新综合教程 第三册 教学课件 熊选琴 刘重霄Unit 8 3 U8.pptVIP

Unit 8 Text A: Stress--Signs and Symptoms, Causes and Effects The body’s stress response can be helpful at times. Positive stress allows you to meet deadlines, generate new ideas or survive physical danger by producing exhilaration, motivation and energy. Even if you’re scared, you may enjoy the thrill of skiing down a mountain in deep powder or the excitement of having a baby. The stress response often helps athletes perform better in competition than in practice. Stress is so important that inadequate stress levels can actually produce symptoms similar to depression. Stress is necessary for our mental and physical well-being and our body responds in an appropriate way. This response is meant to protect and support us. To maintain stability, the body is constantly adjusting to its surroundings. When a mental or physical event threatens this equilibrium, we react to it. We prepare for physical action in order to confront or flee a threat; this enabling human nature to survive. Our ancestors responded to stressful ordeals and survived. Millions of years later, when you face a situation that you perceive as challenging, your body automatically goes into overdrive, engaging the stress response. Immediately, you release the same hormones that enabled cave people to move and think faster, hit harder and hear more clearly than they could only seconds earlier. Like theirs, your heartbeat speeds up; your blood pressure increases; your breathing quickens. Our experience of stress is generally related to how we respond to an event, mentally or emotionally rather than physically and not to the event itself. When it is part of a natural reaction to challenge or danger, for example “fire or accident”, then the body’s response is called “positive stress”. However when you feel out of control or under intense pressure, you may experience the physical, emotional or relational symptoms brought on by “negative stress”. These are the signs of stress that you need to re