Stress is such a nasty word nowadays.
People are off sick for stress like never before in humankind's history, and, therefore, stress has been labelled in the media and medical circles as the plague of our century.
So what is the fuss all about? What IS stress?
I know that we all have experienced it at some point or another in our lives; we have all felt the symptoms it creates - no focus, panic, feelings of overwhelm, no control, heart racing, unable to speak, weight on your shoulders you feel will crush you forever, fear, migraines, and so many more that ruin our lives on a daily basis.
But when we look at stress from a biological point of view, it is nothing more than an automated chemical reaction starting from the brain.
It is a well-designed mechanism in-built in every human being.
Its function? To really understand its function and how the reaction unfolds, we have to go back to our very far ancestors living in caves and in the wild - prehistoric times.
Obviously, life was extremely different to ours then. Food had to be collected by scavenging and hunting, with no guarantee of success. Neighbours were not all friendly as they included wild animals who, as well, were hunting - and our ancestors were food to them.
So, imagine this - your ancestor is hunting for food, on stealth mode as they now say in video games. It is vital that they are careful and silent if, first, they do not want to scare their prey off and have any chance of bringing food home to the family/community, but also not to attract the attention of other predators, to whom they would become prey.
Our ancestor's heart is beating fast, he may well start sweating - this is one way that stress is experienced. Fear of being discovered and/or failing.
Now, without warning, our ancestor comes face to face with a tiger, who will think "yummy food" and prepare to attack. The full range of the stress chemical reaction will kick off - the brain identifies danger and starts creating 2 substances called adrenalin and cortisol, both hormones secreted by the adrenal glands. These hormones will affect most systems in the body, to engage it and prepare it for what is called "fight or fight" [or freeze, which is the third option] response.
The musculoskeletal system will tense the muscles all at once, the respiratory system will create rapid breathing and shortness of breath (as the airway between the nose and lungs will be constricted due to the muscles tensing), the cardiovascular system will increase the heart rate, which will send most blood pumped into the larger muscles (organs for self-preservation, and legs), the endocrine system will create more cortisol (the stress hormone) to increase the level of energy fuel available to the body, and the gastrointestinal system will kick off by emptying (I know, not nice, but so true - we've all had nervous poo syndrome prior to interviews or big presentations) to enable the body to be as light as possible. And all this starting from the nervous system sending alarm messages to the rest of the body on sight of danger.
All in all, stress is nothing more than a natural reaction that will kick in at first sight of danger, to ensure our survival.
This is what it is designed to be.
Now our lives in the 21st century are quite different.
Even though for soldiers on the battlefront, populations facing war and genocide, as well as in the case of natural catastrophes or bombings, for whom the stress reaction will consist of the same scenario as for our prehistoric ancestor, we, on the other hand, are rarely faced with such horrid and life-threatening situations - luckily.
Our lives have become more secure, sheltered in a way as everything you could wish for you can order online and have it delivered direct to your doorstep in a relatively short time.
So, really, the stress reaction should not apply to our day-to-day life circumstances.
As we are now never really faced with actual danger, our brain has learnt to perceive every hurdle, every offense, every disagreement, every unpleasant circumstance as a threat. But a threat to what? you will ask, as it is very rarely a threat to our lives.
Our society has, for the last century or so, made us focus more, as individuals, on who we are, what we represent, what we want, in brief, on our ego.
Every "NO" that you get is a threat to your ego in the way that it will not get what it wants. Every pile of work your boss dumps on you and that you really don't fancy doing but still have to do, is a real threat to your ego who wants it its way, who wants to have control.
And this is nowadays the type of incidents that declares an all-raging war to your body, just for the sake of your ego's survival, as opposed to your own.
From something quite positive - life-saving - our society and way of life have transformed the natural physiological reaction of stress into one of the most dangerous condition to our health, well-being and good-function in our world.
The intended dose of stress to be inflicted to the body was only meant by nature to be occasional, but our lives have made the occurrences multiple on a daily basis, in such a way that it affects both our mental and physical abilities. Constant or regular tense muscles will create chronic muscle pain, encouraging bad posture and limiting our mobility as well as increasing chances of injuries, while, mentally, fatigue, feelings of being drained, headaches, migraines, lethargy, depression will settle.
You know when they say that stress makes you stupid, it actually does as, when stress hormones are released and more blood is directed towards the legs and vital organs, the brain is depleted of blood flow, making it extremely hard to think or focus (I'm sure you've all experienced this, being put on the spot and not knowing what to say, and when the stress is over and you think over it, "I should have said..." - it all comes to you). For a long time (most of my teens and twenties years - and to some extent my thirties as well), I was stressed constantly by life, by other people, by my fear of speaking up and saying my own mind. Very often, I was speechless, not knowing what to say at that particular moment, standing like an idiot and being crushed silently by the situation or the person - and the more it would happen, the more stressed I would be. I genuinely believed that, despite all my varied skills and academic achievements, I was one of the stupidest people on earth. I do believe that my constant motivation to keep learning new things all the time and understand is partly due to this feeling I used to have and that used to crush my life so miserably.
Coming back to the effects of stress on your brain, if there is no or little blood flowing in your brain, then brain cells will lack oxygen and eventually die. Less brain cells, less thinking power.
I think it is important to understand what stress is actually meant for and how it works on a biological level.
Next time you get stressed for nothing, hopefully this knowledge will put things back into perspective for you and will limit the amount of unnecessary stress you're exposed to.
Will I die if my report is not finished on time? More than likely, no; so all I can do is focus and do the best I can. No meany stress required - breathe in deeply, and out, keep calm and trooper on...
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