Behavioral Stress Outcomes/Response to Stressors – Stress (PSY)

00:01 How will it impact your behavior.

00:03 Now individuals may respond differently to the same stressor depending upon appraisal and circumstance.

00:09 So we kind of briefed this topic before so let's take a look at it again.

00:12 I know that something that presented to you versus presented to me, we might appraise it differently.

00:19 So different people will respond differently.

00:22 And we can use that statement for so many different sections that we're going to be talking about for the MCAT.

00:26 But basically the same stressor could be appraise differently.

00:31 You have to write an MCAT exam tomorrow.

00:34 I have an MCAT exam tomorrow.

00:35 Are you more prepared or I'm more prepared.

00:38 How you are going to deal with that? Now if I'm feeling very prepared, my behavior might be like, "Okay, that's fine." "I'm fully prepared." "I might go for dinner tonight." And you response might be, "I'm so not prepared." You are completely freaking out and therefore, you are going to act differently.

00:54 Now how are you going to act.

00:55 Typically we can put things in two bends, okay.

00:58 You will either confront the problem or you will avoid it.

01:01 So we can say, we can confront the stressor or you can avoid or illustrate avoidance.

01:06 Now what we mean by confrontation is you can say, "You know what, this is extremely stressful." This is going to be unusually hard for me but I'm going to do it.

01:15 I'm going stay up all night and I'm going to attack this.

01:18 Just bring it on.

01:19 You roll up your sleeves and you do it.

01:21 Versus, "Oh my god." "This is unbelievable." You start crying.

01:26 You might may be wet yourself.

01:27 And you go to bed in a little ball and you hold your teddy bear.

01:30 And you're avoid the problem in front of you which is I need to study so that I do well in the MCAT exam.

01:35 Now those individuals who avoid instead of confronting the stressor, might crutch and self-medicate and do things to deal with the stressor in front of them.

01:48 So behaviorally they are expressing it in different ways.

01:51 So the individual who is confronting the behavior might be to work, to relax and to deal deal with it that way.

01:57 Somebody who is avoiding is going to redirect that behavior and do something else.

02:01 Typically it's usually is unhealthy.

02:03 So things like, "I'm going to drink myself silly and fall asleep and pass out." Or I'm going to partake in taking some recreational drugs.

02:11 I might eat a tub of ice cream and cry myself again to sleep.

02:16 Lot of crying, lot of sleeping happening here.

02:18 So you can see how either way you're going to express your behavior.

02:22 One might be more productive and help you actually deal with your stress at hand.

02:25 And the other you avoid and redirect.

02:29 Okay, so now let's take at an extremely stressful situation in what behavior comes out of that.

02:37 So you may have heard of something called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

02:41 This is in response to an extremely high stressful event.

02:46 Now it can be acute, it can be chronic.

02:49 Either or the response is the same.

02:52 When it's acute, typically the response is little bit lower on the scale and it might be shorter lived versus something that's little bit more chronic.

03:00 And we'll see that the affects be a little bit more pronounced and little bit more long lasting.

03:05 So we're seeing here these individuals they are shocked.

03:10 Okay the system is shocked.

03:12 It is overwhelmed.

03:13 And it does not know how to deal with it.

03:14 So after the event or post trauma, your body does not know how to deal with the stress.

03:21 And so if you can't confront or deal with something, you avoid it.

03:24 So we illustrate avoidance.

03:27 And we also have things like hyperarousal and re-experiencing.

03:30 I want to walk you through three of those points.

03:32 So the best example I can give you is somebody who is, have gone through some war-torn situations.

03:39 So a soldier, a civilian who's stuck in the middle of a war.

03:42 They've seen some horrific stuff.

03:45 So probably the most common and prominent sub group that suffers from PTSD would be, you know, a soldier.

03:51 A soldier goes and does a tour of duty in the Middle East coming from the States.

03:55 Goes from the Middle-East and fights and does a six months tour.

03:58 They've had to do some terrible things.

04:00 They've experience some terrible things.

04:03 They've seen their comrades get shot.

04:06 Arms, limbs blown off.

04:07 You see some crazy, crazy things.

04:09 Now those are things that are extremely stressful.

04:11 Those aren't things that you and I probably won't see on a daily basis.

04:14 Hopefully not.

04:16 And so, that sits there and their body and brain really doesn't know how to deal with that.

04:20 And they kind mentalized it and they avoid it.

04:22 They go back to base camp.

04:23 And they high-five on making a back safe.

04:25 And that they've accomplished the mission.

04:27 And they aren't saying, "Oh, my god! "I had to shoot somebody." Or "I can't believe you know this happened." They might but typically they bundle it up and they avoid it.

04:36 You also see something called "Hyperarousal" with these individuals seem.

04:40 You know, highly aroused, highly agitated, you know lot of high-fiving, a lot of King Kong chest thumping.

04:46 They are really aroused and part of that again the body not knowing how to deal with this arousal that they are feeling.

04:54 And then when they are kind of alone, lot of times when they are sleeping after they've been removed from the event so they return home and they are back with their family, he's lying in bed.

05:02 They re-experience the sounds, the smells, and re-live that experience of bombs going off and they wake up in cold sweats.

05:10 Not knowing how to deal with again.

05:12 So those three key characteristics show that typical symptoms you see with PTSD.

05:16 How you deal with that is a long term process.

05:21 Lot of it is psychotherapy.

05:23 Having to not confront what's presented in front of you as opposed to avoiding.

05:28 So individuals who just continue to avoid or continue to experience PTSD.

05:31 And really the primary goal around solving the problem or trying to solve the problem is to address the original stressor.