11
votes
Is post-traumatic stress disorder preventable?
Beta blockers (β1-Blockers) lower norepinephrine release (Berg, 2014), however it seems that the jury is still out on whether there is an effective and ethical way to prevent Post-Traumatic Stress ...
- 11.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Is there any evolutionary theory for self-destructive behavior?
There are many different uses for the word "stress" that should not be confused with one another. For example, Self-destructive behaviour may be used to cope with psychological stress. Other ...
- 18k
7
votes
What cognitive processes occur during a mental exhaustion or 'burnout'?
One of the older theories suggested that a person literally runs out of brain-fuel when they hit the wall (Baumeister et al, 1998). They called this state "ego depletion" and it refers to the kind of ...
- 71
7
votes
Accepted
Does taking a deep breath reduce the experience of stress and negative emotions?
Yup; basically, it works. Varvogli and Darviri (2011) review research on diaphragmatic breathing, reporting:
Deep breathing has been successfully used to decrease the fatigue associated with ...
- 9,274
6
votes
What personality traits moderate the effects of trauma on empathy?
There is a large and diverse literature on this topic which paints a complex picture of the relationship between trauma and empathy.
Some studies have found significant trauma symptoms to be related ...
- 1,551
5
votes
Accepted
How to measure stress quantitatively?
When your goals is to measure one option over the other
As part of a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) study I also needed to measure cognitive load in order to assess whether a particular user ...
- 3,461
4
votes
Accepted
Provable ROI for call center rest periods?
This is the paper you would want to read on this topic. The paper empirically compares four modes of managing interruptions. It is a great (and long) read so I'll try to summarize the bit for you:
...
- 3,132
4
votes
Accepted
How do some humans seemingly naturally have positive or mitigated appraisal of stressful events?
The interactions among several factors probably account for variability in reactivity to stressful events, including genetics, epigenetics, early life experience, and culture (e.g., Alexander et al., ...
- 4,246
4
votes
Accepted
What is happening neurochemically when we seek to reduce stress by taking aggressive action?
So there's a lot of things to talk about here.
First off, there are many strategies one can use to regulate stress. James Gross, for example, has put forward an incredibly influential process model ...
- 4,246
4
votes
Accepted
Standardised test to measure workplace stress
Although it is not exactly stress, there are many self-rating scales for workload. The most popular one is the NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX; Hart & Staveland, 1988; see also here). The NASA-TLX ...
- 3,132
4
votes
What is the medical term for semi-mindless activities to help reduce anxiety? ... such as gardening, mowing, cleaning... perhaps driving
I have not been able to find any term, medical or non-medical, which includes the word asynchronous, but to add to the answer by @user20460 there is the non-medical term hobbies.
Taking part in ...
- 11.2k
4
votes
Is 'your mom will be sad' actually a good argument to pose to someone thinking of committing suicide?
As with many mental health concerns, the situation for each individual is unique and therefore what we do and how we deal with the concern is also unique. Nothing said in this answer is a hard and ...
- 299
3
votes
Is there any research about effect of unfamiliar environment on stress?
I have found the following
Older people's cardiac responses as indicators of stress in familiar and unfamiliar environments (Lewis & Phillips, 2012)
I also found:
Padilla, A. M., Alvarez, M., &...
- 11.2k
3
votes
How to counteract the deterioration of speech in stutterers by targeting sympathetic arousal?
The first line treatment for stuttering (I'm a stutterer myself) is speech therapy. Such therapies generally focus on helping stutterers to learn ways to minimize stuttering when they speak, such as ...
- 19.6k
3
votes
How to quickly estimate the person's level of stress with a mobile based relaxation app?
Anxiety and stress are very available states, and since you want to know how people currently feel (rather than some more implicit construct), you probably can't do much better than just asking them. ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
Can calmness happen during the fight-flight response?
With looking at the possibility of calmness during stress and trauma, you only have to look at the situation with rape victims and soldiers witnessing severe traumatic events who dissociate (Ellert, ...
- 11.2k
3
votes
How does listening to music decrease stress?
This may be happening due to beat entrainment. Different music genres have different beat and rhythm patterns. The ones that are calming will generally have a lower beat and rhythm frequencies. The ...
- 1,487
3
votes
Difference between anxiety and stress?
What is Anxiety?
Give this a read.
I like this explanation of anxiety best, however:
A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain ...
- 71
3
votes
Does stress impair your short term memory?
It really depends on the timing of the stressful event, as well as anticipation. From an evolutionary standpoint, "stress" developed for a reason in the context of heightened arousal, attention, ...
- 186
3
votes
Accepted
What is the medical term for semi-mindless activities to help reduce anxiety? ... such as gardening, mowing, cleaning... perhaps driving
I have read it mentioned as grounding- techniques or activities. Activities that pull you into the present, and, if possible, fulfill you by giving you the impression towards achieving a goal.
- 74
3
votes
Is there a mental health disorder related to a harmful lack of anxiety and stress?
Sociopaths (people with Antisocial Personality Disorder) report lower levels of anxiety and stress than the general population. Psychopathic traits tend to foster resiliency and are protective against ...
3
votes
Emotional Calculator; How can I mathematically show a decrease in anxiety using an emotional equation?
Attempting to reduce emotional responses to mathematics is likely in the realm of chaos theory.
Here is a great Robert Sapolsky Stanford lecture on Chaos versus Reductionism.
https://youtu.be/...
- 131
3
votes
Accepted
Can stress situations force people to smile?
In research (Ansfield, 2007)
Smiling when distressed was most prevalent in conditions in which participants reported the greatest emotional distress. Specifically, while viewing distressing videos, ...
- 11.2k
2
votes
Accepted
Why do we stress over the smallest things?
This is highly individual, and related to the personality trait neurotocism.
From wiki:
Individuals who score high on neuroticism are more likely than the
average to experience such feelings as ...
- 3,719
2
votes
How to measure your stress levels?
The term eustress was coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye, consisting of the Greek prefix eu- meaning "good", and stress, literally meaning "good stress".
There is also the Yerkes–Dodson law which ...
- 11.2k
2
votes
How does emotional stress cause skeletal muscle rigidity?
Short answer
The stress response included norepinephrine release, in turn increasing blood pressure. This may cause muscle tension.
Background
What an interesting question. To my surprise, I couldn'...
- 19.6k
2
votes
Is there any research about effect of unfamiliar environment on stress?
You may be interested in related research on how unfamiliar environments negatively affect sleep quality.
Tamaki, M., Bang, J. W., Watanabe, T., & Sasaki, Y. (2016). Night watch in one brain ...
- 76
2
votes
Can a positive change result in positive stress?
It sounds like you're looking for the word "eustress" or "good stress". Which isn't exactly a label of stress, which as commented is negative, but a positive perception of stress.
My favorite go to ...
- 843
2
votes
What causes muscle stiffness contraction and tension during stress
Presumably you to mean to ask what pathway mediates muscle tension. muscle tension is controlled by the reticular formation (in the brain stem), so it doesn't require anything special to happen in the ...
- 9,905
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible