DEFINITION
Stress — a state of mental, physical or emotional strain/tension brought about by challenging circumstances.
Stressor — anything that knocks us out of homeostasis.
Intended Stress Response
Stress is wonderful
- for 3 seconds, 3 minutes, perhaps even three hours.
- for physical strength and mental acuity.
Sress is exceedingly debilitating
- for 3 days 3 months or 3 years.
- when anxiety producing for psychological challenges where we are disempowered.
Stress & Health
Stress does not make you sick; it creates the conditions where diseases thrives or enhances/worsens the conditions of a disease that exists. Pathogenic diseases are opportunistic; stress increases the likelihood of disease. Chronic stress weakens your immune system and sets you up to fail.
Physiology of Stress Response
We evolved to utilize stress to save our lives in short term situations:
- Mobilize energy (i.e run faster) (comes from liver and fat cells — not digestion)
- Mobilize cardiovascular response to deliver energy (increased breathing, heart rate)
- Turn off long term projects (reproductive system, immune system, digestive system, growth)
- Sensory systems enhanced (memory, eyesight)
PATTERN turn on systems that heighten short term physical ability while turning off any long term projects. This is extremely useful short term and extremely dangerous with chronic stress.
Important now to look at the Chart to the right examining the Function of stress on our body which hopefully we can acknowledge as essential
History of Stress
Hans Selye was the father of stress physiology. He borrowed the term from metallurgy
regarding torsional strain on metals. In the 1960’s and 70’s, no western allopathic “physiologist believed in the ‘stress response.”(Sapolsky, 12:00) — The concept that the body did the same thing when “stressed” by cold or hot was illogical to a mechanistic linear system. (Today, the concepts of tonics or adaptogens helping the body find homeostasis from either side is equally challenging to allopathy’s obsession with causality.) It is only the last 30-40 years where stress began to be acknowledged as a cause for disease. Ulcers were the first medical condition accepted to be caused or compounded by stress.
PTSD
I want to give a nod to PTSD particularly for war veterans and abused kids.
In opposition to most of what I have discussed here regarding debilitating conditions from chronic stress, PTSD more commonly refers to particularly acute traumas (or short term chronic traumas) that are stressful enough to physically rewire the brain.
Successful coping strategies discussed in the book “The Body Keeps the Score” include Theatre, Massage, Neurofeedback.
Approach treating the stress responses to abuse and trauma through neurological (including talk therapy, touch, roleplaying) methods rather than pharmacological medications.
Acute vs. Chronic / Psychological vs. Physiological Stress
Stress is a wonderful evolutionary adaption to manage short term physical emergencies (acute); contrariwise, it is debilitating and life threatening when dealing with 30 years (chronic) of psychological anxiety/prediction that a problem is coming.
For example, when a zebra runs from a lion; stress is essential, useful and life saving. However, when I chronically worry about money, career, or taxes, stress is debilitating. Sapolsky warns in his lecture Why Zebras don’t get Ulcers: “We turn [the stress response] on long term for psychological reasons and that’s not what it was meant for.” 6:00
This is a nuanced understanding because there are instances where predicting challenges does effectively mitigate disasters.
6 Factors that Affect how we manage stress
RELATIVITY
- There is no absolute. Is my condition worsening or improving?
- Rats have significantly lower stress levels receiving 50 volts of electricity if they went down from receiving 100 volts to 50 volts as opposed to up from 10 volts to 50 volts.
CONTROL
- Empowering ourself to take the first step toward inevitable challenges.
- Illusion of control often is as effective as actual control
PREDICTABILITY
- Knowing when is it coming and how long it will last mitigates our relationship to stressors.
- Rats that are given a little bell prior to receiving a shock have lower stress levels than one who fears it is coming at any moment.
OUTLET
- Rats can lower stress levels simply by having wood to gnaw on.
- Baboons can lower stress levels by hitting someone smaller. Obviously unhealthy culturally but displaced aggression is an effective physiologically stress reliever.
- Social grooming/sharing/processing emotions
SOCIAL — This could be part of “Outlet” but is so significant, I made it its own category.
- Grooming
- Having friends
- Processing challenges/emotions
HIERARCHY and RANK (Primate studies and Whitehall)
- Our rank in the society (alpha male is less stressed than lower males — assuming stable society)
- Stability of society trumps our rank (alpha males are very stressed in unstable societies)
4 TIPS for STRESS Management
#1 BE OPTIMISTIC (Pre Stressor)
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Much of our modern day stress comes about unnecessarily worrying about the future. Type A.
Can you tell the difference between the big things in life and the little things (or threatening situations and neutral/positive)?
Baboons — “Can you tell the difference between a bully napping near you and actively taunting you?”
Corollary: Don’t spend excessive time worrying about things you can’t affect. (Willful ignorance can be an effective strategy to mitigate stress.)
#2 Seize CONTROL. EMPOWER yourself.
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
Can I do anything about it? Global vs. Local scale is a very important consideration. Physiologically, it makes sense to not spend lots of time ‘stressing’ upon things we cannot change. Buddhism actively encourages compassion for the larger world while placing the focus of our awareness upon personal growth and empowerment.
EXAMPLE:
Rationalize that the fate of your sports team is more significant than your dead-end job.
Realize that your daily run or this beautiful dinner is more significant than a global war.
Illusion of Control can be as important as actual control. Someone who ignorantly assumes they have control will have less stress than someone who ‘realistically’ appraises chaos.
#3 OPTIMISM/ATTITUDE (Post stressor)
“Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk” / “What does not kill you makes you stronger.”
The Problem is the Opportunity
Can you look at all life’s challenges as opportunities for growth?
Believe that life is improving. Attitude of confidence and gratitude physically enhances our health.
Corollary: This is not meant to inhibit appropriate emotional processing. I am a huge fan of processing grief and emotions and not sugar coating everything; however, on the level of physiology, it is effective to recognize the good in all that is rather than dwell in the negative.
#4 Cultivate OUTLETS to process stressors (especially relationships)
“It’s water under the bridge.”
“Let it Go.” / “Lean on Me.”
There are many healthy outlets to relieve stress: therapy, journal, grooming, sharing, exercise, shaking, meditation, journalling, laughter, yelling, beating someone else up (last two not ‘healthy’ but, sadly, effective physiologically to mitigate the stress response.)
Corollary: Relationships — Many of our stress mitigating outlets involve friends and community.
This can be a close friend, partner, spouse, groups of friends, community
After poverty, social isolation is the greatest indicator of disease and mortality (higher than smoking, obesity, etc..) Social Isolateion yields a threefold rate increase for all disease. Cultivate relationships.