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Date: April 18 MON
Time: 3:00pm
Stress Rating: 9/10
Reason: I missed my mom, I have to take an online class, I didn’t get into MSU, and I have to come back to K next year. The Psych test didn’t help either
Symptoms: Depression, sadness, self-isolation, resentment, feelings of worthlessness
Thoughts: There was a lot going on.

 Date: April 19 TUE
Time: 12:50
Stress Rating: 6/10
Reason: The exam, primarily before taking it in class when we didn’t start immediately
Symptoms: anxiety, neuroticism, head ache, nausea, bloody nose shortly after, jittery
Thoughts: I don’t take tests well

Date: April 20 WEDN
Time: 9:00 pm
Stress Rating: 5/10
Reason: I was with my new friend and his friends who I didn’t know were talking to him and he didn’t introduce me
Symptoms: awkwardness, exclusion, anxiety
Thoughts: he also is attracted to me, which I feel weird about in general

Date: April 21 THRS
Time: 1:30 pm
Stress Rating: 3/10
Reason: Daisy wasn’t in class and was fighting w her ex bf. I was concerned
Symptoms: Concern, anxiety
Thoughts: I worry about my friends when things aren’t going well in certain aspects


Date: April 22 FRI
Time: 9:00pm
Stress Rating: 5/10
Reason: Heard my friend Jenny was mad at me
Symptoms: anxiety, resentment
Thoughts: I feel a little betrayed

Date: April 23 SAT
Time: 6:00 pm
Stress Rating: 7/10
Reason: At dinner I got into a fight with my friend, Jenny
Symptoms: anger, guilt, anxiety, isolation, nausea
Thoughts: I’m trying not to think about it too much. I am verbally a monster, however.

Date: April 24 SUN
Time: 3:00 am
Stress Rating: 6/10
Reason: I made a drunken girl upset
Symptoms: guilt, anxiety, concern, social disapproval
Thoughts: I had no idea how I made her cry

Date: April 25 MON
Time: 11:45 am
Stress Rating: 3/10
Reason: Waking up with hang over
Symptoms: head ache, increased anxiety, nausea
Thoughts: I was out very late



A.	TUESDAY 4/19, WEDNESDAY 4/20, THURSDAY 4/21: Write about your life in the future.  Imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly could.  You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all of your life goals.  Think of this as the realization of your life dreams.  Again, do not worry about punctuation or grammar, just really let go and write as much as you can about the experience. (If you are writing about experiences that you do not wish to share with me, you may fold and staple this assignment and I will not read it.)


Tuesday
I want to be someone like Berta Griffin, my old epidemiology teacher. She is the most intelligent person I know, she has a family, she’s so funny, she’s so compassionate and she has had so much success in her field. Her field is there specifically to be helping people who need it. I want to be as proud of my body as she is. She’s vegan. I wish I had her same self-control. I wish I could have it together like she does. She makes it easy and it’s discouraging in that way. All I want to do is be like her when I go into the world on my own. I don’t want much more than what she has, because I don’t want to be greedy. I don’t want anything more than what she has because I want to live sustainably.

Wednesday
If everything in my life went as well as it could, I’d cure AIDS. I’d find a way to get people who are less privileged access to healthcare. I’d make industrialization ethical and environmentally feasible. Most of all, I’d make sure that no LGBTQIA child has to grow up in a world that tells them that they are defective or that they are anything but special. I’d buy my mom a big house because she’s earned it. I’d take her to Europe because she’s always wanted to go. I’d live modestly and be happy.

Thursday
When things start to go well in my life, I’ll have a boyfriend. I’ll love him and he’ll love me and we’ll be able to start a family without adoption taking several years. I’d be able to provide for my family so they could have all of their favorite things. I’d be able to take time off to see my family as much as I wanted to. I’d see my mother more than I do at college. Everyone in my family would be healthy and happy and wouldn’t have to worry about things like money or bullies or diseases. If everything was perfect, I would have gotten to know my Grandma Ann and Aunt Faye better. People wouldn’t get sick from smoking cigarettes like they did. I’ll stop that someday.



B.	FRIDAY 4/22, SATURDAY 4/23, SUNDAY 4/24, and MONDAY 4/25: Engage in an activity that you believe helps you relieve stress.   Complete the same activity Friday and Saturday – if you find that your chosen activity does not help you relieve stress, you may switch your activity for Sunday & Monday.  If the activity that you’ve chosen is relieving stress, you may stick with the same activity for all 4 days.


Friday
To be honest, I took a lot of Ativan that night. I smoked a cigarette or two. I self-medicated because I was sad and stressed. The act didn’t help based on how little fun I had that night and how much of a head ache I had in the morning. It ruined part of my Saturday, so it was not an effective way of dealing with stress and is also not effective in dealing with depression.

