Distress - what is it? The concept of distress in psychology

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Stress is an integral part of our lives. Thanks to this state, the resistance of the human body to negative factors can not only decrease, but also increase. Quite another - distress. This condition has an extremely detrimental effect on the human body. It is this phenomenon that will be discussed in this article.

Stress, distress, eustress

A well-known doctor and biologist of world renown, as well as the director of the International Stress Institute in Montreal, Hans Selye, proposed to distinguish between such polar functions of stress. It was he who introduced additional concepts: eustress and distress. Stress itself is an important mechanism for the body to resist adverse external influences. Also, under the influence of eustress, the maximum mobilization of the internal resources of the individual occurs. But distress is, of course, a harmful condition for a person. The word itself is translated as "misfortune", "exhaustion". Later, Selye, after years of research, wrote a book called Stress Without Distress. In it, he describes in detail the essence of the biological conceptstress and offers a so-called code of morality, or a code of conduct, following which you can maintain a normal level of stress, realize your natural potential, express your "I".

Thus, the state of tension that activates and mobilizes the body's forces is called stress. With this, everything is clear. What is distress? This condition is characterized by excessive stress, in which the body is unable to adequately respond to the demands of the environment.

A state of eustress

Being in this state, a person experiences a loss of balance. At the same time, he has certain resources (material, mental, ethical, moral, life experience, knowledge base, etc.) in order to solve the tasks assigned to him. As a rule, the state of eustress is short-term, during which the "shallow" adaptive reserves of the personality are actively lost. This is manifested by problems in communication (speech goes astray, a person cannot clearly articulate and express his thoughts), temporary memory lapses, somatic reactions (short-term darkening of the eyes, a rush of blood to the skin, rapid heartbeat, etc.). But at the same time, the mental functions of the personality (memory, thinking, imagination) and the physiological functions of the body proceed much better. With eustress, a person feels the rise of internal forces.

The concept of "distress"

In psychology, this term means a condition that negatively affectsorganism, disorganizing effect on human behavior and activity. This phenomenon can cause dysfunctional and pathological disorders. Distress is a destructive process, which is characterized by a deterioration in the course of psychophysiological functions. As a rule, such an overstrain is a prolonged stress, in which all adaptation reserves (both “superficial” and “deep”) are mobilized and spent. Often such a reaction of the body turns into mental illness: psychosis, neurosis.

Reasons

Distress is a condition that develops as a result of:

• prolonged inability to satisfy their physiological needs (lack of air, food, water, heat);

• unaccustomed, inappropriate living conditions (for example, forced living in the mountains, where the air concentration is different from the usual);

• damage to the body, disease, injury, prolonged pain;
• prolonged negative emotions.

Consequences

Naturally, such a state of he alth benefits is not. Tension during distress becomes very strong, there is excessive fussiness and inhibition. It is difficult for a person to manage attention, he is distracted by any little things that begin to annoy. Often he fixes his attention unnecessarily on something. Solving a problem, a person cannot find a way out and fixates on it for a long time. Also, with distress, memory impairment occurs. Even after reading a simple text several times,one cannot remember it. Deviations in speech also develop: the patient “swallows” words, stutters, the number of interjections, parasitic words increases. The quality of thinking worsens, only simple mental operations are preserved in distress. There is a narrowing of consciousness: the patient stops responding to humor. Joking with a person in this state is not recommended - he simply will not understand the joke.

Respiratory distress syndrome

This is a very severe manifestation of respiratory failure, which develops hypoxia, non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema, impaired external respiration. As a result of a sharp decrease in ventilation and oxygenation of the body, oxygen deficiency of the brain and heart is observed, which can threaten human life. This reaction may develop due to:

• viral, bacterial, fungal pneumonia;
• sepsis;
• protracted and severe anaphylactic or septic shock;
• aspiration of water, vomit;
• chest injury;
• inhalation of toxic and irritating substances (chlorine, ammonia, phosgene, pure oxygen);
• pulmonary embolism;
• venous fluid overload;
• burns;
• autoimmune processes;

• drug overdose.

  

Symptoms

For thisstate is characterized by a successive change of stages that reflect pathological changes in the lungs:

• 1st stage: in the first 6 hours after exposure to a stress factor, there are no complaints, clinical changes are not determined.
• 2nd stage: after 6-12 hours, the development of increasing shortness of breath, cyanosis, tachycardia, a cough appears with foamy sputum and streaks of blood, the oxygen content in the blood is steadily decreasing.
• 3rd stage: after 12-24 hours, breathing becomes bubbling, frothy pink sputum is released, hypercapnia and hypoxemia increase, central venous pressure rises, arterial pressure decreases.
• 4th stage: arterial hypotension, atrial fibrillation, severe tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, pulmonary and gastrointestinal bleeding develop, creatinine and urea levels increase. As a result, oppression of consciousness and coma.

Treatment

Distress syndrome is treated only in the intensive care unit. First of all, you need:

• eliminate the stress damaging factor;
• correct hypoxemia and acute respiratory failure;
• eliminate multiple organ disorders.

Therapy is successful only in the early stages of the disease, until irreversible damage to the lung tissue occurs.