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Types of Physical and Mental Stressors
|
Physical Stressors |
Mental Stressors |
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Environmental |
Cognitive |
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Heat, cold, wetness, vibration, noise, blast hypoxia (insufficient oxygen), infectious agents, physical work, physical allergens, etc |
Information, too much, too little, ambiguity, uncertainty, isolation, time pressure versus waiting, unpredictability, rules of engagement, difficult, etc |
|
Physiological |
Emotional |
|
Sleep debt, dehydration, malnutrition, poor hygiene, muscular and aerobic fatigue, illness or injury etc. |
Fear and anxiety producing threats, grief-producing losses, resentment, anger and rage, boredom producing inactivity, interpersonal feelings, spiritual confrontation or temp |
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Note: The above stressors may act singly or interact with each other to become compound stressors |
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Your imagination perceives a stress as a threat and activates the ‘flight or fight’ response, or in the extreme, a panic attack. Your mind can do this quickly and unconsciously, it will feel as if it came from nowhere. There is, however, a subconscious survival process taking place which when understood can be reprogrammed.
This is all very well, but why do some people suffer from panic attacks and others don’t?
You may not like this answer - it can be a
learned response and now you have learned to expect it!
Let’s look at what happens during the flight or fight response in order to understand how these common stressors have been causing havoc in your life.
