Армен Мурадян - Male’s Health in the Objective of Stressology – Beyond the Usual

The state of stress outprice (when alone) produces self-generation of “echo-stress”. A thought is a stressor to which the brain responds by one of the components: anxiety, strain, or exhaustion. Each time recollections of events again trigger a stressor response, stressogenesis with some of its links dropping out, e.g., the orientation reflex, the anxiety stage. The psychophysiological response can be stipulated by one of the neuro-endocrinal axes of the anxiety phase, while as the stressor in this case can appear the cognitive senses (thoughts) of man. Since the end organs permanently receive the stress hormones, somatoform disorders acquire an organic basis. So, it is the presence of cognitive “echo stressor” that converts acute stress into chronic. The peculiarities of the brain and psyche based upon their rules and mechanisms make it possible to generate the interiorized (internal) distress ( neurophysiological term ) or intrapersonal conflict ( psychoanalytical term ) keeping man under condition of prolonged stress.

A stressor response, having a discrete nature, is manifested by functional disorders. Stressogenesis, due to the frequency of conscious flashback to the experienced trauma, actually becomes non-stop, resulting in increase of the degree of disrupting the homeostasis that in turn can lead to transition of functional disorders into the structural ones. As shown by clinical experience, if “echo-stressors” exist due to the bioelectric mechanism, functional disorders, regardless of the duration of symptoms, practically do not pass into the organic. However, if the “echo-process” involves the endocrine system, and the stimulation of the end organ is done through hormones in the blood system, then the development of organic disorders becomes more probable.

Availability of different varieties of “echo-stressors” explains the commonly known fact that a traumatic event affects man years later, manifesting itself by one of the varieties of a delayed post-stress disorder or behavioral disorders. The appearance of delayed effects is a peculiarity of APES.

The total response is a vector of complex internal processes that manifest themselves as a personal experience of trauma. The complexity of this response requires an integrated approach due to the peculiarities of APES, its multisensory nature, complexity and ability to produce the whole range of health and behavior disorders manifesting itself as one of variants of the stress- phase-oriented model of the mentioned disorders.

“Boring, oh, how boring, it’s horribly boring… And you do it”

Patient’s drawing.

Painting by Joel Rea.

The man and his interaction with the elements –

the main theme of the Australian artist

The first part of the book highlights modern knowledge about a person, key features and components that determine specificity of his/her SBA basis, on which arise, develop, spread and then fade away various momentary, short- and long-term states – vibrations of the ocean of human life along which like waves fly life collisions, dramas, comedies and tragedies changing the quality of life and reducing it. The SBA is a chip inside of which the psychic world (subjective reality) of man is being formed and only by virtue of interaction and interpenetration of these opposites man lives and develops.

There is a great deal of literature, researches relating to the man’s psychic world. There are even more discussions around this subject. The presence of the Internet has opened up easy access to the accumulated knowledge, to comprehend which is not always easy, even to a professional, because of the complexity of the research subject, its versatility, availability of different approaches to the study, different schools and different theoretical concepts. Multiple reiterations, terminological diversity depending on the chosen approach complicate understanding. We are not inclined to retell them, analyze or all the more to prove or disprove anything.

As required, we will refer to a particular source for the sole purpose to bring a reader to treat many issues of interest in a different way, overcoming the persistence of stereotypes. Offering our vision of this or that problem – we follow our authors’ logic. Perhaps we are mistaken. We are always ready to listen to another point of view and change our own, if the evidences are convincing. But we are going our way to the Temple where a person, both a professional and amateur (to both of them “all that is human is not alien”) will find those anchors, life buoys, sweeps, islands using which, taking hold of which will be able to overcome anxieties of the life ocean easier. On our way we gathered pearls of the foregone generations abundantly scattered in the fields of physiology and neurophysiology, psychology and psychoanalysis, logic and philosophy. Summarizing many years’ professional experience of the psychiatrist (“Psyche”) and the urologist (“Eros”) we weaved the found “pearls” of knowledge into a single necklace “Stressology” and through its lens tried to address the current health problems of men in particular, and medicine in general.

We view the study of the inner mental world of a man as the most reliable way to explore deep mental processes that affect health, life and healthy longevity. Unfortunately, these issues are ignored in medicine. The chosen approach predetermined the direction of the search for the causes of the early mortality of men in comparison with women. The task turned out difficult since it does not have clear boundaries and limits. It is boundless because, if we collect together the spiritual activity of the mature man, after his release from the bondage of phallic libido, it is necessary to give a picture of the whole set of human culture, in fact, world history of mankind with all its curves. The spiritual life of a man fully coincides with the bulk of overcoming life stressors of humanity and the achievements of human culture, scientific and technological progress. At the same time all negative, destructive, devastating ever created by man also come forward as the result of his activity. At all times of history a man lived on the crest of a wave of stressful life ocean, he was the first who took the blows of fate and was looking for the island of hope and stability. But having found them, he returned again and again to the ocean in search for the new and unknown. It is clear why in many languages the word “Male” and “Man” are identical.

In ancient Egypt, the Male-Man was represented by a single hieroglyph.

In English – Man

In French – homme

In Russian – молодой человек

(when applying to a man)

In the Armenian language there is a peculiarity, which reflects man’s maturation. When born – a boy (tgha), who growing up becomes a “boy-man” (tgha-mard). And this age period is not so much due to the time factor as to the formation of the social role with its main characteristics, realization of both biological and, mainly, social needs. “Tgha – martes dartsel” (became a man) is the most significant praise in the mouths of adults for teens.Tracing man’s development and moving up the biological stairs of fauna in phylo- and ontogenesis, it is clear that the role of social and psychological relations is ever increasing and the influence of genetic and hormonal factors, on the contrary, decreasing. One of the most important concepts of the traditional Chinese world view – “san tsai” – “three matters”, “three gifts”, “three riches”: Heaven, Earth and Man connecting them. In the cycle of its development, Chaos gives rise to two principles of the universe – Heaven and Earth and receives completion in Man. The “Tao Te Ching” states: “One gives birth to two; two produces three; three engenders all the darkness of things”. Man (male), according to the Chinese notions, stands in the center of the universe, he closes and keeps the global flow of life. We do not know as to the whole “global flow of life”, but on the Earth all the good and evil begins and ends with the man and he is in the middle of the stress-saturated ocean of earthly existence. It is man who at all times and everywhere has been in the epicenter of stress-saturated life, at the forefront of the fight against all stressors and constantly enriched the life with ever new and new stress-factors. Having experienced their effects, he, perhaps for this reason, as a defender, “pushed” the woman into the family, home, protecting her and offsprings from the harmful effects of the environment.