What is stress?
Stress is the state of strain that arises when you experience demands from the environment or from inside yourself. It’s our response to Physical Demands: running, lifting a heavy object, getting a cold or the flu, and Mental Demands: responsibilities, an unhappy relationship, family stress, social stress. Although some stress is necessary for our survival and we learn and grow and improve with stress, too much stress is bad for our health and well-being.
How did humans ever develop into “stressed-out” creatures? The brain’s response to stressful situations, whether the situations are physical or emotional developed millions of years ago, when our ancestors were living out in the dangerous wild with almost no way to protect themselves. They developed a response to really stressful or dangerous situations that is called “fight or flight”. When one of our ancestors was put into a dangerous situation, her body went into full alert, with chemicals in the brain working hard to help to prepare the body to react quickly: whether to fight for her life or run like crazy. There was also another option used when all else failed, which was to “feign death”. If she couldn’t outrun or out fight the attacker, she could pretend she was dead so maybe the attacker would go away.
When our ancestor’s body was flooded with hormones, his heart rate and blood sugar levels increased, and neurotransmitters were released in the brain to make his body stronger and oblivious to pain. Of course, it’s very rare for those of us in a developed world to have to use the “fight or flight” response on a regular basis. We usually don’t need to decide in a millisecond whether we should run as fast as we can to get away from danger or if we should stay and fight (or fall down and pretend we are dead). Even though our modern brains don’t need to use these responses, our brains react to stress the same way our ancestors’ brains reacted. Now, a trip on a crowded hi-way, having to deal with a difficult boss, being a single parent who works full time and has to worry about who can watch your sick child so you don’t have to take another day off, can produce a reaction in your brain that triggers an increased heart rate and blood sugar levels, a flood of hormones released to the brain and all the other physical reactions that were lifesaving to our ancestors, but can cause real problems in this modern life.
When we are under lots of stress, our brains can’t decide “OK, enough is enough!” and slow down, and this is how we get stressed out. Too much stress for a long time can cause real health problems, too – heart problems, anxiety, depression, cancer, obesity, diabetes, ulcers, immune system problems like fibromyalgia and lupus, headaches, sleep disturbance as well as relationship problems. Remember: Stress Can Kill!
There is a great book out there: “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert Sapolsky (http://www.amazon.com/Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third-Edition/dp/0805073698). He writes in a very smart and funny way about stress and how prolonged stress can really injure us. I recommend you get it and read it. You can also watch his TED Talk (http://www.ted.com/speakers/robert_sapolsky).