Stress is an integral part of our lives. Thanks to this condition, the resistance of the human body to negative factors can not only decrease, but also increase. Distress is completely different. This condition has an extremely detrimental effect on the human body. It is about this phenomenon that will be discussed in this article.
Stress, distress, eustress
A well-known world-famous physician and biologist, as well as director of the International Institute for Stress in Montreal, Hans Selye, proposed distinguishing between such polar stress functions. 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 person occurs. But distress is, of course, a harmful condition for a person. The word itself translates 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 concept of stress and offers the so-called code of morality, or code of conduct, following which you can maintain a normal level of tension, realize your natural potential, express your "I".
Thus, the state of stress that activates and mobilizes the body is called stress. With this, everything is clear. What is distress? This condition is characterized by excessive stress, in which the body is not able to adequately respond to environmental requirements.
Eustress condition
Being in this state, a person experiences a loss of balance. Moreover, 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-lived; during it, “shallow” adaptive reserves of the personality are actively lost. This is manifested by problems in communication (speech becomes confused, a person cannot clearly formulate and express his thoughts), temporary memory lapses, somatic reactions (short-term darkening in the eyes, a rush of blood to the skin, heart palpitations, etc.). But at the same time, the mental functions of the person (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 adversely affects the body, a disorganizing effect on human behavior and activity. This phenomenon can cause dysfunctional and pathological disorders. Distress is a destructive process that is characterized by a deterioration in the flow of psychophysiological functions. As a rule, such an overstrain is a prolonged stress in which all adaptation reserves are mobilized and spent (both “superficial” and “deep”). Often a similar reaction of the body goes into mental illness: psychosis, neurosis.
Causes
Distress is a condition that develops as a result of:
prolonged inability to satisfy their physiological needs (lack of air, food, water, heat);
unusual, inappropriate living conditions (for example, forced living in the mountains, where the air concentration differs from the usual);
body damage, illness, injury, prolonged pain;
prolonged negative emotions.
Effects
Naturally, this state of health is not beneficial. The tension during distress becomes very strong, excessive fussiness and inhibition appear. It is difficult for a person to control attention, he is distracted by any little things that begin to annoy. Often, he unnecessarily fixes his attention on something. Solving a problem, a person cannot find a way out and for a long time goes in cycles in it. Also, with distress, memory impairment occurs. Even after reading a simple text several times, a person cannot remember it. Deviations in speech also develop: the patient “swallows” words, stutters, the number of interjections, parasitic words increases. The quality of thinking is deteriorating, only simple mental operations are preserved during distress. There is a narrowing of consciousness: the patient stops responding to humor. It is not recommended to joke with a person in this state - he simply will not understand the jokes.
Respiratory distress syndrome
This is a very severe manifestation of respiratory failure, in which hypoxia, non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema, impaired external respiration develops. 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 a person's life. Such a reaction may develop due to:
viral, bacterial, fungal pneumonia;
sepsis;
prolonged and pronounced anaphylactic or septic shock;
aspiration of water, vomit;
chest injuries;
inhalation of toxic and irritating substances (chlorine, ammonia, phosgene, pure oxygen);
pulmonary embolism;
venous fluid overload;
burns;
autoimmune processes;
overdoses of drugs.
Symptoms
This condition is characterized by a sequential change of stages that reflect pathological changes in the lungs:
Stage 1: in the first 6 hours after exposure to the stress factor, there are no complaints, clinical changes are not determined.
Stage 2: after 6-12 hours, an increase in shortness of breath, cyanosis, tachycardia develops, a cough with foamy sputum and streaks of blood appears, the oxygen content in the blood decreases steadily.
Stage 3: after 12-24 hours, breathing becomes bubbling, foamy pink sputum is released, hypercapnia and hypoxemia increase, central venous pressure rises, arterial pressure decreases.
Stage 4: arterial hypotension, atrial fibrillation, severe tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, pulmonary and gastrointestinal bleeding, and creatinine and urea levels increase. The result is oppression of consciousness and coma.
Treatment
Distress syndrome is treated only in the intensive care unit. First of all, you need:
eliminate stressful damaging factor;
correct hypoxemia and acute respiratory failure;
eliminate multiple organ violations.
Therapy is successful only in the early stages of the disease, until irreversible damage to the lung tissue has occurred.