April is stress awareness month

As I began researching the topic of “stress,” I quickly discovered an overwhelming amount of information relating to how stress impacts our brain, body, genetics, and life. As such, I wish to share this guest column as an introduction to stress, its impact and how we can better manage stress.

What is stress?

Stress is a natural psychological and physiological response that becomes activated when feeling threatened or under overwhelming pressure, exceeding our ability to cope.

Understanding the stress response:

When we are stressed or facing a perceived threat, a tiny region at the brain’s base, called the hypothalamus, sets off an alarm system in the body, releasing a hormone called adrenaline, often called the “fight or flight” hormone, which usually gives us a boost to act quickly. Once a perceived threat has passed, hormones return to typical levels and other systems go back to their regular activities. But when stressors are always present and we always feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction can affect our body, our mood, our relationships, and our self-esteem. Experiencing long-term stress or severe stress can lead to feeling physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion, often called “burnout”. Broadly, there are four types of stress which are: acute stress, episodic acute stress, chronic stress and post-traumatic stress.

What is “chronic” stress?

Chronic stress is both psychological and physiological. Causes of chronic stress could include poverty, a dysfunctional marriage, family or a deeply dissatisfying job. Chronic stress slowly drains a person’s psychological resources and damages their brains and bodies.

Why we each react to life stressors the way we do?

Chronic stress does not affect all people equally. Our reaction to a potentially stressful event is different from everyone else’s. How we react to our life stressors is affected by such factors as:

Genetics. The genes that control the stress response keep most people at a fairly steady emotional level, only sometimes priming the body for fight or flight. More active or less active stress responses may stem from slight differences in these genes.

n Life experiences. Strong stress reactions sometimes can be traced back to traumatic events. People who were traumatized as children tend to be especially at risk of experiencing high stress. Chronic and extreme stress in early life, often referred to as early adversity, childhood trauma, or early life stress, has been associated with a wide range of adverse effects on development.

Learning to react to stress in healthy ways:

Stress management tips include eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise.

Practicing meditation, yoga, deep breathing exercises, and massage.

Listening to soft music.

Fostering healthy friendships and hobbies.

To include healthy humor in your life as “laughter” is good medicine and can help lessen your stress and make you happier, improving your self-esteem. However, if you are worried that your level of chronic stress is overwhelming, it is important to seek professional counseling or talk to your healthcare provider.

On a personal note: We humans are not meant to live in a constant state of stress be it emotional, physical, financial, environmental, or social, and why it is important to acknowledge the significance of managing our life stresses, especially in today’s world. To ponder the acronym, I created for myself: “STRESS” – “Signal, To, Replenish, Extra, Self-care, Self-Love.”