Part 1 in a series of 5
What Happens when we get stuck in Stress?
Today many people from all walks of life suffer from chronic stress. There are many reasons and causes for stress. These causes of stress can vary from external and internal factors. The external factors can be within the workplace as well as the home environment.
Stress can be caused when people are dealing with an overload of work, this overload can range from managing emails, meetings, travels, stressful environments which could also include the home environment. Problems within the family unit, these could be problems with the spouse, child or children, elderly parents etc. The internal factors of stress can range from low self-esteem, anxiety, feeling threatened socially and emotionally, as well as not knowing the correct coping mechanisms or strategies necessary for managing stress.
In this 5-part series on Stress, we will take a closer look at what happens with human beings dealing with the stresses of today’s lifestyle. The main focus will be on what happens within the body, both on a physiological and psychological level and how we can overcome a stressful lifestyle.
Most people think that stress is only produced by external factors. These factors range from biological or physical issues, social environment, economic and political factors that causes changes within our bodies, our lives and even mentally. These changes not only affect our mind but causes changes within our responses to our perceptions of these outside factors. These changes also generate its own reactive energies, producing a lot of pressure and demands on our bodies.
Our thoughts and feelings can be a major cause of stress, resulting in a huge effect on our organs within our body, even if the thoughts and feelings do not correspond with reality.
For example, some people are afraid of contracting diseases which results in them having a lot of stress. In most circumstances this triggers a self-fulfilling prophecy resulting in them actually getting the disease they were afraid of contracting and in some cases some other form of disease. For example, a person fearing cancer has a higher chance of getting cancer. While someone else also fearing cancer could end up getting some form of skin disease instead. A friend of mine shared with me an experience she had with her boyfriend of five years. He constantly said that he was becoming ill and that he will die from that illness. He insisted that the illness was my friend’s fault because she was always making fun of him. The young women manifested a lot of guilt as a result of her boyfriend’s constant accusations. Her boyfriend eventually paid a visit to the doctors but the doctors told him that his pains are psychological. The young man did not want to accept that his pains were psychological. This had a huge negative effect on the young woman to the point where she had to leave him because the pressure on her became unbearable.
There are acute stressors that we cannot avoid such as writing a test, speaking in front of a group of people etc. as well as chronic stress e.g. staying in an unhappy relationship, having a highly demanding boss and so on.
The effect of stress on human beings generally occurs on the cardiovascular system, the musculoskeletal system, the nervous system, the immune system, the digestive system as well as the psychological system, which are our perceptions, beliefs, thoughts and feelings.
Walter B. Cannon developed the term homeostasis to describe the internal stability of our physiology. He studied the alarming reactions in a lot of experiments with animals to prove what goes on in their bodies when they are threatened e.g. when a cat is threatened by a barking dog. Cannon called it “fight or flight reaction” because of the way the body is mobilized readying it for either fighting or fleeing.
The result is a state of physiological and psychological-hyperarousal, combined with lots of muscle tension and strong emotions. The strong emotions may vary from terror or fright, anxiety or rage and so on.
The fight-flight reaction involves a very rapid cascade of the nervous-system which trigger and release stress hormones, (adrenaline) which is unleashed in response to an immediate acute threat.
We can take in a huge amount of information in that state. The pupils dilate to let in more light, the hair on our body stands up so we are more sensitive to vibrations. We become very alert and attentive. There is an increase in heart- beat, as well as an increase in heart-muscle contractions and blood pressure. This assists the blood to be pumped rapidly to arms and legs to enable fight or fast running to be possible. It is our ANS (autonomic nervous system), which forms part of the nervous system, which regulates the internal states of our body. This is commonly known as the sympathetic branch which can speed up things.
Many people these days are in a permanent sympathetic or flight-fight condition due to their lifestyle and work situation
The other branch is known as the parasympathetic branch which acts as a brake to slow and calm things down after a flight or fight situation. The hypothalamus controls the activity of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. It is a gland and is part of the limbic system where all our emotions sit. The limbic system connects through the hypothalamus, to the automatic nervous system, the endocrine system and to our musculoskeletal system. These interconnected pathways allow our emotions and our organs to respond in a coordinated and integrated fashion to external events. The limbic system is also responsible in regulating the internal body states as well as emotions.
It is important to know that the fight-flight reaction helps us to survive when we find ourselves in life threatening situations, thus it is also a protective mechanism which in truth is bad for us when we are unable to control it or use it constructively.
In Part 2 of this series, we will look at what happens to us internally when we are stressed. Read more here.
Resources:
Stuck in Stress Reactivity Chapter 19 by Jon Kabat –Zinn
Responding to stress instead of reacting, Chapter 20 by Jon Kabat Zinn
Emotional Memory, Mindfulness and Compassion Paul Gilbert and Dennis Tirch
Some reflections on the origins of MBSR , skillful means and the trouble with maps
Dr. Jutta Lenz is a Doctor of Philosophy, has a Masters Degree in Psychology and she also specialises in Sports Science, Educational Science, Business and health coaching and teaching yoga. She is a management consultant, facilitator, business and health coach in companies national and international in the US, Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She also spends time working with the governments of Germany and Austria. Jutta is a change management facilitator for individuals and organizations while they are going through a time of transformation to deal with life crises and conflicts. She offers participative coaching and counselling as well as health coaching that includes stress management, burnout, lifestyle and nutrition.
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