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Stress: Causes
and Results
Research proves that destructive stress became the biggest health
risk of the modern world, applying to man and animal.
It is very important to be aware about the
actual state of stress, in order to evaluate its impact in certain
stressful situations
Stress
- what is it?
translation follows
Above all one can
differentiate between three main groups of stressors for the horse:
physical - organic - mental.
The groups can 'interact', one leads to the other or several groups
are involved; the original stressor is often not to find.
Samples for each group:
physical: exercise & deprivation of,
weather, hunger
organic: pain, disorders, diseases, starvation
mental: all environmental stressors: change of location, weather,
boredom, human
Stress is first of all initiated by a strong demand on physical and
psychological exertion/demand and it's effects/impact. As long as
the body can handle stressful situations without suffering health
impairment, stress is mostly unproblematic. Some stress researchers
title negative stress as Dis-Stress. Not overstraining stress
they call Eu-Stress. Destructive Stress is an imbalance
between demands and the personal ability and resources (i.e.
achievement potential, time, demands), and the desire to accomplish.
Stress can result due to underutilization/underchallenge,
which lead to inadequate and self destroying behaviors. By
destructive stress the balance between natural adaption process
towards the stressor is disturbed. The stress balance become
negative. The body doesn't get out of his (constant) alarm
"alarm condition". The stressed being becomes more afraid
and and at the same time more aggressive, which is a mixture
with health risks.
Stressors are constantly around, the question is how often and how
they are being perceived. That is not necessarily depending on the
individual potential and ability to deal with the demands, in other
words, it is not depending on if a human or animal can handle it for
a long period of time, BUT if human/animal can do something to
change the stressful situation and it's triggering condition. Is
this possibility blocked or not possible, or it doesn't go over into
active stress management, then the disaccord between demand and
coping is too high; fear, inner tension, helplessness etc are
developing. If these situations are not being realized, they can
trigger the aggression towards other beings to simply "let
steam off" or lead to self-destruction.
Potential
Stressors for Human and
Animal
top
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Human
|
Animal |
- noise
- over stimulation through TV,
radio, video games
- traffic jams
- waiting periods
- bad weather
- cold
- heat
- pain
- boredom
- trouble with neighbors
- rudeness
- critic
- worries
- liabilities
- grief
- work place problems
- excessive work or family related
loads
- high demands
- unfulfilled desires
- expectations
- low ability to work/live under pressure
- perfectionisms
- fear
- guilt
- nutritional condition
- hunger
- isolation
- imagining a threat or remembering a dangerous event
- illness
|
- transport
- change of feed
- change of barn
- bringing together animals of different regional
provenance
- noise/high frequency sounds
- excessive work load
- hierarchy
- illness
- the human
- pain
- boredom
- cold
- heat
- humidity
- fear
- nutritional condition
- pregnancy
- immunization
- crowding
- hunger
- isolation
- remembering a dangerous event
- danger
- confinement
|
top
Reactions
to Stress?
At stress conditions the consciousness goes
back to proven, routine action strategies. Something new is related
to experiences and known. Creative solutions usually are not
developed.
Complexity goes down to simple yes/no and black/ white decisions. A
self-protection, a kind of service according to regulation in the
"work routine", sets in, unconsciously, to be able to
handle all the requirements.
The body reacts to stress situations after well-approved schemes,
like millions of years ago when our ancestors were still hunters;
and the animals, as mostly still today, still inhibited their
original instincts. Flight, fight, and "paying-dead" is
the basic design of these instincts.
The organism mobilizes all reserves at short notice. Stress hormones
are being released.
They engage energy reserves like sugar and fat, increase the blood
pressure and the pulse frequency, accelerate the breathing. The
muscles get prepared for performance. Strain is the consequence
which is a main indicator of stress.
Other functions are driven down like the immune defense, the
digestion and sexual functions.
This is accompanied by a reduction of the endogenous regenerative
functions.
At work or in school, for the bird in the cage, for the horse in the
stall, these triggered physical reactions don't lead to adequate
physical activities. Under chronic stress the organism/body tries to
adapt with increasingly more new mobilization processes, which are,
however, of no use for him in forced surroundings like office,
stable and cage.
