Module 2. Ups and downs.
Topic 4. Making it through in a stressful world.
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
--Jim Goodwin and Sydney J. Harris
Read the text
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, first coined in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance. It refers to the consequence of the failure of an organism human or animal to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined.
Stress symptoms commonly include a state of alarm and adrenaline production, short-term resistance as a coping mechanism, and exhaustion, as well as irritability, muscular tension, inability to concentrate and a variety of physiological reactions such as headache and elevated heart rate.
Physiologists define stress as how the body reacts to a stressor, real or imagined, a stimulus that causes stress. Acute stressors affect an organism in the short term; chronic stressors over the longer term.
Alarm is the first stage. When the threat or stressor is identified or realized, the body's stress response is a state of alarm. During this stage adrenaline will be produced in order to bring about the fight-or-flight response.
Resistance is the second stage. If the stressor persists, it becomes necessary to attempt some means of coping with the stress. Although the body begins to try to adapt to the strains or demands of the environment, the body cannot keep this up indefinitely, so its resources are gradually depleted.
Exhaustion is the third and final. At this point, all of the body's resources are eventually depleted and the body is unable to maintain normal function. The initial autonomic nervous system symptoms may reappear (sweating, raised heart rate etc.). If stage three is extended, long term damage may result as the body, and the immune system is exhausted and function is impaired resulting in decompensation.
The result can manifest itself in obvious illnesses such as ulcers, depression, diabetes, trouble with the digestive system or even cardiovascular problems, along with other mental illnesses.
Both negative and positive stressors can lead to stress. Some common categories and examples of stressors include: sensory input such as pain, bright light, or environmental issues such as a lack of control over environmental circumstances, such as food, housing, health, freedom, or mobility.
Social issues can also cause stress, such as struggles with conspecific or difficult individuals and social defeat, or relationship conflict, deception, or break ups, and major events such as birth and deaths, marriage, and divorce.
Life experiences such as poverty, unemployment, clinical depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, heavy drinking, or insufficient sleep can also cause stress. Students and workers may face stress from exams and project deadlines.
Responses to stress include adaptation, psychological coping such as stress management, anxiety, and depression. Over the long term, distress can lead to diminished health and/or increased propensity to illness; to avoid this, stress must be managed.
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Stress management encompasses techniques intended to equip a person with effective coping mechanisms for dealing with psychological stress, with stress defined as a person's physiological response to an internal or external stimulus that triggers the fight-or-flight response. Stress management is effective when a person uses strategies to cope with or alter stressful situations.
There are several ways of coping with stress, such as controlling the source of stress or learning to set limits and to say "No" to some demands that bosses or family members may make.
A person's capacity to tolerate the source of stress may be increased by thinking about another topic such as a hobby, listening to music or spending time in a wilderness. Techniques of stress management may include some of the following: autogenic training, conflict resolution, exercise, getting a hobby, meditation, deep breathing, yoga, nootropics, relaxation techniques, spas, spending time in nature, natural medicine, clinically validated alternative treatments, time management, listening to certain types of relaxing music.
Another means of destressing is downshifting. Downshifting is a social behavior or trend in which individuals live simpler lives to escape from the rat race of obsessive materialism and to reduce the stress, overtime, and psychological expense that may accompany it. It emphasizes finding an improved balance between leisure and work and focusing life goals on personal fulfillment and relationship building instead of the all-consuming pursuit of economic success. In the 1990s this new form of Simple living began appearing in the mainstream media and has continually grown in popularity among populations living in industrial societies especially the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Slowing down the pace of life and spending time meaningfully while not spending money wastefully are principle values of downshifting. Another main tenet is enjoying leisure time in the company of others, especially loved ones, and shunning self-absorption because it resists the normality of individualism and isolation of post-modern society.
