Have you ever experienced the type of day-to-day distress that affects your productivity or even your health? Have you ever found yourself puzzled at how stress has caused you to act like a completely different person? Are you thinking, “I’ve heard this all before. I know stress. It's everywhere, so we just have to live with it.”
False! Stress is hazardous to your health, and it can sneak up on your life before you even see it coming.
Stress In Your Work-Life Overlap
When I find myself doing something that requires me to physically balance myself, like skating or riding a bike, I'll admit that I have found myself losing balance, wobbling back and forth, arms flailing, trying not to fall over. (Don't judge! I'm better at reading and research.)
This isn’t how we should be living our lives. In fact, many of the things that stress us out at work are rooted in the same challenges that also overwhelm us outside of work, like managing our daily habits, thinking habits, emotions, moods and biases.
These days, it seems that work and life do more overlapping than balancing, and stress likes to hide right in between that work-life overlap. In order to challenge stress, it helps to know where to look and what to look for.
'Good' Versus 'Bad' Stress
Stress is a natural reaction; in some form, it's actually good for you. Good stress or “eustress” is a positive motivator when it comes to things like job interviews, promotions or special celebrations. Our bodies are designed to react to stress in a way that not only keeps us energized in high-stakes situations but protects us when confronted with threats.
Bad stress or “distress” comes in three forms, and our individual experiences and responses to each type are all different.
• The most common type of stress is acute stress, which stems from the recent and anticipated demands of everyday life. This is what you feel when someone cuts you off in traffic or when you have an argument with a spouse. In large doses, this type of stress can be exhausting.
• Episodic acute stress occurs when acute stress becomes habitual. It plagues people who tend to have shorter tempers, are frequently rushed, overextended, tense or anxious. These characteristics are magnified even more in the workplace. At the episodic acute level, a person becomes so accustomed to these feelings that it becomes implanted into their personalities. They often attract a lifestyle of chaos, excessive worry, pessimism, irritability, anxiousness, anger, hostility and overcommitment.
• The highest levels of stress harm our mind, body and overall life. Long-term, untreated, episodic acute stress can morph into chronic stress in response to things like dysfunctional family situations, poverty, abuse, toxic work environments, trauma and other perpetually stressful situations.
The Attack
When we experience a situation that causes us stress, our brains perceive it as a threat and sound an internal alarm. This alarm causes the release of hormones including adrenalin, which increases blood pressure and heart rate, and cortisol, the stress hormone responsible for communicating with the parts of the brain that control mood, fear and motivation. This is why stressful situations can literally make us feel as if we are being attacked.
For the most part, when stress hormones are activated, they return to normal levels once the “threat” has passed. However, when constant stressors keep our alarm systems activated, the hormone release continues, leading to overexposure. As a result, symptoms such as anxiety, depression, digestive issues, headaches, heart disease, problems with sleep and weight management often appear. In fact, prolonged exposure to the stress hormone cortisol has been found to shrink areas of the brain that control memory.
The Symptoms
There are warning signs of different types of stress, and they can become bigger issues if they are not contained. We experience emotional and physical symptoms even when we aren’t paying attention, including:
• Irritability
• Short temper
• Headaches
• Muscle tension
• Dry mouth
• Stomach issues
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Lack of focus
• Forgetfulness
Many times, these symptoms are incorrectly attributed to other issues or even camouflaged by medication or other substances. Therefore, just because you don’t notice it, doesn’t mean that stress isn’t there.
At the acute (short-term) level, symptoms are manageable but can cause mood and concentration difficulties and interfere with your productivity.
At the episodic acute level, more serious health issues can begin to appear, and professional help may be needed in order to come up with an individualized plan of attack.
Left untreated, chronic stress can lead a person to feel as if they are trapped with no way out. Ultimately, a higher incidence of suicide, cancer, violence, heart attack and stroke make this the deadliest form of stress that people experience. (If you feel like your stress is headed to a critical level, discuss how you are feeling with your doctor or a licensed mental health professional.)
Attacking Back
While there are many well-known methods of attacking stress, there really isn't a one-size-fits-all method of reducing it. We all differ in terms of how we live, how we interact with the world, how we gain energy, and how we respond to different situations. In fact, both genetics and life experiences affect how we respond to stress. This is why stress management techniques really need to be tailored to the individual. It's possible to gain clarity and take power over stress at the early stages by diving deep into your unique goals, thinking habits, personality preferences, emotional wellness and conflict modes.
In Part 2 of this series, I'll shed more light on how you can fight back when you find that stress has launched an all-out assault on your work and life.
