Stress: Your Body Under Attack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of Personality

by Debra Wood, RN

 

 

What makes one person rush forward, eager to experience the world, while another holds back? Personality. Unraveling the mysteries of your behavior patterns can help you discover ways to enrich your life and relationships and work more effectively.

 

Great minds have pondered the complexities of personality, temperament, and health for centuries. As far back as Hippocrates in 400 BC, theories of personality have been of interest to people who study human behavior.

 

Forty years ago, doctors noted a link between personality and health, dubbing competitive, rushing, and angry types who often experienced heart problems as Type A personalities. Those with a more laidback style were designated Type B. A few years later, a California psychologist described typical behavior of cancer patients holding in negative feelings and anger and called people who exhibit these traits Type C personalities.

 

Personality and temperament also affect how we perceive the world and get along with others. Therapists, leadership development gurus, and other professionals use type and temperament models to help people learn more about themselves, appreciate differences in others, and improve family and work relationships. one popular methodology is the Myers-Briggs classification.

 

Myers-Briggs

During the 1950s, Isabel Myers and Katheryn Briggs developed a method of personality identification based on Carl Jung's theory of psychological types. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator relies on a series of questions to determine which of 16 classifications best fits the respondent. The type patterns correlate with pairs of personality preferences:

• Extroversion vs. introversion--Working with others energizes social extroverts, while solitude pleases introverts.
• Intuiting vs. sensing--Intuiting types tend to anticipate the future and read between the lines, while reality and facts ground those with a preference toward sensing.
• Thinking vs. feeling--Thinking types favor logical and impersonal decisions, while a preference toward personal or value-based judgments characterizes feeling types.
• Judging vs. perceiving--Following through on deadlines and plans rather than keeping options open and letting things evolve are the characteristics that distinguish judging from perceiving types.

People don't fall neatly into categories, nor can they depend solely on a test to accurately determine personality type. A certified trainer can facilitate the evaluation, often using multiple models from different perspectives.

 

Self-discovery

"What's important is the self-discovery process," says author Linda V. Berens, PhD, director of the Temperament Research Institute, a professional training and organizational development company in Huntington Beach, California. "Most people find value in learning their [personality] type because it helps them acknowledge they are okay."

 

Many find that acceptance energizing. In addition, knowledge of predominant patterns gives people the ability to call on nondominant characteristics. Berens explains: "In my experience, it works out best to lead with your preferences and work out the others," she says. "You have to use them all, not just your preferences."

 

Myers-Briggs in Practice

"We've found that most effective leaders use all 16 personality types based on the needs of the situation," says Peter Hammerschmidt, PhD, a professor at Eckerd College Leadership Development Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. once students understand the traits, he helps them learn to move in and out of all 16 types as needed.

 

"When we're not aware, we move toward what makes us comfortable, not necessarily effective," Hammerschmidt explains. "Stepping into another person's Myers-Briggs type is like traveling in a foreign culture. But when you do step in, things work out better. You communicate better and value what others bring to the team." For instance, the logical person who needs to become more approachable might schedule time walking around the office getting to know others.

 

Start Your Exploration

Investigate personality type methodologies and select a certified guide who has experience working with type in the context of your goals, whether career or personal. The organizations listed below can help you find a qualified teacher in your area. Then delve in and let the knowledge of personality type increase your insight, enhance your communication, and enrich your relationships.

 

 

 

RESOURCES:

Eckerd College, Leadership Development Institute
http://www.eckerd.edu/ldi

 

Temperament Research Institute
http://www.tri-network.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.beliefnet.com/healthandhealing/getcontent.aspx?cid=14223

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stress: Your Body Under Attack

by Anita Harris

 

 

 

Having trouble sleeping? Popping more antacids than usual? Or maybe you've had more colds this winter. Maybe these symptoms are related to stress.

 

Just about everyone has experienced a pounding heart, tense muscles, and sweaty palms—the body's evolutionary "fight or flight" response when facing a threat.

 

It's a well-known phenomenon that a certain amount of stress can sharpen your mental prowess, and new research suggests that brief exposures to certain stressors may enhance the body's immune response. However, responses designed by evolution to protect us from predators may sometimes be useful, says Richard Sloan, PhD, director of the Department of Behavioral Medicine at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. They are counterproductive in many situations today.

