The Wear and Tear of Daily Stressors on Mental Health

Abstract

Researchers assert that affective responses to seemingly minor daily events have long-term implications for mental health, yet this phenomenon has rarely been investigated. In the current study, we examined how levels of daily negative affect and affective reactivity in response to daily stressors predicted general affective distress and self-reported anxiety and depressive disorders 10 years after they were first assessed. Across eight consecutive evenings, participants (N = 711; age = 25 to 74 years) reported their daily stressors and their daily negative affect. Increased levels of negative affect on nonstressor days were related to general affective distress and symptoms of an affective disorder 10 years later. Heightened affective reactivity to daily stressors predicted greater general affective distress and increased likelihood of reporting an affective disorder. These findings suggest that the average levels of negative affect that people experience and how they respond to seemingly minor events in their daily lives have long-term implications for their mental health.

Psychological vulnerability to daily stressors in old age

“…a personal characteristic, such as age, gender, personality trait or health indicator, that might have an impact on the person's self-regulative skills and capacity to deal with everyday challenges and thus increases or decreases the person's stressor reactivity, is added to model (1) as a predictor interacting with S di −S. i [4,10,12,13,18,20,26,33,34,45,46].…”

“…This research interest is basically driven by the reasoning that a person's responsiveness to daily stressors, commonly termed reactivity [5], can be an indicator of vulnerability versus resilience. As such, reactivity may be indicative of a person's self-regulation skills and capacity to deal with the challenges of day-to-day life and, hence, may have long-lasting effects on individual health and well-being [1,9,10,31].…”

Acute and repetitive fronto-cerebellar tDCS stimulation improves mood in non-depressed participants

“…Prolonged levels of stress can precipitate the development of anxio-depressive symptomology (Charles et al 2013). With depression currently affecting some 350 million individuals worldwide (WHO 2016), the estimated financial burden of these conditions up until 2030 is more than £100 billion (Chisholm et al 2016).…”

Beam

“…Researchers have found that the way people respond to seemingly minor arguments and stress may have long-term implications that and can influence whether they suffer from psychological and mood disorders many years later. [1] Motivating people to do positive intentional activities and taking an active role in maintaining their mental health can increase long-term happiness and avoid more serious mental health problems. Random acts of kindness and positive self-reflection have been shown to be an effective way to amplify happiness and can have both short-term and long-term benefits.…”