The role of disbalance between “natural school” and informational overloading in genesis of stress reactions

Abstract

Data obtained during 15 years supervision over teenagers indicate the influence of the socialeconomic deformations of the former Soviet society. We use the term “natural school” to denote the whole ontogenesis of human beings including the first 3- to 5-year period of a child's life when children perceive a surrounding microcosm, their bodies and abilities, and acquire a basic fund of native language skills and habits. “Natural school” balances a person's mental and physical activities and through the trials and mistakes provides every person with a sphere of friends, important for coping with stress by sharing sorrows and joys. The twentieth century brought informational overloading, the triad, consisting of: (1) enormous mass of information; (2) deficit of time for using it; and (3) high motivation of activity. These conditions restrict the physical activity (hypodynamy) and contact with children of the same age (social deprivation). The influence over a person's development takes place mainly in ones youth, when one seeks his/her place in society. Subsequent stress situations cause the following psychopathological reactions: anxiety, anxiety and frustration, vegeto-dystonic reactions and somatic discomfort, panic attacks, neurosis. Later, disorders of autonomic regulations and somatic discomfort leads to psychosomatic diseases. Preventive measures, like skills minimizing hypodynamy and tools to improve “soul's confession” seem to be a way of minimizing disbalance and decreasing psychosomatic disorders.