summary: Stress, a reaction to demands, is not universally negative. It has its advantages. On the positive side, eustress promotes well-being and resilience.
Researchers have found that the difference between beneficial and harmful stress is primarily a matter of perception and physical response.
However, chronic stress can affect all organs, leading to anxiety, depression, and a variety of health problems.
Important facts:
- Eustress is a positive aspect of stress and increases feelings of well-being.
- Chronic stress affects all organ systems, causing anxiety, depression, and digestive problems.
- Sustained high stress levels without relief can be harmful by reducing the ability to return to a relaxed baseline.
sauce: mayo clinic
It may come as a surprise, but medically speaking, not all stress is bad. Safia Debar, MBBS, a stress management expert at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London, says healthy stress levels can help build resilience. In this expert alert, Dr. Dever explains the difference between good stress and bad stress, and how to tell when you’re at risk of overload.
Stress is a physical and psychological response to demands, and those demands can be anything, Dr. Dever says. Stress that is good for us and even gives us a sense of happiness is eustress, the opposite of pain. The same event, such as marriage, can trigger either, Dr. Dever says.
“What’s important is the perception of that stress and how your body actually deals with it,” Dr. Dever says. “Chronic stress affects every system in your body. For example, you may experience anxiety, depression, and digestive problems.”
According to Dr. Dever, when the stress response begins, stress triggers a series of reactions in the mind and body. Under normal stress, a person starts at a baseline of relaxation, encounters a stressor, the stress response begins, rises to a peak, and then returns to baseline.
Physical changes that may occur when a threat is detected include:
- The sympathetic nervous system and the production of cortisol, the main stress hormone, are activated.
- When you experience or expect something bad, your thoughts become negative. Attention becomes hyper-focused on what is happening.
- The heart, lungs, and muscles prepare for fighting and running. Your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate increase because your body needs to deliver more oxygen to your cells. My muscles become tense.
- The digestive and reproductive systems are not needed, so their activity is slowed down.
- The immune system diverts its attention from fighting microscopic invaders such as viruses and cancer cells and goes into inflammatory mode, increasing the production of proteins called cytokines that regulate this process.
“When someone recognizes that the threat has passed, the body begins to repair itself from this response and ‘tidy up’. Once the stress response is resolved, we move into a state of repair, regeneration, and growth.
Physically, breathing and heart rate slow, blood pressure normalizes, breathing becomes more expansive, muscles become less tense, the digestive and reproductive systems resume normal activity, and other You may start to connect with people and talk about the threat you just experienced. ” says Debarre..
“When stress goes up and then goes down again, our cycle is complete: no wear and tear,” Dr. Dever says.
“In fact, it’s probably good for you because it leads to increased resilience. If you’ve ever survived a stressful event in your life, processed it fully, and completed the cycle, you’re more likely to do it again the next time.” When you have that experience, you think, “Oh, but I can do it.”
However, with repeated exposure to excessive stress, Dr. Dever says, the ability to return to baseline begins to decline over time.
“Stress can increase and stay in that state, prolonging the reaction. This is when you’re hypervigilant. You’re tense, tired, and anxious.” Dr. Dever says.
“Or maybe your life has exposed you to so many stressors that you haven’t been able to respond properly. What’s important is the lack of recovery, not the actual stressor itself. After a while, the sensation may become unresponsive.”
Sometimes people think it’s better not to react, but the stress response and its chain of internal activities are still happening in the mind, Dr. Dever added. They are just hidden.
There are several signs that you may be at risk for stress overload, and it’s time to address them, Dr. Dever says.
- When stress feels constant and continuous.
- If you can’t control your stress and can’t relax or feel like you’re on autopilot.
- If you have problems controlling your emotions.
- If you start hiding from life and people.
- I am experiencing physical symptoms such as headaches, chest pain, upset stomach, trouble sleeping, and getting sick more often.
“Think about how your body deals with stress, how you deal with stress emotionally, physically, and in your relationships,” Dr. Dever says. “What to do and what not to do?”
Chronic stress can affect your health in the long term. People who are experiencing persistent physical symptoms or feel like lifestyle changes aren’t working should talk to their health care team, Dr. Dever says.
About this psychological/stress research news
author: Safia Debar
sauce: mayo clinic
contact: Safia Dever – Mayo Clinic
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
