Reaction to stress

Emergency situations (ES) from a social and a biological point of view is a violation of stability, the integrity of the individual - the macro- and microsocial environment. Whether there will be a particular event of the emergency situation and how severe its consequences will be depends on many factors. The most important of them is the stressor's power. A significant role in the response of a person to an emergency belongs to a genetic predisposition. The significant factors that affect the ability to resist stress, include age. It is believed that only a small part of children (10%) have a low level of CNS reactivity, while the rest, on the contrary, is distinguished by high reactivity, so the reaction to stress in each individual will be different. The occurrence of mental disorders is also affected by premorbid. A special role is played by previous traumatization.

Whether a real emergency situation will be a stressor (stressor) depends on various factors: the factor of surprise or the expectation of occurrence of an emergency is of great importance. An unexpected emergency leads to significant losses, while the expected emergency situation makes it possible to reduce human losses and property damage to a minimum.

It should be emphasized that the primary role in the emergence of mental disorders is played not by the emergency itself (the degree of the real threat), but by how the person perceives it. Sometimes the reaction to stress can be unreasonable (for example, "chatter" in the airplane), but in spite of this, it exerts an extremely strong influence.

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How does the acute reaction to stress manifest itself?

As a rule, the emergence of a situation, familiar or to some extent predictable, a person responds to a whole reaction to stress - successive actions that ultimately lead to behavior. This reaction to stress is a complex combination of phylogenetic and ontogenetic patterns that are based on the instincts of self-preservation, reproduction, mental and physical personality traits, the representation of the person about one's own (desired and real) standard of behavior, the representations of the microsocial environment about the standards of individual behavior in one or another situation and the foundations of society.

In the life-threatening event, immediate response to stress, first of all, determines the instincts (preservation, continuation of the genus) and personality characteristics (mental and physical). The idea of a real and desirable standard of behavior, taking into account the microsocial environment, begins to be taken into account at later stages of the emergency response.

Mental disorders, which most often occur immediately after an emergency, form an acute response to stress. Two variants of this reaction are possible.

Most often the reaction to stress is an acute psychomotor agitation, manifested by superfluous, fast, sometimes non-purposeful movements. The facial expressions and gestures of the victim become excessively alive. There is a narrowing of the amount of attention, manifested by the difficulty of retaining in the circle of arbitrary purposeful activity a large number of representations and the ability to operate with them. Difficulty concentrating (selective) attention is found: patients are very easily distracted and can not ignore the various (especially sonic) interference, with difficulty perceive explanations. In addition, there are difficulties in reproducing the information obtained during the post-stress period, which is most likely due to the violation of short-term (intermediate, buffer) memory. The pace of speech is accelerating, the voice becomes loud, low-modulated; It seems that the victims are constantly talking in high tones. Frequently the same phrases are repeated, sometimes the speech begins to be a monologue. Judgments are superficial, at times devoid of meaning.

For victims with acute psychomotor agitation it is difficult to be in one position: they lie, then rise, then aimlessly move. There is a tachycardia, there is an increase in blood pressure, not accompanied by a worsening of the condition or a headache, facial hyperemia, excessive sweating, sometimes there are feelings of thirst and hunger. At the same time, polyuria and the rate of defecation can be detected.

The extreme expression of this option is when a person quickly leaves the scene, without taking into account the situation that has arisen. There are cases when during the earthquake people jumped out of the windows of the upper floors of buildings and crashed to death, when parents first of all saved themselves and forgot about their children (fathers). All these actions were due to the instinct of self-preservation.

With the second type of acute reaction to stress, there is a sharp slowdown in mental and motor activity. At the same time, there are derealizatsionnye disorders, manifested in a sense of alienation of the real world. The surrounding objects begin to be perceived as altered, unnatural, and in some cases - as unreal, "lifeless". Probably also a change in the perception of sound signals: people's voices and other sounds are deprived of their characteristics (individuality, specificity, "succulence"). There are also sensations of the changed distance between various surrounding objects (subjects that are at a closer distance are perceived more than they really are) - metamorphopsia.

Usually the victims with the considered variant of an acute reaction to stress sit for a long time in the same position (after an earthquake at their destroyed home) and do not react to anything. Sometimes their attention is completely absorbed by unnecessary or completely unusable things, i.e. There is hyperprosection, which is outwardly manifested by absent-mindedness and seeming disregard for important external stimuli. People do not seek help, they do not express their complaints during the conversation, they say in a low, low-modulated voice, and, on the whole, make the impression of emaciated, emotionally emasculated people. AD is rarely elevated, dull feelings of thirst and hunger.

In pronounced cases, a psychogenic stupor develops: a person lies with closed eyes, does not react to the surrounding. All reactions to the stress of the body are slowed down, the pupil is sluggishly reacting to light. Breath cuts, becomes noiseless, shallow. The body as it tries to protect itself as much as possible from the real reality.

An acute reaction to stress is primarily determined by the instinct of self-preservation, and in women, in some cases, the instinct of procreation is the forefront (ie, the woman seeks first to save her helpless children).

It should be noted that immediately after a person has experienced a threat to their own safety or the safety of their loved ones, in some cases, he begins to absorb a large amount of food and water. There is an increase in physiological needs (urination, defecation). The need for intimacy (solitude) disappears in the performance of physiological acts. In addition, immediately after the emergency (in the so-called isolation phase), the "right of the strong" begins to function in the relationship between the victims. Begins a change in the morality of the microsocial environment (deprivation of morality).