The Science of Understanding Stress

Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger.

Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe examined the medical records of over 5,000 medical patients as a way to determine whether stressful events might cause illnesses. Based on their 1967 study, the two psychiatrists came up with the Holmes and Rahe stress scale is a list of 43 stressful life events that can contribute to illness (see end of article) .

Stress is usually associated as a product of problems, tensions, worries, and pressure in one's life. As generally defined in wikipedia; stress is not directly created by external events, but instead by the internal perceptions that cause an individual to have anxiety/negative emotions surrounding a situation. People experience stress, or perceive things as threatening, when they do not believe that their resources for coping with situations are enough for what the circumstances demand.

Mark D. Seery of the University at Buffalo published a paper on adversity and resilience which appears in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Seery says, a lot of ideas that seem like common sense aren't supported by scientific evidence.

In there, he notes that while many traumatic experiences like assault, hurricanes, or bereavement can cause damage to a person psychologically, small amounts of trauma may help that person develop resilience and cope with heavier situations.

Video: What is stress?

Research have shown that extremely negative experiences are bad. Serious events like the death of a child or parent, a natural disaster, being physically attacked, experiencing sexual abuse, or being forcibly separated from family, can cause psychological problems. According to Seery and his colleagues, some research have even wrongly suggested that the best way to go through life is having nothing ever happen to you. This view is unrealistic and not even healthy for one's well-being.

In one study, they found that people who coped better with traumatic experiences are those who went through previous negative events. Another study found that people with chronic back pain were able to get around better if they had experienced some serious adversity, whereas people with either a lot of adversity or none at all were more impaired.

One possibility for this pattern is that people who have been through difficult experiences have had a chance to develop their ability to cope. "The idea is that negative life experiences can toughen people, making them better able to manage subsequent difficulties," Seery says. In addition, people who get through bad events may have tested out their social network, learning how to get help when they need it.

Video: Dr. Robert Sapolsky - sometimes "the right stress" can make us feel stimulated

With his research, Seery isn't telling parents to abuse their kids so they'll grow up to be well-adjusted adults. "Negative events have negative effects," he says. "I really look at this as being a silver lining. Just because something bad has happened to someone doesn't mean they're doomed to be damaged from that point on.", Seery says.

Video: Coping With Stress

The Holmes And Rahe Stress Scale

Adults

To measure stress according to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, the number of "Life Change Units" that apply to events in the past year of an individual's life are added and the final score will give a rough estimate of how stress affects health.

Life event	Life change units
Death of a spouse	100
Divorce	73
Marital separation	65
Imprisonment	63
Death of a close family member	63
Personal injury or illness	53
Marriage	50
Dismissal from work	47
Marital reconciliation	45
Retirement	45
Change in health of family member	44
Pregnancy	40
Sexual difficulties	39
Gain a new family member	39
Business readjustment	39
Change in financial state	38
Death of a close friend	37
Change to different line of work	36
Change in frequency of arguments	35
Major mortgage	32
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan	30
Change in responsibilities at work	29
Child leaving home	29
Trouble with in-laws	29
Outstanding personal achievement	28
Spouse starts or stops work	26
Begin or end school	26
Change in living conditions	25
Revision of personal habits	24
Trouble with boss	23
Change in working hours or conditions	20
Change in residence	20
Change in schools	20
Change in recreation	19
Change in church activities	19
Change in social activities	18
Minor mortgage or loan	17
Change in sleeping habits	16
Change in number of family reunions	15
Change in eating habits	15
Vacation	13
Christmas	12
Minor violation of law	11

Score of 300+: At risk of illness.
Score of 150-299+: Risk of illness is moderate (reduced by 30% from the above risk).
Score 150-: Only have a slight risk of illness.

Non-adults

A modified scale has also been developed for non-adults. Similar to the adult scale, stress points for life events in the past year are added and compared to the rough estimate of how stress affects health.

Life Event	Life Change Units
Death of parent	100
Unplanned pregnancy/abortion	100
Getting married	95
Divorce of parents	90
Acquiring a visible deformity	80
Fathering a child	70
Jail sentence of parent for over one year	70
Marital separation of parents	69
Death of a brother or sister	68
Change in acceptance by peers	67
Unplanned pregnancy of sister	64
Discovery of being an adopted child	63
Marriage of parent to stepparent	63
Death of a close friend	63
Having a visible congenital deformity	62
Serious illness requiring hospitalization	58
Failure of a grade in school	56
Not making an extracurricular activity	55
Hospitalization of a parent	55
Jail sentence of parent for over 30 days	53
Breaking up with boyfriend or girlfriend	53
Beginning to date	51
Suspension from school	50
Becoming involved with drugs or alcohol	50
Birth of a brother or sister	50
Increase in arguments between parents	47
Loss of job by parent	46
Outstanding personal achievement	46
Change in parent's financial status	45
Accepted at college of choice	43
Being a senior in high school	42
Hospitalization of a sibling	41
Increased absence of parent from home	38
Brother or sister leaving home	37
Addition of third adult to family	34
Becoming a full fledged member of a church	31
Decrease in arguments between parents	27
Decrease in arguments with parents	26
Mother or father beginning work	26

Score of 300+: At risk of illness.
Score of 150-299+: Risk of illness is moderate. (reduced by || 30% from the above risk)
Score 150-: Slight risk of illness.

Quantum Day

19 December 2011