ASSIGNMENT: COMPLETE THE PSY 215 MODULE 3 ACTIVITY UPLOADED BELOW.
DISCUSSION:
ASSIGNMENT: COMPLETE THE PSY 215 MODULE 3 ACTIVITY UPLOADED BELOW.
DISCUSSION:
Remember to respond to Rochelle and Brandy post while being respectful of and sensitive to their viewpoints. Consider advancing the discussion in the following ways:
Engage in conversation with your peers related to the sympathetic nervous system and anxiety, fear, and stress.
Consider asking a question or sharing your personal experience.
Rochelle Post
The Sympathetic nervous system is in control of the fight or flight response we feel when danger is imminent. This system can serve as a warning system that could keep us safe from harm if we react in due time. While the parasympathetic nervous system enlists the portion of our system that is responsible for calming and relaxation. It is essential to have the two in harmony. A harmonious nervous system is critical for our overall happiness, wealth, and welfare. These systems work in tandem with one another to keep us in balance. Too much of a reaction on one side or another could leave us either non-reactive to potential danger or not able to reach a state of calm to regulate our bodies’ respiratory, digestive, or heart during a false alarm and could insight a medical emergency.
One way a clinician or therapist might assist a patient in activating their parasympathetic nervous system is to teach their patient how to regulate their breathing by breathing in a way that engages their diaphragm “This stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system because it slows down your breathing. If you put your hand on your stomach and it rises up and down slightly as you breathe, you know you’re diaphragm breathing.”(Bernhard, 2011)
GAD or generalized anxiety disorder is when someone is worried or fearful about something that could “potentially” take place in the future, without having any certain knowledge of if it will or will not happen. Whereas a specific phobia or object phobia is great and intense fear about a specific situation or a specific object. When this person is in contact with the situation or object, they are often triggered in a way that looks like a panic attack. Therefore, they go to great lengths to avoid the stimulus of their phobia (Hooley, Nock, & Butcher, 2025)
I can see an anxiety disorder being positively impacted by self-care. According to an article in Everyday Health, one should work hard to keep their levels of anxiety low and less inclined to an anxiety attack by exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, meditating, getting good sleep, spending time with others, and participating in hobbies. (House, 2024) I also believe self-awareness could play a key role by being entuned to how you are feeling and your anxiety levels. This would allow seeking help before anxiety is full-blown and becomes debilitating.
Brandy Post
When there is balance within the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, we naturally slow down our pace of life, and we live in a more slow/calm state instead of living in a constant state of high alert and anxiety.
People with generalized anxiety mostly experience a general sense of worry about potentially bad things that may happen but has not happened. People with specific phobias experience more of a ‘fear’ response when they encounter the object (or situation) that they fear.
Parasympathetic fibers are spread throughout your lips so touching them (lightly running one or two fingers across your lips) stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system.
– THIS fact was the most exciting thing that I have learned this week!
With self-regulation being a key component of emotional intelligence, anxiety disorders can negatively impact emotional intelligence by making it hard to identify, understand and manage one’s emotions, which ultimately lead to difficulties in self-regulation.