STRESS
Problem. What causes you to feel sick when an illness strikes?
Background. There is a great difference between feeling sick and being sick. Being sick means that some part of the body is being damaged by an infection, a wound, or a deficiency of some kind.
Feeling sick is different. When you feel sick you have a headache, a fever, or some other discomfort. You feel this way when you are getting any of a number of diseases.
Explanation. Dr. Hans Selye noticed that sick people generally complain of the same symptoms when they first contract a disease. Selye wondered what causes these symptoms and why they were similar for so many diseases.
After years of research, he discovered that these feelings of sickness have many causes. They are not limited to physical causes. Emotional factors seem to cause many of the same symptoms. Fear, excitement, anger, or great enthusiasm can cause the symptoms as easily as a cold virus. Selye called all these causes stress.
He performed many experiments on rats. In each, he subjected a group of rats to intense cold, or a virus, or a frustrating situation, and certain reactions developed. The most noticeable were stomach disorders, an enlarged adrenal cortex, and shrunken lymph structures.
Selye realized that these three reactions could be caused by any stress. Continued stress, however, brought about a second reaction; the internal symptoms disappeared! In cases where there was no disease, but there was stress, the body apparently was able to adjust to the stress and continue to function efficiently. Selye concluded that the body can accustom itself to stress and, if the stress is not too severe, can continue to function.
Selye also found that rats cannot tolerate stress forever. If stress is too severe, they eventually die. Fortunately, people are seldom required to tolerate such extreme degrees of stress.
Most people often experience the first two reactions to stress. Your feeling of sickness when you are first catching cold is your reaction to stress.
You have often experienced the second phase of the stress reaction, too. Remember when you got your "second wind" during a tiring game or long period of activity? That was an adaptation to stress.
Today, doctors are finding out more and more about Dr. Selye’s concept of stress. The more they learn, the better they can treat patients who are experiencing one of the three degrees of stress.
Adolescent Skin - Part 2
Acne. Many teen-agers are never troubled by acne. Their skin does not produce enough oil to cause the pimples. Unfortunately, the people who do have the problem have no sure cure for it. There are several general practices that can reduce the problem, however.
Care of Acne
- Wash the face gently with soap and water. Do this as many as five times a day.
- Avoid creams and cosmetics that contain oil.
- Because some foods may affect the condition, avoid greasy foods, chocolate, pastries, and roasted nuts.
- If you want to use any medication, consult your doctor for his advice and recommendations.
- Avoid periods of emotional tension or poor health. These conditions can cause a flare-up.
- In the event of severe acne, see a skin specialist, or dermatologist, as acne can leave disfiguring scars.
- Do not pick or squeeze blackheads and pimples, as this can cause infections and is likely to cause more painful and larger pimples.
Reactions to cosmetics. Girls your age begin thinking of using cosmetics.
of one sort or another Sometimes girls find that cosmetics when applied tastefully, help to cover blemishes. Sometimes it becomes "the thing to do" to wear cosmetics.
You should know that some people’s skin is irritated by cosmetics. These people develop dermatitis, or skin inflammation, from the cosmetics. Their skin almost always becomes red, swollen, or blistered where cosmetics are applied. They can avoid this reaction by avoiding cosmetics. If the condition persists, they can consult a doctor.
Promoting attractive skin. Because appearance is so important to most teen-agers, the skin problems mentioned above may sometimes seem like great tragedies. You can save yourself much worry by treating these conditions properly.
Skin conditions, such as acne, pimples, blackheads, and oily skin are normal for some teen-agers and not for others. If you have one of these conditions, you can improve both the condition and your state of mind by not worrying about the particular blemish. Worrying only makes the skin condition worse, and it certainly does not help to make you appear pleasant and attractive. By taking care of your skin, taking special problems to a doctor, and not worrying about skin blemishes you can make the most of this temporary condition.
Think for Yourself
Why is the overuse of cosmetics bad for the skin of anyone who tends to have pimples or oily skin? Do you see a relationship between the use of cosmetics and the cause of acne?
First-Aid Kits
Making a kit. From your reading of this chapter, you know that many first-aid measures do not require any equipment. However, the cuts, scrapes, and scratches that occur in a large proportion of all accidents do need some treatment. You should remember that poisonings, sprains. wounds, and shock also require some equipment. You may need to have it handy.
A first-aid kit should be large enough to contain all of the supplies necessary to treat an emergency situation. It should be small enough to be portable, and inexpensive enough to be practical.
If you like, you can purchase a pre-packaged first-aid kit. You will probably need two kits, one for the home and one for the car. The following list of contents is intended as a basic guide and may be lengthened at the desire of any first-aider, provided that no items are dangerous.
