Four Degrees of Stress

Stresses are a real scourge of our time. They lie in wait for us everywhere: at work, in transport, in public places and even at home. But, as psychologists say, not the stress itself is terrible, but its inability to resist it.

Stress is always stress. As stress develops, so does tension. Psychologists distinguish four degrees of stress. The first degree is attention, activity. This is a very useful degree of stress, helping a person to concentrate and gather. It is not necessary to struggle with such tension.
The second degree is a stronger tension, for which more pronounced shifts and changes in the psyche are characteristic. When stress enters the second stage, all physiological processes are reconstructed in such a way as to help a person at any cost to solve the problem that has arisen. Such a reaction is very important in overcoming a critical situation.
But if the situation is not overcome, stress becomes the third degree of stress. At the third degree, all reactions become opposite to those at the second degree: oppression appears, reactions become slow, and energy resources are depleted. That is why the third degree of stress with prolonged exposure is very harmful to the body.
Psychologists note that in this state, a person needs support and participation especially. First of all, this participation should come from family members. They should help a person either overcome his problem, or at the time give up on her decision to give a breather to the body.

In the case when the urgency of the problem does not disappear, a fourth degree of stress may develop, which is already a neurosis. Manifestations of a neurosis can be many-sided: it can be masked by pains in the heart, stomach, increased or increased pressure, headache. Often a person with a neurosis, unaware of his illness, starts addressing various specialists who do not find anything from him. At best, they begin to treat manifestations of neurosis, and not the disease itself, which requires serious psychotherapy. It is the task of the psychotherapist to rid the patient of the unsolved problem that caused the overstraining, which led to the development of neurosis. Otherwise, such means as hypnosis, autogenic training and medications will only calm the patient, but not resolve his inner conflict.