Saturday
In the morning, I felt very sick and slept for a while longer than usual. I had hoped to spend most of the day asleep to get away from all of the feelings and stress I had. It was very effective. However, it was also extremely unproductive and was not helping my stress get any better. Rather than getting my work done, confronting my problems or doing something productive, I decided to just forget the time with sleep. I usually get up at 9:00am, so this is also very out of character for me.

Sunday
I tried sleeping again, but I couldn’t because of my roommate (and the fact that it wasn’t helping anything). So I decided to not seclude myself when I was sad. I surrounded myself with as many friends and distractions as I could. I kept busy, I messed around and I socialized. It was actually the best idea yet. I had homework for my Monday class that I was able to do because I was social with a friend from my class. The work is a lot easier when other people help, I just never feel okay with asking people for help.

Monday
I went to class like usual, taking up part of my day. It was 2:30pm when I got out of science and religion that I remembered I was trying to be social to deal with things. So I asked my friend Hannah to go to stacks with me. It was fun and I didn’t spend any time worrying. Later, I hung out with my friend Garrett to pass the time. It wasn’t very stressful all together. It worked pretty well when I applied it for a second day.



C.	TUESDAY 4/26, WEDNESDAY 4/27: Meditate/Relax.  Following the same technique that we use in class on 4/26, tense and relax your body, and focus on your breathing.

Tuesday
I tried to relax and meditate when I was in the most stressful part of doing my work, but every time I kept thinking about things like friends from home I miss or people I haven’t been good to. It’s kind of hard to meditate in the library because you always hear little sounds that you can’t really filter out, as opposed to big sounds in a general place. It also didn’t work in class because I was still kind of antsy from my daily meds.

Wednesday
I tried to meditate while I did my paper. I started at 7:00pm so I could take my time or go to bed early. It was nice to take breaks between writing and just grab a coffee or smoke outside. Taking my time is a luxury I only get on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. I realize now that meditating isn’t always some sort of Zen activity. Sometimes it’s just doing things in a way that allows you to catch up to yourself.


1. Apply the Lazarus and Folkman model to Part 1 of your journal.  Describe your primary and secondary appraisal of at least one event.  Is the event stressful due to personal factors or situational factors or both?

2. Were there factors that buffered the effects of these stressors?  What were they?  Why do you think they reduced your perceptions of stress?

3. Did perceived control play a role in your perception of stress?

4. Discuss each relaxation strategy used in Part 2.  What worked for you?  What didn’t work?  Are you likely to try any of these strategies again when you encounter stress?
















1. Apply the Lazarus and Folkman model to Part 1 of your journal.  Describe your primary and secondary appraisal of at least one event.  Is the event stressful due to personal factors or situational factors or both?


Date: April 18 MON
In my primary appraisal, I saw my stressor as multiple things. My main stressor would have to be reading the email that told me I didn’t get accepted to MSU for next year. To me, the situation meant that my future was ruined. I assessed the situation as my life going into a direction I didn’t want it to go. Other stressors also stacked onto this, which was very bad. My secondary appraisal was very negative, where I assessed the situation as the end of the world. I thought that I couldn’t keep going without my mom and that I couldn’t keep going to K. This could be seen as a threat, but is most likely a harm-loss. The situational fact is that I had a psychology test the next day. The personal factors, like missing my mother, disliking K and not getting into my expected school were the main factors.
There were few factors that buffered these stressors, as I was alone at the time and I had no intention of seeking out control. Instead, I cried, which can be a viable way of dealing with stress once and a while. I didn’t call my friends to get comfort and I didn’t look on the bright side. There was no meditation involved because I didn’t want to control my feelings. It felt good to let it out.
In this event, there was no control or concept of control.
Date: April 19 TUE
In my primary appraisal, the stressor was the psychology test. I assessed this as important and very relevant to me. The anxiety of needing to get good grades so I can transfer was weighing on me and there were several parts of the brain that I still didn’t understand. To me, this was a threat. It threatened my whole life plan. My secondary appraisal was screaming failure at me. We will see how the test went.
The factor that buffered my stress and anxiety would have to be reassurance by my friend Chloe. Instead of losing my mind, I would hear her say things that made me feel like her equal. I felt smart being compared to her. I also thought she was very funny, which made the impact a lot less negative. However, I don’t know if you can call Chloe a control, because I didn’t control that she happened to be next to me. She did buffer my stress, though.
Date: April 23 SAT
During my fight with my friend, my primary appraisal was that this was both a threat and a challenge. I saw this fight as necessary to keep my good social standing with my friend group but also as a challenge to my shade throwing abilities. These were almost 100% personal factors that went into the event happening. However, you could call the stressor my ‘situation.’
A big factor that buffered my stress would be my friends intervening. They ended the stressor and also helped me understand that I needed to relax. When they told me to stop fighting with her, I saw my need for social acceptance redirects my intentions. A big buffer was my empathetic nature. Seeing that I was upsetting her made me want to stop.