Safety and First Aid
Did you know that you are safer in a jet plane than you are in your own home? Did you know that there are more people seriously injured in home accidents than in industrial and automobile accidents? These facts are not startling when you consider the number of opportunities for falls, poisonings, and burns in the average home.
The fast automobiles, pesticides, electric and gas appliances, and outdoor living that are so much a part of our daily lives create many dangerous situations that did not exist twenty years ago. Because you are living in an age of fast cars, mechanical gadgets, and new chemicals, your knowledge of safety and first aid is very valuable.
The accident rate in homes has been declining in recent years. Experts agree that knowledge of safety and first-aid practices can produce an even greater decline. This knowledge can help you to eliminate the causes for accidents in your home and can help you to provide first aid for anyone who may be an accident victim.
Can You Find Out?
From your doctor, local hospital, or Red Cross unit, find out what facilities your community offers for the treatment of accident victims. Whom would you call in case of poisoning? How would you contact an ambulance unit? Is there an emergency rescue team in your community? Make a list of the names, phone numbers, and locations of the people and organizations available for emergency treatment of accident victims of all kinds.
Maintaining Mental Health - Maintaining self-confidence
Maintaining self-confidence. Perhaps the most important sign of your mental health is your self-confidence. Young people often become discouraged and feel that they are failures. There are some good ways to help you avoid these periods of discouragement.
Being realistic. You need to set reasonable goals for yourself and then do your best to achieve them. For example, if one school subject seems more difficult than others, you may have to work diligently to keep up with the class in that subject. In spite of all that you can do, however, there may be times when you do not succeed in what you planned to do. This happens to everyone. But through your own efforts you can be successful most of the time.
Success can come only when you aim for what you can do, no more and no less. Your successes may not be great enough to put you at the top, but they will certainly give you a sense of satisfaction and help to give you a feeling of self-confidence.
Being realistic about what you are capable of doing does not mean, however, that you should feel satisfied with yourself and your accomplishments all the time. Most people do not work up to the level of their abilities. As you achieve each of your goals, keep moving each succeeding one farther and farther ahead. It is only in this way that you can improve your performance and achieve higher goals.
Think for Yourself
In what areas has it been easy to achieve the goals you set for yourself? In what areas has it been difficult?
Making an effort. Setting your goals will not insure your success; nothing can do that. Setting your goals is the first step to self-confidence. Making an effort is the second. If you allow discouragement or fear of failure to keep you from trying, you will never feel confident of your abilities. When you can continue to make an effort in the face of failure, you will find you have won respect for yourself and have gained self-confidence.
Personality and Mental Health
What is mental health? Mental health concerns feelings, attitudes, and abilities. It is the way a person reacts to other people and situations. A per — son’s mental health may be judged by two criteria , or tests. The first is the person’s ability to "fit in," or adjust, to different situations. The second is the person’s ability to accept or change situations which cause frustration. Perhaps this ability to accept situations which cause feelings of discouragement is the more difficult of the two. Both these abilities not only reflect a person’s mental health, but also are reflected in his personality.
Think for Yourself
Do you think that a person with good mental health always has good physical health?
What is personality? There are many definitions of personality. Most people use the word to mean the total impression a person makes on other people. It is the reflection of your habits, traits, feelings, abilities, and even your appearance. Part of your personality was formed by the time you were born. Part of it has not yet been formed. It is affected by your environment, or surroundings, and may change from time to time.
Often, people say, "He has a cheerful personality," or, "She has a quiet personality." These people are describing obvious personality traits. Actually, no one’s personality is simple enough to be described in a word, or in even a thousand words. Whole books, for instance, have been written about one person’s greed, temper, or dedication. You know that any of these qualities could form only a fraction of a person’s total personality.
Health of your personality. Have you noticed that mental health and personality are closely related? In a sense, your mental health is the health of your personality. Because your emotions, abilities, habits, and attitudes affect both, your attempts to improve one will probably improve the other. For example, if you improve your personality by becoming more tactful, you may find that you are better able to enjoy parties and social occasions as a result. In that case, your attempt to improve your personality would have improved your mental health, also.
Your Personality and Your Family
You probably know people who have pleasant “personalities,” others with little “personality,” and still others with unpleasant “personalities.” Perhaps you have thought about the reasons these people make the impressions they do. Have you discovered that people with good personalities show certain qualities and that people with poor personalities lack these qualities? Did you know that you can improve your personality?
These questions and many like them are important to people your age. Everyone knows how important it is to be well liked by his classmates and teachers. It is easy to see that a pleasant personality can make a person more successful at school and at home.
In this chapter you will learn some of the ways people can improve their personalities. You can also find out how teen-agers have learned to make themselves happier and more successful by improving their personal attitudes and habits.
