personal blog

a. What are the major causes of stress in your life? What coping strategies do you use, and what could you do to deal with stress more effectively?

Some of the major causes of stress in my life mainly include issues that I encounter at school. Since I take advanced courses, I am constantly under the stress to do a lot of homework each night, as well as prepare for multiple AP tests. I put a lot of pressure on myself to get high scores on all of my tests and quizzes, and easily stress myself out. In addition, applying to colleges has also added a lot of stress to my life. I want to make sure that I send out all of my transcripts on time, as well as be accepted into a college! I stress everyday about when my acceptance or rejection letters will come, and whether or not my college essay and scores will be good enough to get me into the schools that I want to get into. Also, I get easily stressed out by my friends. I feel as though I fall out of friendships and cannot trusts people sometimes, and fight to make sure that I am not left out. It should not stress me out but I always want to make sure that I am accepted by my peers. I put pressure on myself to make sure that I am always "in the loop" and it takes a big toll on me. Lastly, I sometimes find myself stressing out about my family. I do not want to leave them when I go to college, and also there are fights that occur in my family that are not quickly resolved. Some of the coping strategies I use are just going on long drives to clear my mind and also getting enough sleep and watching my favorite television shows. I could deal with stress more effectively by expressing what is on my mind more, rather than keeping it to myself so that I do not keep it all bottled up and take action about what bothers me.

b. Examine your film notes and homework notes. After watching the film and reading the article about stress, explain why stress is so dangerous to your health in a variety of ways. Why do you think America leads the world in stress-related diseases?

Stress is so dangerous to your health in a variety of ways because it causes the walls of people's arteries to become damaged and also restricts blood flow which will ultimately cause heart attacks. In addition, chronic stress can kill brain cells and it affects the ability for a person to remember things. Also, chronic stress impacts body weight and shape because stress impacts the way that fat is distributed and leads to more weight in the abdominal region. Chronic stress is also damaging to chromosomes since it will cause the telomeres, which are located at the ends of chromosomes to diminish and causes earlier aging. In addition, America leads the world since status affects stress and currently the world is highly focused on competition these days.