RóiseMcGagh looks at what stress really is and the impact it can have on your body and mind.
“I am so stressed.” A statement you might flippantly repeat to yourself on the daily or consistently remind friends and family of. But what does it really mean to be stressed, and what kind of effect can it have on a person?
Stress is our natural reaction to things we perceive as a threat. It was once a good thing, as when we were out in the wild and we felt threatened, that rush of adrenaline would give us a surge of energy required to react to the situation and keep ourselves safe. The ‘fight or flight’ reaction.
Oftentimes when people are using the word stress they’re actually describing distress, this is when your inbuilt resources and energy are overextended. We are built to be able to deal with some amount of stress.
Most people can deal with one stress at a time. However, if we get a number of stresses in our lives happening at once or we don’t feel as able to cope with a certain area of our lives, it can start to have a negative impact. Some people can be really good at dealing with financial problems but a relationship issue could be something they don’t feel as confident about.
This could leave you feeling stuck or fretful and rather than address the stress a common reaction can be avoidance.
Stress is meant to make you feel energised and alert, however this isn’t always a positive thing – it makes your heart beat fast, your breath quicken or your stomach churn.
There are also mental side effects, one is that you start to fast process everything that’s happening around you.
Martin Rogan, CEO of Mental Health Ireland says, “You’re inclined to interpret things as being dangerous, sometimes magnifying small threats as being life threatening. We’re inclined to catastrophise, sometimes those things lead to what we call avoidance mode, like an ostrich and it’s probably the most dangerous you can do.
“We encourage people to avoid avoidance so whatever you’re afraid of, think it through, talk to somebody about it. Whatever you’re afraid of if you can, without doing anything ridiculous, try and face it, expose yourself to the scary situation but with supports around you and in your own time.”
In less extreme situations people can simply become totally preoccupied with being stressed. Fixating on the thing that is causing stress can cause people to ruminate and begin to lose interest in the things they once found enjoyable. “It becomes a bit isolating,” says Martin.
Some people may not realise how often their body is under too much stress; if they have become desensitised to the issue or have been coping with distractions like technology or substances. In Ireland people often use alcohol to cope, which is just replacing stress with a depressant.
If stress is left unchecked, eventually the body will start to show physical symptoms. It affects every person differently, but people can experience everything from cardiac problems, to nausea, cramps, gastro troubles, breathing difficulties, panic attacks or even physical skin rashes or hair loss.
The fight or flight reaction drains resources from other systems to large muscle groups so you can react. This can leave your immune system lowered or the digestive system slowed.
Stress often affects peoples sleep in that they find it difficult to get to sleep initially. Not being able to get up or waking up very early is more synonymous with depression.
“‘We have nothing to fear itself’ but sometimes these people forget what the initial thing they were concerned about was they’re so afraid of being afraid,” says Martin.
Feeling stressed or overwhelmed over a long period of time can burn up a lot of psychical energy and can have a wearing effect. It can have a really tiring effect on the body which can dissuade people from doing exercise and some might stop eating well. “Left unchecked a person can become very anxious or will actually become depressed if you burn up enormous amounts of psychological energy,” says Martin.
The other way it can be expressed is a person can find that they become short tempered, irritable and distracted. You could find yourself chewing the head off of a colleague because they did something small; but for you it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Due to some, or a large amount of your headspace being taken up by a stressor, people can experience being a bit befuddled, forgetting things, having accidents, getting distracted.
Stress is a natural alarm system, and Martin explains that we can’t shut it out or we will make the problem worse; he uses the metaphor of using pain relief for a toothache, continuously taking ibuprofen won’t get rid of an abscess, it has to be seen to.
Karen Belshaw from Stress Management Ireland says, “We’re time poor. We’re material rich.”
Our modern world has become increasingly digitalised and so we have begun to move away from our natural habitat. People who live within 600 metres of a green space or live below the 6th floor are less likely to have mental health problems.
“We have lost the old-fashioned community. When you think of from the community psychology point of view, we have lost the doing something in the village to help your community by volunteering, even taking it back to the idea of the Sunday meeting at church or mass or whatever your domination, it’s that kind of gathering where you check in with each other.
“We’re living in a world of social platforms where we don’t have that same connection,” says Karen.
Social interaction and feeling part of a community are important for good mental health. Martin’s main suggestion for dealing with stress is to talk to someone who makes you feel like yourself and to lay out the issues you’re having.
“It’s easier said than done but it can be hugely beneficial. If the person feels that they don’t have a friend or a family member they can do this with then talk to your local GP where there’s any number of health helplines like Samaritans,” he says, explaining how having to lay out your problems in a logical manner to explain to someone else can be very clarifying for people. This can also be done through writing a journal.
Karen recommends doing one small thing every day to make yourself feel good, and even that can make a big difference to any stressful burden. Taking a minute to breathe, deeply, or going for a walk at lunch or popping into your local chapel to say a prayer – whatever you feel helps you – can provide a nice moment of reflection that can be calming.
Depression and Anxiety Disorders are the most frequently seen mental health issues in the country and these issues account for about a third of Ireland’s GP visits.
In 2002 Professor Corey Keyes from Emory University conducted research in a number of diverse cultures, including Ireland which found that approximately 17.2% of a population enjoy good mental health, 56.6% reported moderate mental health, a further 14.1% have a mental health diagnosis. The remaining 12.1% are described as languishing, not enjoying life.
This study was repeated with the same people a number of years later and the numbers of those with good mental health, moderate, ill and languishing did not change. However, the members had changed.
Martin says, “So just because you’re enjoying good mental health today doesn’t mean that you’re getting it light and you’ll never have a problem, it just means that it’s not your turn today and equally because you have a mental illness does not mean that you’re stuck.”