How stress affects the body
Distress
Anna Usenko, Post-science
The exhaustion phase is the third stage of the body's response to a stressor. How to determine that the body is in a state of transition to exhaustion, what type of stress prevails in the modern world and how the symptoms of the general adaptation syndrome manifest themselves, says psychologist Anna Usenko.
The body is in the depletion phase
A stressor is an extreme factor that causes stress in the body. A stressor can act very powerfully for a short period of time and cause a violent reaction with a rapid exhaustion of resources. There is also a stressor that acts for a long time, depleting the body. A stressor can also act periodically, but the intervals between its effects are so short that the body does not have time to recover. In addition, the individual feature of a particular organism is taken into account – its depletion.
What happens to the body at the cellular level when it enters the depletion phase? Cells working with an increased load require a large amount of oxygen. Oxygen accumulates in actively working tissues and does not have time to be used by mitochondria. Cellular structures, proteins and lipids of cellular structures begin to oxidize, damaging cell membranes, the nuclear membrane, sometimes even DNA, that is, the genetic apparatus of the cell. In active cells, the increased activity of proteins is supported by calcium ions: accumulating in the cytoplasm of cells and reaching a critical level, calcium ions activate proteins that destroy the cell, that is, due to the activity of proteins, cellular structures are damaged, up to the cell membranes and the nuclear envelope.
The energy resources of the cell and the body as a whole, namely the reserves of carbohydrates and fats, are being exhausted. In this case, the cells themselves begin to use their own proteins as energy sources: self-digestion mechanisms can be triggered in some cells. This also damages cellular structures. Such processes are observed in actively working cells.
Cells that are in a state of reduced activity do not receive energy resources for a long time. Gradually, they destroy their own structures as a source of plastic resources for working cells. Ultimately, this leads to cell damage, and sometimes to their death.
So, in both tissues, damage and possible cell death occur. In response, a compensatory mechanism for the restoration of damaged structures is triggered: stem cells of different tissues begin to divide and reproduce tissue cells. If this process continues for a long time, some cells and tissues do not receive enough resources against this background, which means that their stem cells are also deprived of these resources; but some cells and tissues receive an excessive amount, for example, oxygen, and the stem cells themselves and their division products are also damaged. This can provoke uncontrolled cell growth, and hence the appearance of a tumor.
Such changes in the immune system can lead to two groups of consequences: either it is the depletion of the immune system, and then the risk of infectious diseases increases; or, on the contrary, it is an increased activity of the immune system, and then autoimmune reactions are observed in the worst case, and at best – allergic, that is, substances that begin to be recognized as antigens do not cause real harm to the body.
In the nervous system, such changes also have serious consequences. In particular, the increased content of cortisol in the blood leads to the fact that this hormone begins to accumulate in it and penetrates into the brain tissue, thereby causing inhibition of the synthesis of one of the most important neurotrophic factors that supports the work of synapses, their normal activity, the proliferation and formation of synapses and ensures the vital activity of nerve cells – this is BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neurotropic factor of the brain). In this case, gradual neurodegeneration begins: the destruction of synaptic contacts, damage to the processes of nerve cells, and in a more severe case, the death of the neurons themselves. Such neurodegenerative processes cause functional holes in neural networks. This affects the efficiency of the centers of the nervous system: the memory system, the center for controlling emotions and behavior, the decision-making center, and so on.
Such changes in the cells of different tissues can occur in any organ. But in every animal, including humans, they begin to develop primarily in weak links, that is, in those organs that are most vulnerable in a particular organism. For example, in some people, changes begin to occur primarily in the cardiovascular system, and then we have problems with the work of the myocardium, hypertension, strokes, heart attacks, and so on. In others, they occur in the gastrointestinal tract, and then peptic ulcer disease manifests itself. Someone has them in the kidneys, and then the kidneys are disrupted, or in the immune system, and in this case the person begins to get sick more often.
Individual profile of a person and stress
The individual profile has general non-specific features that were described by Hans Selye. He distinguished three sets of obvious pathological changes: the growth of the adrenal cortex, increased synthesis of cortisol; changes in the tissue of the immune system and lymphoid tissue; ulcers in the gastrointestinal tract. The changes that develop, gradually turning into stable pathologies, were called adaptation diseases – the relativity of adaptive rearrangements that can be effective and adaptive only for a certain period of time.
