Recently I gave a talk on Stress for local professionals in the Northern Virginia area and since it was so well received it seemed a natural progression to make the data all the more available through this blog.
Its true that in my work as a psychologist I am every day working on the fundamentals of stress management. It’s not uncommon for me to say when life gives you lemons make lemonade, and then to help clients learn the simple ways in which they can shift their attitudes and behaviors about events, and experience real change in their experience of stress.
So, let’s define stress. First, stress is the body’s effort to cope with danger in life. At the most basic level, the physiology of stress is the body’s reaction to danger, change, boredom, frustration, anger, and fear. Overall, whatever is outside of the normal patterns of our daily experience, whatever tends to intrude into our lives in ways that shake things up, can be the cause of stress.
During the experience of stress, the muscular system prepares for one of two things: fight or flight. Not properly managed over the long term, stress can result in back pain, headaches, arthritis, and other muscular difficulties.
To manage the intensity of the fight or flight response, the Glandular System helps us by providing adrenaline, epinephrine, and other hormones so that we can rise to the occasion and meet the challenges implied in the stressor. However, if we don’t really manage stress well enough, what we find is that over time gastric problems, ulcers, and other intestinal difficulties can occur.
Another physiological phenomena associated with stress is related to the Autonomic Nervous System. This system regulates the parts of our bodies that work automatically: the heart beats faster, breathing becomes shallow, digestion slows, and as these processes occur, the body prepares for fight or flight. Because autonomic responses are implied in the stress reaction, the failure to handle stress appropriately can result in a variety of cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, and nervous conditions, all of which can effect the quality and quantity of life.
Overall, stress is more than anything a fact of life and thus we are required to work on developing methods of managing stress that work for the preservation of the best quality of life possible (not only for ourselves, but also for our families). So, the central concept for managing stress is maintaining a deliberate and constant focus on the quality of life, ensuring that one is, in fact, pursuing work, love, and recreation that is satisfying, challenging, and fulfilling.
Thus, when it comes to stress, one cannot totally control events. And the good news is that you don’t have to. Rather, it’s important to know that the key to stress management is not controlling events, but controlling ones reaction to events and the stress that is produced. That said, there’s a basic stress equation. Stress is the byproduct of two things: an event and a reaction to the event. So the equation reads this way: An event + A reaction = Stress. The take home message is that stress is not simply something that happens to us. The cause or event may actually be neutral. It is one’s reaction to an event that creates the stress.
In this posting we have examined some of the physiological attributes of stress and explored the stress equation in order to answer the question: What is stress? Next week, we will look at the causes of stress specifically and ways to strategically manage stress.
