How do you feel today? “Stressed” is the answer many people would give to this question as they juggle a myriad roles. Work and family commitments, coping with financial pressures, health issues, and oftentimes, time constraints can all contribute to rising stress levels.
Some people try to work through the stress, others try to run it off, more suffer aches and pain and anxiety as they try their best to deal with the fallout from it. Still more, turn to smoking, drinking, or gambling to help them cope.
So, what is stress, what causes it, and how can we recognise the telltale signs? Stress is usually a reaction to mental, physical, or emotional pressure. It affects people in different ways and it may not always be easy to recognise that it is responsible, for example, for your headaches, sleep difficulties, increased heart rate, or comfort eating.
Stress can affect how you think, feel, and behave. You may feel anxious, irritable, or worried, feel tired all the time, or struggle to sleep. Some people feel overwhelmed, that everything is too much for them.
The causes of stress can vary from person-to-person and can range from day-to-day challenges to relationship difficulties, sudden or major life changes, such as bereavement, divorce, moving house, or losing one’s job. Money or housing issues, family conflict, feeling lonely and unsupported, or retirement can also cause stress.
Miriam Hussey, an author and pharmacist from Kilcolgan, who has extensive qualifications in integrative health and wellness, believes reducing stress is possibly the best thing we can do for our lives. It will not just benefit our health but also our happiness and that of those around us, she maintains. Unravelling our tension and awakening our vitality is the key to living a better life, she says.
In her book,”Light Up – Energise your body, awaken your mind, supercharge your soul” she proposes that we are faced with many decisions, choices, obstacles, challenges, and opportunities each day which can cause a heightened level of anxiety and stress in our bodies.
“If you are experiencing stress in your life right now, perhaps you’re feeling completely overwhelmed and out of your depth, perhaps you’re scared, or maybe you’ve just completely frazzled because of that never-ending to-do list. In situations like this, our inner voice can be screeching in our ears: ‘How am I not able to cope and keep up?’ ‘Everybody else seems to have it all together’. ‘What’s wrong with me?’. This tug of war inside us, between what we want to do and what we can do, makes us feel like we’re not good enough.” It is important if you are in this situation to be kind to yourself and remember you are not alone, she says.
Overall wellbeing
Everyone experiences stress to some degree, however, it is the way we respond to it that makes a difference to our overall wellbeing. She explains that our nervous systems are set up to protect us and to ensure our bodies can adapt and survive in various situations. “Essentially, your nervous system is constantly evaluating whether your surroundings are safe or unsafe. Every reaction it is involved in, from what job you will take on or which romantic partner you choose, is influenced by the primal instinct to keep you safe. If your nervous system perceives a threat, it will initiate a series of evolutionary biological responses to ensure your survival.”
She says our nervous system, however, is still quite archaic, in that its perception of threat has not evolved to match our highly digital world. “It’s almost like we are trying to use a VCR to watch YouTube. The complexities of modern life can sometimes confuse this ancient programming. Our nervous system has not upgraded its software, it is still geared towards surviving in the wild and running from bears. not being stuck in traffic or staring at a screen all day. This means that it might react to the stress of work emails, financial obligations, and online interactions in the way it would react to a physical threat like a predator.”
This mismatch can lead to the accumulation of stress responses that are not adequately released or processed, causing them to linger in our bodies and negatively impact our health. The effects of stress can show up mentally, in the form of headaches, negative, destructive thought patterns, or low self-worth or emotionally in increased depression, low mood, anxiety, emotional eating, or constant cravings.”
Stress can manifest physically too, such as increased blood pressure, a lowered immune system, insomnia, digestive and reproductive issues, increased heart rate, and tense muscles. “Chemically, the effects of stress can be evident in the form of dysregulation of our stress hormones, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. Chronic stress can also worsen pre-existing health problems and might increase our cravings for and over-dependence on the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances.”
She explains that when our bodies go into stress mode, our immune system is also affected. Short-term or acute stress can temporarily enhance immune responses by activating immune cells. However, when stress becomes chronic or long term it suppresses immune function, leading to increased inflammation and greater susceptibility to illness.
“For example, if there’s a bacterial infection in your body, it will always scan your environment to assess its safety and try to protect you from danger. However, if there’s a huge threat (or perceived threat ) within your nervous system, the body will decide that keeping Miriam alive is a far better option than fighting off a bacterial infection because it won’t be an issue if Miriam isn’t alive. Our nervous system will always choose survival first, so our immune system gets put on the back burner.”
Our conscious minds are also hugely affected when we are stressed, according to Ms Hussey. “It gets shut down and so we are less able to make aligned, informed, and correct decisions. When you are in a stressful state, the threat stops you thinking clearly. You become reactive and make erratic decisions. This is because when we are in a stressful state, the blood moves from the more developed part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that is associated with logical thinking, planning, organisation, creativity, and imagination ) to the less developed or ‘reptilian’ brain which responds to fears, threats, or conflict, and plays a role in controlling basic survival instincts that impact things like heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.”
Under pressure
During a heated argument with a loved one, for example, our stress levels increase, she says. This causes blood flow to be redirected away from the logical thinking part of the brain, which can lead to impulsive and less conscious actions, such as saying hurtful things, getting defensive, or tuning out the other person’s perspective.
“In this stressed-out state, we don’t think as clearly under pressure, we are more reactive and we tend to go for the quick fix. This leads us to make decisions that keep us stuck in the familiar, the old, the broken. It can stop us breaking free and exploring the imaginative, creative, and expansive side of our brain where we can start new projects, begin new habits, and feel brave enough to explore the world. Instead, we get locked in survival and fear mode that can keep us stuck and forever imprisoned.”
Stress is often an internal reaction to an external stimulus, for example, our response to losing our job, the break-up of a relationship, the death of a loved one, or financial difficulties drive stress in the body.
There is also another factor, which people sometimes forget or are unaware of, that can cause stress. “There might be an absence of something in our lives that results in us feeling defeated, empty, deflated, and unworthy and stress can be a by-product of that.
“For example, there is an absence of fun, laughter, sleep, rest, or downtime in your life, or a lack of love and intimacy. These ‘absences’ can cause a build-up of internal anxiety or stress as much as an external stimulus can. When we feel empty or lacking, we slip into a limitation mindset where we can feel unworthy and demotivated. We can look to the external world and feel like a failure, developing feelings of not being enough, imposter syndrome, or loneliness.”
Ms Hussey says this “hole” that generates stress can often be invisible at the start and if untreated or unaddressed, it can become very visible as it impacts the physical structures, chemical messengers, and hormones in our bodies. This can lead to stress-related physical ailments and a fracture in our mental wellbeing. Low mood and depression can often be the end product of a chronically dysregulated nervous system.”
She says it is important to understand that the body reacts to both actual and perceived stress in the same way. Our nervous system cannot decipher whether we are experiencing an actual or perceived threat, meaning that if we think there might be danger ahead, even if that danger never manifests, it will activate the nervous system and our stress response. This is why the power of our thoughts is so incredible when it comes to whether our nervous system is regulated or dysregulated.”
Greater internal awareness and making various lifestyle adjustments will help us manage our stress better. Deep breathing, practising mindfulness and meditation, and listening to calming music, will all help. So, too, will spending time in nature, having a good laugh, cold-water immersion, and massaging the outside part of the ear, she suggests.
“Light Up” – Miriam Hussey’s book, aims to help people reignite their vitality, restore harmony, and glow again, and is available from local bookshops.
