Medicina Fluminensis, Vol. 46 No. 3, 2010.
Review article
Family and stress
Dolores Britvić
; Clinics for psychiatry, CHC Split, Split, Croatia
Abstract
Family represents biopsychosocial system, consisting divided roles, hierarchy,
boundaries and relations, using regulatory mechanisms aims to homeostasis.
Family system is social micro system, deeply plunged in society and under influence of
stress, crises and psychotraumatic events.
According to the intensity of events, there are differences between stress and crisis, stress is
used for less serious, daily events while distress or crisis is used for more serious events,
with more complex adaptation.
Between family and stress events there are two-way connections. Family could be helpful in
struggling with stressful events but it itself could be source of stressful events.
Family help and support depends on duration and nature of events as well as how much it
disturbs family homeostasis.
Exceptionally unpleasant, sudden events that cause family structure misbalance, result in
disturbance of regulation mechanisms into family and demand huge effort of all family
members to control stressful events.
In some cases, when family misses to overcome development phase’s demands, it itself
might become source of stress.
Recoveries of stress usually appear spontaneously, due to personal potential as well as family
healing potentials.
Physician, who knows well family members, their inner potentials, relationships, sometimes
secrets, could initiate crisis solution. Members of extended family as well as others closely
related to family might have important role in dealing with crisis.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
59250
URI
Publication date:
13.9.2010.
Visits: 6.204 *