The primary motivations for downshifting are gaining leisure time, escaping from work-and-spend cycle, and removing the clutter of unnecessary possessions that are accrued while existing in those societies with the highest standards of living and levels of production. The personal goals of downshifting are simple: To reach a holistic self-understanding and satisfying meaning in life.
Vocabulary to the text
| parlance ['pɑlən(t)s] | , () |
| stressor | -, , |
| deplete | , , |
| decompensation | ( ) |
| ulcer ['ʌlsə] | |
| conspecific | ; , |
| obsessive-compulsive | 1) , ' 2) , ' |
| propensity[prə'pen(t)səti] | , ( - to); ( - for) |
| autogenic training | 1) , 2) |
| nootropics | , |
| spa | 1) 2) |
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I. Questions to the text:
1. Give the definition of stress.
2. What is the physiological reaction of organism towards stress? List three stages of bodys reaction to stress.
3. Identify the most common stressors.
4. Describe stress management techniques.
5. What is the reason and idea of downshifting?
II. 
Write short notes about the key issues raised in the text.
III. Compose and write a plan of the text.
IV. Retell the text using new vocabulary.
Additional vocabulary
| pre-stress (adj) | |
| workplace stress | |
| chronic stress | |
| burnout | ; , ( ) |
| burnt-out = stressed-out | , , ( ) |
| alarmed | ; , |
| exhaustion [ɪg'zɔsʧ(ə)n]=weariness=breakdown | ; , |
| nervous exhaustion | |
| total exhaustion | , |
| state of exhaustion | |
| nervous breakdown | |
| irritability [ɪrɪtə'bɪlətɪ] =shortness of temper | 1) , , 2) |
| irritable ['ɪrɪtəbl] | , |
| antsy ['æntsɪ] (CQ) | , |
| elevated blood pressure | ' |
| agitation I [æʤɪ'teɪʃ(ə)n] = disturbance | ; , |
| agitated | ; |
| anxiety/anxious [æŋ(g)'zaɪətɪ] ['æŋ(k)ʃəs] | , , |
| headache ['hedeɪk] | |
| nail-biting (adj) | , |
| resistance | 1) , 2) () |
| resistant to sth | , , |
| eustress [yo͞o'stres] | , |
| depression / depressed | / , |
| breakup | ( , ) |
| unemployment / unemployed | , |
| obsessive thought | ' |
| obsessive concern | |
| obsessive jealousy | |
| heavy drinking = alcohol abuse | |
| to cope with stress | |
| stress management | |
| to take drugs | |
| autogenic [ɔtə(ʊ)'dʒɛnɪk] training | 1) , 2) |
| work-life balance | |
| psychological resilience | |
| talking therapy | |
| shrink (CQ) = psychiatrist | |
| to de-stress | |
| destressing | , |
| stress tolerance | |
| to downshift | " " , |
| stress puppy | " , , , |
V. Additional questions and discussion:
1. What are the most common stressors for young people? Write the list of them.
2. How do you cope with stress? Give advice how to reduce stress, using ways of giving advice.
3. In your opinion - is stress tolerance genetical or acquired?
4. Can you imagine yourself a downshifter?
VI. 
Write a report (15 sentences) on one of the stress management techniques.
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VII. Write a dialogue related to stress (this can be a doctor-patient talk, or a friendly conversation).
Ways of giving advice:
YOU SHOULD + INFINITIVE
YOU OUGHT TO + INFINITIVE (FORMAL)
IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA IF YOU + PAST S.
IF I WERE YOU, I WOULD...
YOU HAD BETTER... + INFINITIVE
YOU (WILL) HAVE TO + INFINITIVE
IT IS TIME YOU + PAST SIMPLE
WHY DON'T YOU... + INFINITIVE
YOU COULD ALWAYS... + INFINITIVE
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT... + ING
IMPERATIVES (Don't... Do...)
NEVER (Do smth)
ITS A GOOD IDEA TO DO SMTH
ITS WORTH + GERUND
IT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA TO DO SMTH
