Stress is everywhere. It is an unavoidable part of life. While excessive and harmful stress certainly has to be minimized, trying to avoid all stress can be equally harmful. It's like trying to avoid life itself. The only time we are completely free from stress is when we are dead.
Broadly defined, stress is the way our bodies in general respond to any demands made upon it. It isn't just the bad things that create stress; stress is created by the good things in life as well. Some of our happiest moments can, also, create stress; and stress can be created by conditions we are not even aware of. Major events in our lives put us under stress, but so do a lot of little things.
Stress is the inevitable result of change and challenge, and change and challenge can be good for us. In everyday language, stress and distress have become synonymous. The technical word for positive stress is eustress.
When we experience stress, our adrenal glands produce increased quantities of powerful hormones, such as cortisone and adrenaline. Our bodies' immune defense systems, controlled primarily by the lymph glands, are activated. All in all, our bodies are preparing to defend themselves and to resist change. At peak moments our muscles tense, our hearts beat faster, increasing the levels of a variety of hormones being pumped into our bloodstreams. Once the peak moments have passed, our bodies must try to bring all its' biological elements back to their usual balance.
The same state of stress can be produced by any stimuli. Both good things and bad things --- pleasure and pain, the physical and the emotional --- all produce the same essential reactions in our bodies. For instance, our hearts beat faster and our pulse rates shoot up after we have been running. Our pulse rates will, also, shoot up if we round a corner and are suddenly face to face with a large, angry dog. Now image, we round a corner and suddenly come face to face with our favorite movie star, our pulses will shoot up in just the same way it did when we saw the large, angry dog. Both emotions are stressful, often as stressful as intense exercise. It works the same way with behavior. If we have just received a piece of tremendously good or bad news, we are still likely behave in the same manner.
It can be said that our bodies engage in a constant and energy-consuming struggle against change. Our bodies must run very hard just to stay in the same place. It all causes wear and tear on our bodies. Long exposure to stress can produce permanent and damaging changes in the adrenal and other glands.
When discussing stress, three additional words come to mind:
- Tension refers to a contraction of our muscles. One of the very common reactions to stress is a tightening of the muscles.
- Anxiety is an uneasiness of our minds. It can be described as an imagined fear --- a feeling of fear that exists where there is no clear or obvious immediate danger.
- Emotion is the feelings we get in response to a given situation
When we feel threatened, our bodies respond with all sorts of clear and measurable changes. Without any conscious effort, our bodies are geared up to a high state of readiness; either to fight off the threat or to run away from it. The response is commonly called the “fight or flight reaction”.
Our bodies can respond with another reaction known as panic attacks. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, we get extremely nervous. We feel threatened. We begin to sweat and get butterflies in our stomachs. We feel as if we want to scream and are about to lose control. For some people panic attacks can come rather frequently, particularly when they have been going through an unusually stressful period.
There are three stages to the stress reaction. First, there is a sharp alarm reaction, when our bodies' resistance drops suddenly and dramatically. As the stress continues, there is a longer stage of resistance, where our bodies' functions appear to return to near normal. If the stress is long term, then during the third stage, the stage of exhaustion, is reached, and our bodies' resistance drops sharply once again.
We can all tolerate different levels of stress. A high level of stress for one person can easily be borne by another person. There are individuals who not only tolerant a high level of stress, but, also, seem to need it. For people that need a high level of stress in their lives, it's inactivity that creates the most stress.
All of us sometimes crave excitement that accompanies fear or tension. This is why we take part in dangerous sports, ride roller coasters, or go to horror movies. One good example of searching out excitement for the adrenal rush is Grissom on the television series CSI. Grissom relaxes from his daily responsibility of forensic science by riding roller coasters. We deliberately place ourselves in very stressful situations, and we love it. Mountain climbers, rock climbers, race car drivers, sky jumpers are all examples of people that pursue adrenal rush. Stress researchers speak of people becoming “drunk on their own hormones”. For some, this craving is harmless; for others, it can lead to life-threatening situations, or even death. Evel Knievel, an American motorcycle daredevil famous between the 1960s and 1980s, personifies a man “drunk on his own adrenal hormones”.
Since small, repeated irritations or little hassles account for much of the stress in our lives, doing something about them can be one of the most effective ways of lowering the total load of stress we face, particularly when we can't solve some of the big problems in our lives.
Don't underestimate the value of time. The fatigue and depression that can come from the stress of a major event eventually go away because of our bodies' natural ability to restore adaptation energy. We don't have to do anything. The process is entirely automatic, but it takes time.
Specific stress can be relieved by switching the stress to another part of our bodies or minds.
Physical activity, from running to exercises to relaxation techniques, can help to relieve the muscle tension caused by stress, and thus reduce the ill effects caused by stress in general.
Mental stress can often be coped with effectively by “thinking about something else”, not worrying about a problem while in a highly stressed state, or by simple meditation which helps to “give the mind a rest”.
It has been said, “Stress is the spice of life”. The exhilaration and the depression and the highs and the lows are part of our lives. We need to enjoy the highs and try not to dwell on our lows of our lives. Stress is the result of our bodies' adaptation to change; and change is essential to life. The problem of stress is not that stress exists, but the level of stress we must face, and our own individual reactions to it. God has equipped us superbly to survive stress and to profit from it. We can come out of stressful times stronger than we ever were before we went through them.