"At some point, if the underlying conflict
is not resolved, the body may allow the condition to progress to the
next level the 'Stage of Disease'. At this point the symptoms and
sign become more defined, a specific organ or organ system becomes
involved, laboratory tests become abnormal. The physician now knows
where he and the patient stand. For the first time we are in the
realm of standard medicine. The stomach pain is now an ulcer. The
chest pain is now angina. The cold turns into pneumonia."
vgl. Abb. Müller-Limmroth
1981
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Negative
Stress - Relating to Human and Animal
|
Cognitive Level
|
Emotional Level
|
Vegetative-hormonal Level
|
- Blackout
- concentration problems
- day dreaming
- "thinking"
bloackades
- twirling of thoughts
- negative thinking
- memory problems
- rigidity
- denial of/out of touch with
reality
- performance failure
- nightmares
- perceptual deferrals
|
- anger
- insecurity
- discontentedness
- dissatisfaction
- mood changes
- nervousness
- agitated
- fear
- scariness
- panic
- aggression
- aggression readiness
- depressed
- apathy
- hypochondria
|
- dry mouth
- closed throat
- weak on the stomach/nauseated
- tears
- soft knees
- blood vessels swell instantly
- chest pain/pressure
- cardiovascular complaints
- heart racing
- high (labile) blood pressure
- elevation heart attack risk
- digestive system ulcer due to
high acid production of stomach
- dyspepsia
- gastritis
- sleep rhythm probelms
- chronic tiredness
- low immune system
- changes of des
cholesterol levels
- skin changes
- high perspiration
- dizzy spells
- difficulties of breathing
- migraines
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|
Muscular Level Human
|
Muscular
Level Horse |
|
- frozen mimic
- finger drumming
- teeth grinding
- foot tapping
- tension headaches
- back-, headaches
- fist cramping
- stuttering
- facial grimace
- nervous gesture
- general tension
- quick tiring
- quick cramping
- muscle shivering, ticks
- inability to relax
|
- pawing
- knocking
- itchiness
- rubbing
- wind sucking
- weaving
- cribbing
- tension
- lameness
- lip curling
- biting
- kicking
- nervous tail wiping
- quick tiring
- quick cramping
- muscle shivering, ticks
- inability to relax
|
|
Typical
Stress Disorders
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Chronic
Stress
"Since the underlying
conflict is not resolved, the condition cannot be cured. It comes
and goes, remissions and exacerbations or it continues to progress
until it finally reaches the next stage, Chronic Disease. At this
point finding the cause will no longer reverse the process as it
did earlier. It can, however, significantly reduce the
consequences and it can stop the process from moving toward death.
Once the stress-illness process reaches the earliest stages of
chronic disease the process is well on its way to loss of
reversibility. This loss of reversibility means that it can no
longer be cured by simply solving the original problem. Now the
disease process takes on a life of its own entirely separate from
its cause."
Chronic stress is leading to tiredness and
exhaustion, known under the term 'burnout-syndrome'. Wrong
environmental structures are a medium for chronicle stress,
too. The level of exhaustion is rising rapidly under prolonged
stress.
This chronic stress can lead to the next level, the so called
'posttraumatic stress syndrome'. Physical and emotional stress
symptoms don't wear off right away. The organism needs long
periods, to find its balance. After very high stress phases it can
take months, in the worst it won't go down anymore. In some cases
it leads to death. For human it is advised to seek psychiatrically
help quickly. For animals, suffering from 'posttraumatic stress
syndrome', help is often too late and not possible.
You see, the
factor STRESS has an immense impact like neuropathic pain onto the
body. What does it do to the immune system? Let's go to the next
page.
prior page
top
References:
Depression & Schmerz, Walter E. Müller, Stephan Volk, 2003
Lingua Med;
Stress-Management. Das WAAGE-Programm, Stollreiter u.a., Beltz
Verlag 2000;
Stress Echocardiography, Eugenio Picano, 2003 Springer
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