6 min read
Lucky You Have Stress
To be happy you may need to be stressed
In my previous blog, I wrote about how to overcome anxiety naturally. 2 out of 10 Americans suffer from an anxiety disorder although being anxious can also protect us in threatening situations. Do you want to prevent panic attacks naturally and defeat anxiety disorders without drugs or medication? If you haven’t read it, click here to find what you need to know about this great topic, as well as tips on how to make a healthier lifesyle part of your life.
Stress is the immune system for our mental health
We mostly understand stress as something negative, something to avoid at all costs, something to be used in the same breath as burnout. And after the weather, it is the No. 2 topic that we can talk about in small talk with friends and colleagues and complain about it. Stress-bashing is socially recognized, so to speak, or maybe even socially desirable?
Well, finding common ground in small talk is certainly helpful for cultivating relationships, but I urgently need to take a stand for stress here:
Our stress response is a wonderful achievement of our evolution!
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I would even go so far as to say that stress is the best thing that could have happened to our mental health. And I'm treading on really thin ice here, because stress-bashing is also the order of the day in scientific circles - with the argument that our "fight-or-flight" reaction in the days of saber-toothed tigers was evolutionarily adaptive, but in today's office jungle the scorching desks with dangerous paper tigers is no longer appropriate.
Stress and Stress Response
However, if we did not have such an effective stress reaction, not only would there be exponentially more traffic accidents in the street jungle, but we would also no longer be able to carry out many of the tasks that we encounter at work, in our private lives or in our free time. Because that's exactly what stress is there for: highly efficient and effective in providing the focus and energy in the short term to master challenges. The problem arises when we invoke our stress response too frequently without allowing sufficient recovery in between.
Immune System versus stress
So, where is the difference to the immune system for our physical health? If a pathogen needs to be fought off, our immune system also demands rest, which we are usually happy to give. And we are grateful to our immune system when it has managed to protect us from the oncoming cold or to overcome it. Do we then complain about our immune system reacting to pathogens?!
Because stress is exactly the equivalent: the biological reaction (especially the so-called HPA axis*) to stressors in our environment — the “psychic” pathogens of our environment, so to speak. The response of this stress immune system then not only gives our body the ability to run faster, but also gives our brain the focus, attention, energy and speed it needs to cope with the stressor.
*The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or HPA axis, is a term used to represent the interaction between the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands; it plays an important role the body's response to stress. The pathway of the axis results in the production of cortisol.
The better system?
Now it gets exciting: Stress is not objective, but only arises through subjective evaluation of stressors in our environment. The Lazarus stress model* is based on two levels of evaluation, of which at least the second (and more important) evaluation can be changed. The first stage has to do with saber-toothed tigers — but can also be partially influenced.
*Richard Lazarus's Theory "The interpretation of stressful events is more important than the events themselves."
By reassessing stressors, we can train our stress-immune system to react less — for example, if we know that we can resolve a stimulus interpreted as a stressor without a stress reaction. Try that with your physical immune system! You can get vaccinated against individual diseases or get desensitized, but it doesn’t work nearly as efficiently as your stress response. The required regeneration phase after a stress reaction is estimated at around 4 hours, significantly less than the time that the (physical) immune system needs to deal with pathogens and get fit again.
Mental health
And one aspect is far too seldom highlighted: What would be the impact on our mental health if we were no longer able to master many of the challenges of our everyday life due to a lack of stress reactions? What fatal consequences for our identity would it have if we realized that in some situations, we could no longer help ourselves? Learned helplessness can quickly lead to depression; worrying about unmanageable stressors would also massively fuel our fears.
Depression and anxiety disorders are already the two most common mental illnesses. I'm convinced that if, for example, some virus suddenly made our stress response less effective, we would see a massive increase in mental illness.
In this way, our stress response acts as the immune system to our mental health and lays the foundation for us to live fulfilling lives.
Malfunctions
Of course, our mental health immune system can also fail. Just as we can overwhelm our 'normal' immune system with too little regeneration or too many risk factors, we can also overwhelm our psychological immune system's stress response. For both immune systems, the same golden rules apply: sufficient rest and sleep, exercise (preferably outdoors, in nature), healthy nutrition and the requirement to minimize risk factors.
And similar to an autoimmune disease, our stress system can become imbalanced and turn against itself, for example through chronically high cortisol levels. There's even a term for it: burnout.
The good stress
However, stress is not bad per se. Interestingly enough, too little stress can be just as harmful as too much stress. Too little stress makes us sluggish, lethargic and less resilient.
An ideal level of stress activates us and makes us efficient; to keep evolving, learning and growing (mentally and physically) — the basis for human development and societal progress.
Hans Seyle, the founder of the stress theory, even differentiated between "good" stress or eustress and "bad" stress or distress. The connection between the two is U-shaped. An optimal stress level does not activate us too much and not too little.
Relationship between stress level and activation
Our stress response is a good thing — we just have to learn to listen to it.
Therefore, we should not demonize stress, but be thankful that there are stressors in our environment that activate us and enable us to master challenges and grow from them through an appropriate stress reaction.
However, if we get into a vicious circle in which we do not find enough regeneration after a stress reaction before the next significant stressor reaches us and we “slip” into distress in the long term, we must take countermeasures. Through active stress management, through training our stress assessment and through active regeneration.
By the way, in my upcoming online course “28 Days to a Healthier You, I will show you how you can do this by using the latest findings in stress research, proven techniques and lots of practical tips: Coping with and preventing stress. If you're interested, leave me a comment or your email below.
And if your stress level has already leveled off at, what I hope, is an optimally activated level, I invite you to do a little experiment: start your next conversation with your colleagues or friends with this sentence: "I am really lucky to have stress".
You will see that this can lead to really exciting conversations...
If you have any questions or comments, I welcome your comments below or by sending a message through my contact form. Let me know. I’m always interested in your comments.
Do you have any questions, suggestions, or personal experiences with stress that you would like to share? Let me know in the comments below or on my Facebook Group “The Living Well Community”! As always, I am curious.
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How to manage your health, control your weight and with more tips how to live a happy life, I will show you in one of my upcoming podcasts. Check here for more information about the podcast as well as an overview of all our episodes!
For now, as always, I wish you every success in boosting your body's natural energies by keeping your life in check!
Enjoy your day!
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My best,
Patrick
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