Page 87 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

General Adaption Syndrome (GAS) Model of Stress 61

Stressor identified

Body produces - Adrenaline
Alarm Fight or flight response

Coping with the stress
Strains
Adapt environment
Demands
Resistance
Can’t keep up forever

Body Limited resources

Exhaustion Resources Gradually depleted
All resources - Depleted
Normal function - Unable to maintain
Capacity - Exhausted
Damage - Long term
Decompensation - Functional deterioration
Figure 3.2 Model of the general adaption syndrome

• Exhaustion stage : When an individual’s body is no longer
able to respond and recover and resistance are no longer
possible, a state of exhaustion will occur. This stage is
highly detrimental and can lead to death.
The GAS was one of the first models of stress, being
underpinned by the classic work of Cannon ( 1932 ): revealing
that when an individual is stressed, physiological systems are
activated in order to prepare for ‘fight of flight’ (Kemeny
2003 ). Although this process is beneficial to the individual in
the short term, it can become highly maladaptive if the
stressor becomes long term. Selye ( 1956 ), on the basis of the
‘fight or flight’ response, observed a number of animals and
their reaction to stressful situations, discovering that this
reaction was the beginning of a series of responses made by
the body and ultimately physiological collapse, or exhaustion
(see Fig. 3.2 ).