysiological disorders, because when prolonged over time due to a stressful situation, they can lead to psychosomatic disorders or other problems.
Physiological responses to stressful situations are defined by various body systems, such as the autonomous nervous system and the central nervous system.
In the physiological response to stress, does the somatic system support electromyographic response?Electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles – eye movements and breathing.
Therefore, in the face of stress, there may be an increase in blood supply to large muscle groups: back, arms and legs; in addition, there may also be widespread muscle tension.
The stress responses generated by this system are also related to the cardiovascular system. Heart rate, blood pressure, blood circulation?Does the system also regulate body temperature, sexual arousal, electrothermal responses (skin energy level, galvanic response) in addition to salivation and gastrointestinal responses?
So, in the face of stress, can there be an increase in heart rate, increased kidney activity, peripheral vasoconstriction of the hands and feet (cold) and an increase in blood clotting factor.
With respect to the central nervous system, we find the electroencephalographic responses and the evoked responses.
Finally, there are also responses to the stress of the endocrine and biochemical system, which can lead to different hormonal changes – such as cortisol – or an increase in immune activity, which subsequently decreases and can open the door to the disease.
As with anxiety, the response of some body systems to stress is invalidating because they do not help the situation; an anxiety attack, for example, causes a system to be deactivated and subsequently activated, but in a situation of continuous stress, it can affect the health of the subject.
Is blood flow to the digestive tract reduced, which can lead to problems such as ulcers, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome?Does this also occur with sexual and genital systems, where stress can lead to sexual dysfunction in arousal, erection, lubrication?
Psychosomatic disorders are defined by a physiological symptom, but of psychological origin, that is, that stress, which at first should not affect the physical part of the person, can lead to very unpleasant diseases and symptoms.
This fact is clear evidence of the influence of the mind on the well-being of our body. Although we are often used to separating the two, we must know that the two always go hand in hand.
As we said earlier, stress alone is not necessarily bad, however, if stress is characterized as distress and the situation presents the factors discussed below, there is a high probability that stress will cause problems for our psychophysiological well-being.
Factors that may indicate that stress is related to a psychophysiological disorder include:
Many times we cannot get out of stressful situations and can even get there in time without our choice, however, several resources can help us reduce this stress to avoid the result of a situation of continuous distress: the onset of a psychophysiological disorder.
The resources we can use in the face of ongoing stress to prevent psychophysiological disorders are:
Thus, the relationship between stress and psychophysiological disorders seems clear, then, and to prevent the loss of well-being in the face of stressful situations that can be avoided – such as work, a toxic relationship, a poor organization of domestic life – each of us must seek out and allow the body to return to homeostasis outside of a period of stress.