Hurd 1

Albert Hurd
Dr. Sterling
INRW 0302.201
June 29, 2015
Stress, stress, and more stress
Imagine John have a golf ball with the word stress written on the top of it and hands it to his
friend Mike. Then tells Mike, squeeze this ball with all his might; until he tells him release the
ball. After a period of time the palm of Mikes hand would start cramping and his palm will start
hurting. Whenever John tells Mike to let the golf ball go, Mikes hand would receive a sigh of
relief. The golf ball represents stress and how stress affects the body. People that continuously
holds on to stress; are consumed with pain, because they do not, let go. Relieving stress will give
a sigh of relief and even help with health issues. Thats because stress can put people through a
lot of different challenges. Holding on to stress will eventually cause physical, mental, and social
problems to a person.
Stress could influence or impact peoples physical abilities. Delongis, Folkman, &
Lazarus expressed that people who stress everyday deals with health issues such as colds, sore
throats, and body aches. (Wood, Wood, and Boyd) Meaning a person thats always seeming
sickly, they could actually be suffering from stress. Elderly people, who have lost their
companion, often die because they stressed themselves out behind the loss of a love one. The life
that they built together over so many years finally comes to an end and is too much for he/she to
bare. Whenever the stress takes control over he/she, it will eventually cause some kind of major

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health problem, sending him/her to meet their companion once more. Some people cannot
handle certain tasks their jobs require because of the pressure caused by stress. This person could
have a Bully boss, whos always picking on him/her, causing more added stress to him/her.
People like bully bosses thats always throwing gasoline on the fire. Eventually could cause a
physical altercation between boss and worker; because he\her already to their boiling point and
decides to fight instead of flight.
PTSD short for Posttraumatic stress disorder is a form of mental stress. PTSD disorder is
known to be found in war veterans, and people living in high crime areas; that are prone to
violence. PTSD could cause people to be traumatized for years. A person could relapse simply
by hearing about the past traumatic event that affected their lives. (Wood, Wood, and Boyd. p.
174, p. 175). Unemployment also causes mental stress, people knowing that they bills will not be
paid because of their unemployment situation. Use to having a good job that paid all the bills but
now being jobless, starts to get very stressful when the first of the month come around. People
like control and without control, they manage to get stressed out. (Wood, Wood, and Boyd. p.
176) Racism also causes mental stress, especially in the African American community. With the
events that, has happened in the last few years the African American society has gained a great
deal of stress. Feeling the lack of justice against those people killing off the black males people
in the African American communities now are starting to take action. The African American
people stress levels finally came to a head causing riots in the city of Baltimore. Acting out of
character but so full of anger and stress, the African American people took overwhelming action.
Like burning down business, vandalizing police cars, throwing things at the police and beating
people in the streets.

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Stressed out people do not share very good social people, they are not very good people
to be around. Stress pushes a person into a corner, where they choose to be a loner. Thinking
this way is the best way to handle their own stress and turn their backs on the world of stress,
making them dangerous people. People like this are easier targets for drug and alcohol abuse,
which in turn becomes an addiction. Stress can also bring out other emotions like misplaced
anger towards others, trying to avoid the problems at hand. Others can also see their stressful
situation as a challenge and use it to better the situation. It all depends on the primary appraisal
and the stress response that comes from it after deciding how to deal with the stressor. (Wood,
Wood, and Boyd.p.177-178.) Each person deploy different ways of dealing with the things that
stress them out on a daily basis.
Every person has stressors that affected their everyday lives. Some stressors are small and
easier to deal with while others can affect a person on a tremendous level. No matter what the
case, they all have to be dealt with, and if it affects the person in a negative manner, it can bring
on many other physical, mental and social issues that can put lot of pressure on people. If not
coped with properly, a person will become consumed with what they are going through, so it is
very important to try and stay stress free.

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Works Sited
Wood, Samual E, Ellen Green wood, Denise Boyd. Chapter 10: Health and Stress.
Mastering the world of psychology. 3rd ed. Boston, MA; Pearson, 2008. 320-352. Print
(Wood, Wood, and Boyd)

According to Wood, Wood, and Boyd