How do the symptoms of the general adaptation syndrome manifest themselves, what do they depend on for each individual organism? They depend on a number of factors. Their intensity and profile are determined by the emotional component of the stressor assessment. It is the emotional component that determines the intensity of the triggered responses, that is, not the nature of the stressor itself, but its assessment as a stressor. People with increased anxiety and unstable emotional properties, as a rule, have a more pronounced emotional component of the assessment of the stressor and are at risk of the transition of a stress reaction into a maladaptive form - in the form of distress.
Moreover, even if adaptive perestroika occurs in a normative state, this also has a different profile for each person: perestroika can manifest itself primarily in increased heartbeat, or increased sweating, or in problems at the cognitive level, when a person can hardly pick up and confuse words and breathing due to an excessive emotional component interferes with the performance of the speech function and so on.
Stress Components
So, stress is not a situation affecting the body, but the body's reaction to an impact that it regards as threatening, as a stressor. This is an innate reaction that has formed in the course of evolution as a biologically justified adaptation to serious negative impacts, allowing you to adapt to these impacts, provided that the integrity of the body and its stable indicators, that is, normal life activity, are preserved. Since this reaction is innate, it includes three mandatory components that are triggered by the hypothalamus. They are strictly coordinated and implemented in a certain order.
First of all, these are components of the mental level: assessment of the stressor, decision-making, that is, the choice of a specific behavioral program. Internal rearrangements in the body and behavioral reaction are triggered simultaneously with the control of these processes.
The second component is neurohumoral changes in the body, changes in the work of internal organs. And the third component is the somatomotor reaction: behavior is always expressed in the implementation of a purposeful motor program. All components are mandatory and important. The leading role among them is played by the mental component, because it performs the regulating, controlling function of starting, stopping, correcting all mechanisms.
Physiological and psychoemotional stress
Stress factors have become so diverse that, on the one hand, we are looking for common components of the body's response to stressors, and on the other hand, we are trying to understand which components we can control in order to identify typological features of the course of these reactions. The first attempt to classify the types of stress was made by Lazarus: it was about the fact that stress can be physical (physiological) and psychological. And in the context of psychophysiology , two types of stress can be conditionally distinguished: physiological stress and psychoemotional stress.
Physiological stress is such a reaction of the body to the impact, which is launched against the background of the predominance of the cognitive assessment of the stressor – an adequate assessment. In other words, it is a reaction to a real stressor, which, as a rule, achieves the goal of eliminating the stressor and ends with positive emotions and recovery processes. This stress is good for the body, and it is called "eustress".
Psychoemotional stress is a reaction of the body, which is triggered when the emotional component of the assessment of the stressor itself, as well as the results of its activities, prevails. There are many causes of psychoemotional stress, this type of stress prevails in the modern world. Firstly, information stress is isolated: in a short time, a huge flow of information enters the nervous system, from which it is necessary to quickly identify key elements that are important in a particular situation, make a quick decision and implement a behavioral program as soon as possible. All this happens in a situation of time shortage, and the decision is not always made quickly, an effective program is not always chosen, therefore the goal is not always achieved. As a result, negative emotions arise, and the stressor is not eliminated.
The second set of factors that cause psychoemotional stress are the individual characteristics of specific people who, in principle, have increased emotional reactivity: they are prone to excessive manifestation of emotional evaluation, and often this assessment is inadequate, that is, the impact is not really stressful, but causes a stress reaction. And since the goal cannot be achieved, it is impossible to eliminate such a "non-stressor", and the body continues
The third group of factors is the requirements of the social environment: norms of behavior do not always allow you to complete a stress reaction with a behavioral response. We cannot always respond adequately, for example with physical aggression or rude words, and we control the mandatory behavioral component. This means that the goal is also not achieved, so negative emotions arise, and the body freezes in the second phase. You can pick up a lot of such components, but these are the main factors that determine the presence of psycho-emotional stress and make up for us the specifics of life in the modern world.
About the author: Anna Usenko – Candidate of Biological Sciences, neurophysiologist, lecturer at the Vygotsky Institute of Psychology, RSUH.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru