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.

Stressing with Karl Marx

             Stress has been looked at for years and there are hundreds of studies on stress.  With the many different studies, there are also many different perspectives, or lens, one may view stress through.  Different lens will provide different opinions about stress and in this blog post, I will view stress through a Marxist lens.

             The Marxist lens will look at something while keeping ideas about capitalism, the proletariat, and class struggle in mind.  Arguably, the most important thing in life is happiness.  Happiness is unique to every person, but there are still some basic things that most people can agree make someone happy, two of which are family/love and money.  Love in any way will make a person happy, and families are perfect representation of love.  However, money is needed for a family to survive and a surviving family is a happy family.  Wealth allows for an easier life and when already happy with love, an easier life is icing on the cake.  

             Unfortunately, we live in a society where money is not granted to everyone and people will lack the money to live comfortably or even to shelter or feed their families.  A lack of money may cause severe stress and this can be blamed on capitalism.  The bourgeois are living easily while the proletarians are stressing just to live the next day, to make sure their family survives.  In a capitalist system, it is the survival of the fittest.  While capitalism may grant some people all the wealth they can imagine, the system is unequal and seen in the stress of people.  Even those who are well off are stressed by capitalism.  Having to manage money, pay extraordinary taxes, and maintain a affluent lifestyle will put stress upon a person.  In an equal Marxist system people would not stress about these issues and thus viewing stress though a Marxist lens it is easy to critique capitalism and blame everyone’s stress ultimately on capitalism. Diagnosing stress is similar to diagnosing a mental illness.  In the same way mental illness is subjective to a time period, stress is subjective to a lens.  There is no one correct way to view stress (or mental illness), but the more lenses understood, the greater the understanding of stress as a whole.

Stress is in the Air!

February 14, Valentine’s Day.  It’s that time of year again where either you are with someone or alone.  No matter what situation you are in, Valentine’s Day can be quite stressful and I’m here to help relieve some of those unwanted feelings.

If you are the person who doesn’thave that someone special in your life then there are some simple mentalities you need to have to de-stress your Valentine’s Day.  First, you cannot sulk and feel downtrodden over the fact that you don’t have a boy/girlfriend because the truth of the matter is, there are so many people that still love you.  Spend time with your family on this day and be surrounded by those who do love you, including pets!  Try to no focus on the romantic part of Valentine’s Day and be grateful for all you have.  It’s stressful to see some of your friends with their partner, but realize that there are many of your friends who don’t have anything to do on that day either and that you should try to be with them as well, (unless you enjoy family time more).  A completely different idea on how to deal with the stressful Valentine’s Day is to completely ignore it and pretend that it doesn’t exist.  Just live that day like any other Thursday in your life and don’t even fret about the events that go on during that day.  Don’t falter from your regular routine and zone out the love birds that are obnoxiously swooping and swooning around you.  Find the people who love you, the people who care, or just choose ignore it all, and I guarantee your Valentine’s Day won’t be stressful.

Not every is necessarily alone on this day and for those of you who do have that significant other, it can be quite the stressful day.  For the guys, I know that you are expected to bring a bouquet of roses and hearts of chocolate and take your girl out to a fancy dinner and be all romantic and perfect.  But it’s the last word that causes all the stress: perfect.  Being perfect is impossible and you need to accept the fact that you will not be perfect.  Tradition states that you need to heighten your romanticism, but to what extent is the question, a question that you need to have with your partner.  Make expectations.  You should be comfortable enough with your significant other to be able to ask how Valentine’s Day should be spent, what they find romantic so you don’t have to guess, and just their overall feelings on the holiday (they might even despise it!)  For the girls, I understand that you like spontaneous and extravagant, but lower your expectations.  Don’t stress over whether or not you will get flowers, but as odd as it may sound, have low expectations, that way if your boyfriend decides to do that extra something, then you will be twice as happy and certainly feel no stress.  Communication is key for any stress-free relationship, especially during Valentine’s Day.  In addition, if your partner only sees your love on Valentine’s Day then you have not been doing a good enough job the rest of the year.  Remember to not “make it into a huge test. Express your love every single day and you will be better off in the long run."  Have a stress-free, happy Valentine’s Day.

Another Type of Stress

I hate stress.  You hate stress.  Let’s be honest, nobody enjoys stress.  However, there are different definitions of stress.  Besides the common definition of stress as a hindrance on the mind of a person it can also be used to show the “importance attached to a thing, or significance, meaning,emphasis, consequence; weight, value, worth.”  Some people say stress over the menial is wrong and that people don’t stress the important,  but it’s time to clear this up.  When we neglect to focus on the small and ignore those little things, then we will eventually drive ourselves insane without our knowledge of doing so.  It is significant to take value in all the small parts of life and never take anything for granted, yet people are taking their focus and effort and setting aside too much time for only the big things in life.  For all of this I am not discussing focusing on a specific object such as a diamond ring versus a piece of toast, but rather the ideas and values that go behind it.  Obviously spend more time on the diamond ring and put your effort into that, however the ideas behind the toast can be stronger and have a longer lasting effect on a person than the diamond ring.  Besides marriage, a diamond ring doesn’t set a mentality up.  It is so expensive that buying one becomes an inconsistent process, however the piece of toast can completely change your life.  When you choose to make a piece of toast in the morning, you are choosing to set up your day and put enough energy within you to make it to lunch.  This is the mentality that you want raise your mental and cognitive state of mind so that you can succeed. Putting stress on the little things in life can form positive patterns that eventually will lead to not having to even think about those things.  The cliché holds true that every little detail counts and placing an extra emphasis, or stress on those can be more rewarding than you will ever know.  Always remember that it’s the little things in life that truly make a person happy and that make a person’s life whole. 

Do not stress over the small details, but rather stress the small details and make them important.  Do no let the seemingly big things take away all your time, for one day you will realize that the little things are the true big things.