 

Your Body Under Stress

When you experience stress, Sloan explains, your blood clots more readily so you bleed less, and blood flows to your muscles so you can fight back with strength. This would be very helpful if you were being attacked by a lion, he says, "but it's not useful when your boss yells at you." According to some studies, prolonged or frequent exposure to stressful events might increase our vulnerability to illnesses like depression, heart attacks, and the common cold.

 

Scientists are only just beginning to understand how this works, according to Firdaus Dhabhar, PhD, an assistant professor and neuroimmunologist at Ohio State University.

 

As he explains it, when our sensory organs encounter a potential threat, they transmit signals to the brain which, in turn, releases chemicals that stimulate nerves and glands throughout the body. In the adrenal glands—which are located near the kidneys—the brain chemicals induce the secretion of the hormones corticosterone and epinephrine, which stimulate the organs to act in various ways.

 

The result is what Dhabhar calls "the typical stress response":

• The heart beats faster.
• The muscles tense.
• Sweat glands are activated.
• Blood flow is diverted from the intestines to other parts of the body.
• Immune cells move from the blood to other organs.

Ordinarily, Dhabhar says, within three hours following the threat, "Everything goes back to normal."

 

The Dangers of Chronic Stress

Under conditions of ongoing or repeated stress—such as continual worry and anxiety, a bad work situation, or medical illness—the body's "fight or flight" system gets "hammered," Dhabhar says. Constant stimulation might lead to overproduction of stress-related hormones and "the systems begin to break down." This, in time, could negatively affect the immune system.

 

According to Herbert Benson, MD, chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, chronic stress can lead to the following:

• Depression
• Anger
• High blood pressure
• Cardiac arrhythmia
• Insomnia
• Atherosclerosis
• Infertility

Chronic stress might also increase the risk of heart attacks and make premenstrual syndrome and hot flashes more severe. Recent research suggests that high levels of stress might speed up the progression of AIDS and multiple sclerosis, and hinder the effects of medication.

 

Crying Wolf

Repeated or constant exposure to stressors may also impair the brain's ability to evaluate whether a stress response is warranted and make it less able to regulate the response, according to a 1998 article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Bruce McEwen, PhD, of the Rockefeller Institute. This could be problematic at several levels—from the day-to-day management of average stressors to suddenly being faced with a situation that would normally call up the fight or flight response.

 

Recognizing There's a Problem

To begin with, it's important to recognize the presence of stress-induced symptoms. The signs may include the following:

• Excess anxiety
• Stomachaches
• Headaches
• Diarrhea
• Temper outbursts
• Unexplained anger or crying spells
• Nightmares or insomnia
• Personality changes
• Impatience

 

Reducing the Stress

Change your situation
Do what you can to change stressful conditions, Benson advises. If they involve a relationship or workplace situation, he says, "more often than not, this is difficult to do."

 

Learn to relax
Benson advocates invoking what he calls "the relaxation response". This well-known technique, based on the principles of transcendental meditation, involves repeating a word, sound, prayer or phrase or performing a repetitive muscular activity.

 

"When other thoughts come into your mind, let them go passively, and come back to repetition." According to Benson, who is the founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, these activities have been shown to quiet the brain and to decrease blood pressure, heart rate, and the rate of breathing.

 

Change your outlook
Sloan suggests learning relaxation techniques such as biofeedback, and what he terms "cognitive restructuring," a method that involves questioning whether the physiologic reaction you are experiencing is rationally justified.

 

"You may learn that your office is being moved and think 'that's the worst news I've had in years,'" he explains. By "reforming" the issue, you may decide it's not so bad—and your body will respond accordingly.

 

Practice remaining calm
Sloan also suggests rehearsing in advance how you will respond to a stressful situation. For example, if you need to deal with a difficult person, "figure out how you will address your concerns without yelling or provoking an angry attack and then practice these behaviors."

 

Seek help
Others suggest developing a network of family and friends to avoid social isolation, and seeking professional counseling if needed.

 

Keep it simple
In Dhabhar's view, "Grandma's advice still stands." You should "eat good, wholesome food; exercise moderately and get enough sleep." This may seem "too simple," he says, but being in a state of healthy equilibrium helps you minimize the impact of stress and makes your body better able to fend off any immune challenges that arise.

 

 

 

RESOURCES:

 

American Institute of Stress
http://www.stress.org

 

Mind/Body Medical Institute
http://www.mbmi.org/Default.asp

 

Stress Management Briefs from the University of Minnesota
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/familydevelopment/DE7269.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.beliefnet.com/healthandhealing/getcontent.aspx?cid=13574