What is Stress?
I want you to take a second and imagine you’re a Zebra… you’re big and stripey and on the African Savannah eating grass, hanging out with your Zebra mates. You hear a noise that sounds like trouble, it’s a Lion! You start to run and everyone else runs too, you keep running until the Lion catches one of your pals that had a dodgy leg and couldn’t keep up.
What do you do now? Chances are normal business resumes; you go back to eating grass and looking for fresh water. You are no longer focused on the Lion. The danger has passed.
You might be wondering why we are talking about Zebras in a mental health blog. Great question! The reason is that this example perfectly demonstrates the purpose of a stress response. Stress is a reaction to pressure or threat. It’s our brain’s way of understanding our environment and providing us with the means to respond, in the case of Zebras, it’s about putting effort and energy into running away from the Lion. To be able to outrun a lion, Zebras need help from their bodies so they will notice physical symptoms like an increase in heart rate, faster breathing, bodily tension, a tight jaw and sweating.
Take a second to think about how you feel when you are stressed, are there any similarities here between you and the Zebra? Chances are it’s a very relatable story and that’s because the same rules apply. We have the same equipment in our brains as Zebras and therefore we respond in the same way.
The difference is the stress response, for the most part, is better suited to Zebras than humans. Zebras don’t have many things to get stressed about, it’s all ‘find lunch but don’t be lunch’ to them. Humans on the other hand have LOADS of things to get stressed about; work, family, health, the cost of living, parenting, relationships and not just the realities of these things but the worries we have about those things too. Our lives are more complicated than our worry-free grass munching friends on the Savannah, but we all still respond to stress in the same way.
It’s not all bad news though, sometimes a stress response is useful. Just like with our zebras, having a heightened awareness and quick response helped them to be motivated to act quickly in the face of threat. Stress can be helpful for us in very similar ways and there will be times where you have risen to the occasion in difficult times and handled things incredibly well!
Stress becomes a problem when we feel we have too many problems to deal with and we do not think we can cope with them. This can make our stress response last for longer and we might start to engage in different behaviours to manage our stress that can ultimately make things worse.
For example, do you avoid problems, put them off, avoid taking responsibility for them, use alcohol/illicit substances/food to cope or try to solve everything all at once? Although we are built to help ourselves in times of crisis, we often do things that are only helpful in the short term but create longer term problems which ultimately keeps our stress going. Take a second to think if your coping strategies are only helpful in the short term?
Here's some ideas to consider that might help you manage your stress differently:
Write a problem list and identify all the things that are contributing to your stress. Be specific about the issues, rather than writing ‘money problems’, write down ‘£2500 debt on my credit card.’ It might be difficult to face the realities of your stress, but you can’t tackle what you can’t see.
Take time to look at how you are dealing with your problem list and take small steps towards breaking them down.
Ask for help. You don’t have to be alone in your stress. There are people and professional support services available to help you.
Take time to look at your life and your day-to-day routine. Are there any patterns that might be contributing to your stress? For example, are you working too much and not getting enough sleep, not spending time with family and friends, or engaging in hobbies and exercise? A good work life balance is important for reducing stress.
Find time to be out in nature. A 15 minute walk a day can have significant effects on mental health and mood.
Take time to meditate to keep your focus in the present rather than in all the spiralling worried thoughts about the other bad stressors that might come your way (see our blog on mindfulness).
If you try all these things and still need some help, therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be useful for understanding what might be keeping your stress going and teaching you ways to manage it. If you want more information, please click the link below to get in touch and book an assessment.