2023-09-17 21:26:32
[김미선 상담학 박사] It is no exaggeration to say that modern people living in a rapidly changing information society with diverse relationships are exposed to stress at every moment. However, while there are people who overcome stress relatively well in the same event or situation, there are also cases where repeated stress cannot be tolerated and shows abnormal behavior or even leads to mental disorders. To explain this difference, psychology proposes a theory called the ‘vulnerability-stress model’.
This model states that the degree to which a person responds to psychosocial stress from the environment may vary depending on an individual’s temperament and emotional characteristics. In other words, genetic and psychological
Mi-seon Kim, Ph.D. in Counseling. It is said that mental disorders occur when psychologically vulnerable characteristics of an individual interact with stressful situations. Therefore, the ‘vulnerability-stress model’ argues that not only mental disorders and abnormal behavior should be considered not only due to stress from the external environment, but also personal characteristics that affect them.
The ‘stress pileup model’, derived from a similar context, specifically advocates a developmental perspective. This model acknowledges the role of genetics and temperament in vulnerability to certain stresses, but emphasizes that repeated exposure to trauma in childhood triggers vulnerability to certain stresses. This is because people who are continuously exposed to severe stress due to physical and emotional abuse from a young age have abnormalities in the function that regulates stress hormones, making them vulnerable to stress.
Additionally, accumulated stress weakens the functional connectivity between the amygdala, which regulates human emotions, and the prefrontal cortex, which makes rational judgments. Stress hormones paralyze the prefrontal cortex, which enables logical thinking to solve problems, and stimulate the amygdala, which controls past anxiety and fear memories, resulting in abnormal behavior. Due to extreme fear and anxiety, impulse control weakens, causing people to say things they will soon regret and express extreme actions.
Our mind is merely a representation that recognizes the reality we face, rather than reality itself. Distorted representations formed from negative experiences in childhood continue to affect people as adults, and even though they are now adults who can protect themselves, they are easily overwhelmed by childhood traumatic experiences when similar situations unfold. An anxious mind and a tense body cause stress levels to rise even over trivial matters.
In order to treat this, it is necessary to first take an introspective approach to one’s own emotions, thoughts, and actions that react maladaptively to vulnerable stressful events due to past trauma. When you calm your mind with deep breathing and comfort your wounds, the amygdala, which stimulates fearful emotions, calms down and the prefrontal cortex, the rational brain that can judge the situation efficiently, becomes activated. I convince myself that I no longer need to feel anxious and stressed like this. Instead of following old habits and hurting yourself and those around you, you take thoughtful actions appropriate to the situation.
In this way, the introspective ability to look into and understand one’s own mind heals the closed mind little by little, correcting distorted representations and creating a new path for the mind. As this ability is trained, self-control improves, relationships become more comfortable, and confidence grows when taking on challenges in the world. She overcomes her stress by accepting the tasks and situations with gratitude and loving herself. This is because the old brain, which was a ‘reactive brain’ to emotions, has changed into a ‘reflective brain’ that stops and thinks about why something happened.
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