What is a stressor?
According to the medical-dicationary.com, stress is defined as an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures. When stress was first studied in the 1950s, the term was used to denote both the causes and the experienced effects of these pressures. More recently, however, the word stressor has been used for the stimulus that provokes a stress response. One recurrent disagreement among researchers concerns the definition of stress in humans. Is it primarily an external response that can be measured by changes in glandular secretions, skin reactions, and other physical functions, or is it an internal interpretation of, or reaction to, a stressor; or is it both?
During my childhood years, I went through a time when I had a stressor inmy life. When I was in the third grade, I was bullied by an older boy on my bus. He would ask me for candy everyday and I would bring it because he was very mean. He never hit me or anything but it was just emotional abuse. It was a while before I told my mom but when I did, it all stopped because she talked with the bus driver and let her know what was going on and never bothered me again. He just said that he was just playing with me but it didn't seem that way. That was the only stressor that I went theough as a child.
I had a friend in middle school who had a stressor called poverty. Poverty can have several different meanings. It's having little or no money and few or no material possessions. She struggled financially but me and my mom would always go and get her and spend lots of time with her. My mom would also buy her clothes and shoes and give her money. My mom was like a second mother to her. She even started calling my mom "mom. She wanted attention and she would cry out for it. In the 8th grade, she got pregnant and she stated that "now I'll have someone to love me" which was sad. She had a baby girl and her attitude got better and my mom still continued to help her. She is now doing great! Her daughter is now in middle school making good grades and she is doing a great job as a mom.
Everyone deals with stress in so many different. It was so fortunate your middle school friend had your family to comfort her and help her.
ReplyDeleteThe situation of bullies is escalating at an alarming rate. A young friend of mine, she is 14, has just dropped out of school and is being home schooled due to the bullying she encountered at school. Very sad, and a real problem!