physical stress

Infertility and Psychological Stress

Infertility and Psychological Stress

The belief that infertility is a psychologically mediated condition is long-standing. As an example, the Bible (1 Sam 1:1-28) describes Hannah, wife of Elkanah, as despondent and anorexic; she conceives only after she prays and is promised by a high priest that her wish will be granted.

As health care professionals developed the ability to diagnose and treat most cases of infertility, they began to view it as an organic condition. Some infertility patients were told that their stress level had nothing to do with their ability to become pregnant and some health professionals did not assess the psychological status of their patients. However, there is evidence that stress levels influence the outcome of infertility treatment, as well as contribute to patients’ decisions to continue treatment. Stress also affects patients’ reactions to pregnancy loss during infertility treatment and pregnancy complications. Moreover, psychological distress is associated with treatment failure and interventions to relieve stress are associated with increased pregnancy rates.

Stress is defined as a stimulus which produces mental tension or physiological reaction, for the purposes of this review, the experience of infertility is the stimulus. Distress is the experience of anxiety or suffering, for the purposes of this review, the experience of infertility leads to the suffering.

Clinically, the provider can assess stress by observation of the patient and inquiring about the patient’s emotional state. Research shows that the main sources of stress for infertility patients are the impact of infertility on their social life, their sexual health, and their relationships with their partner. Thus, questions which ask about each of these areas are recommended.

Psychological stress appears to be more common in the partner with the fertility problem. The prevalence of psychological stress in infertility patients was illustrated in a study that used a psychiatrist to conduct structured personal interviews with 112 infertile women who were being seen for their first infertility clinic visit prior to medical evaluation. Forty percent of the patients met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder; the most common diagnosis was an anxiety disorder (23 percent), followed by major depressive disorder (17 percent).

The level of stress in infertility patients tends to increase as treatment intensifies and as duration of treatment continues. Therefore, a population of in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients would be expected to experience more stress than women early in their infertility evaluation.

Many IVF patients report depressive symptoms prior to beginning their cycle, which likely reflects the impact of repeated, unsuccessful, less invasive forms of treatment, but may reflect a prior history of mood/anxiety disorders independent of infertility.

Since IVF is highly invasive and intensive, patient distress is not unanticipated. In fact, most IVF patients state that treatment is more of a psychological than a physical stressor. Nearly half of female IVF patients reported that infertility was the most upsetting experience of their lives. Most IVF patients report symptoms of depression, anxiety, anger, and isolation after unsuccessful treatment.

Since IVF is by far the most expensive and invasive form of infertility treatment, it is important to understand the impact of psychological distress on its outcome. It is concerning that the majority of patients report symptoms of anxiety and/or depression prior to commencing IVF treatment. If psychological distress can interfere with the success of treatment, and most patients report elevated levels of distress, then the impact of distress may be important.

As discussed above, distress is one reason that couples drop out of IVF programs before achieving a pregnancy.

Psychological interventions lead to a decrease in psychological symptoms and appear to increase pregnancy rates. The optimal approach to psychological intervention has not been determined. We suggest relaxation techniques, stress-management, coping skills training, and group support. Evaluation by a psychiatrist for consideration of pharmacotherapy is indicated in women with significant symptoms of anxiety or depression.

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Procrastination Psychology

Procrastination is a habit of not getting things done and delaying them. It can also be defined as “task aversion”. Procrastination is very difficult to understand. Many theories have been put forward to explain procrastination psychology, its results and its causes. Every one of us procrastinates at one point of time or the other, but still no two people give the same reason to procrastinate. Thus, procrastination psychology is relative.

Procrastination literally means to delay an action for an irrational time span. When our moms asked us to clean our room, or your teachers asked you to read the novel or our bosses asked us to complete the file, we all came up with the same answer, “not today, I will do it tomorrow”. It is procrastination psychology, when you know, you have to do the task, you can’t avoid it, and still you delay it for no reason. There can be reasons that you procrastinate, because you don’t like the task or the task is very difficult for you or it is very boring. But you must understand, it is all in your hands. If the task is boring, you make it interesting. For example, if your mother has given you a task of cleaning the room, which is very boring, you can always switch on some music in the background or if you find the task very difficult, you can always take the help of a friend or older sibling.

Procrastination psychology is very strange. It empowers us and keeps us stuck in “inaction”, but our mind is continuously working. We can’t afford to forget about the tasks, which we are not able to accomplish. Therefore, we suffer from mental stress. Mental stress is more severe than physical stress and that is the reason, most of the people who procrastinate, also suffers from depression.

We can say that the psychology behind procrastination is “Tomorrows favor “. In simple words, whatever task given to be completed, is never completed at that time, instead always waiting for “tomorrow”, to get it finished. As we all know, tomorrow never comes; the tasks get piled up, increasing the workload, ultimately leading to a severe problem.

One should remain focused, when it comes to finishing a task. It can really prove to be helpful. Time is very precious. Try and learn to value it. When you learn to value something, only then you can realize its importance. If that day comes maybe then you will quit your habit of procrastinating.

If you are setting and reading this article and you know you are a procrastinator then let that be the beginning of ending your procrastination.

Start by clicking below for more information on procrastination psychology and how to end it once and for all, you will see that accomplishing such a simple task will not hurt you and you will have completed the task of getting started.

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