Fighting Stress- Guest Blog by Tim Hofmockel

I hope I don’t disturb the happy undertones of this blog too severely by posting this, but I thought providing a personal perspective on the destructive capabilities of stress would be very relevant.

My little sister has a panic disorder.  Usually, the majority of her days will be completely normal:  she’ll go to classes, hang out with friends, turn from a kind sophomore Mogwai to a fierce little Gremlin in water polo games, eat dinner and watch TV with the family, and go to bed.  However, from time to time Anna’s life is sharply and painfully interrupted by bursts of irrational panic about everything from homework to her self-image.  After two years, her troubles persist.

My sister’s anxiety relates to stress in both cause and effect.  She had her first panic attack as an eighth grader in the spring of 2011.  The spring of 2011 was hard for my family, but especially for my sister.  Anna was the lead in the school play, Annie, and was also anxiously awaiting the decision on her admittance to the Glenbrook Academy.  Then, in the week before the acceptance letter came and opening night of the play, our grandpa died after losing a three week battle with pneumonia that began after a year-long war with a rare bone disease.  This was especially painful for our family because he had been living in our house for the previous two years, and we had all grown very close since the passing of my grandma.  The emotional shock combined with the social stress brought by the play and the academic stress brought by the upcoming Academy decision overwhelmed my sister and launched the first of several waves of extreme anxiety, to the point where she was unable to attend school for several weeks. 

As the reader can easily imagine, a panic disorder often creates a vicious cycle in which the stress of having said disorder only worsens the symptoms.   Anna is now unable to attend most of her classes because of the stress of her situation and her anxiety.  Interestingly, this problem with academics doesn’t translate into the rest of her life: exercise and hanging out with friends quickly takes her mind off of the many issues plaguing her. 

For two years now, Anna has fought stress to keep it and the accompanying panic attacks at bay, while being careful not to create stress while trying to keep it out.  She walks a balancing act with stress, and continues to face the challenges that come with it.

Chris Jenkins Guest Blog

Hello this is Christopher Jenkins, normally I blog about balance, but today I had the opportunity to guest blog for Ryan Bunney… I couldn’t turn down the offer!

America is known for its resilience after awful terrorist attacks.  September 11^th was an example of how our nation bonded over a common tragedy.  The most recent Boston Marathon bombing also reveals how Americans react to acts of terror.  But how do Americans and humans in general respond to terrorism psychologically?  Do terrorist attacks have the same psychological impact as a trip to war?

So what is the difference between terrorism and war?  How does the human mind react to each of the events?  World Psychiatry reports that in a test on Israeli citizens PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) was relatively low, only 5.3%.  Israel, a country that is victim to many more acts of terror than the United States is a much better representation of how a group of people react to terrorism, mainly because more families and more communities have been affected due to the size of the country and the frequency of attacks.   Melissa A. Polusny, Ph.D., of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System and the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, and colleagues, surveyed 953 combat-deployed U.S. National Guard Soldiers, and showed that 18.2% of those surveyed showed strong signs of PTSD.  So, in comparison it appears that the daily stress of war has stronger psychological effects on a human.

I would describe the daily psychological effect of terrorist attacks on the United States of America as “stress.” Stress manifests itself in many ways.  Stress can be fear of getting on plane; it can be reluctance to attend major, public events; or it can be keeping a gun under your pillow when you sleep.  Stress is known to provoke a fight or flight response.  In my opinion, America unifies after catastrophe with a fight response. 

April Stress Bring May Flowers

April has begun and winter is still not over.  It is still cold here in Chicago and the winter blues have not faded away yet.  It is times like these that people feel more stress and unhappiness than usual.  The cold weather draws people into their homes and away from fresh air and physical activities.  Unfortunately, one the biggest stress relievers is doing some sort of physical activity.  How should we combat this biological blues that comes from the lack of sun and activity?  The answer is the same as it has been all winter-take advantage of any nice weather and be around people.  Any time the sun shines or its warm enough to be outside, try and make that extra effort to do so.  A nice refreshing walk around the neighborhood could obviate any pending stress.  Also, in the winter, people tend to be alone more often than during a time of warmer weather and therefore people feel more depression and stress.  While most people did not expect to start their spring as if it is the middle of winter, we need to accept that the weather will soon be beautiful and cherish the time we have to snuggle indoors. 
        In addition, coming back from a long spring break could prove to be a challenge.  After a nice long period of relaxation things are starting up again and they're not waiting for you to be ready.  A couple tips to avoid the total overwhelming deluge of work is to try to get a system going and to not over emphasize things.  Getting a system down that works for you is the key to success in any field. A routine will help organize your life and make this burdensome amount of post-break work become quite manageable.  Also, realize that not everything is worth stressing over and that you need to set priorities straight and really decide what you want to spend your time and energy working on.  I hope you had stress-free spring break and that you stay warm while staying happy.