How To Deal With Stress
· 3 min read · health, mind
We all know someone who is completely unfazed by anything that you throw at them. They are always making lemonade out of the lemons life throws at them. But most of us are not like that. The largest study on stress levels was conducted in UK in 2018. It showed that almost three quarters of the people had been so worried in the past year that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. And almost one in three of them had been feeling suicidal and one in six had self-harmed.
Stress is caused by a series of events in our brain’s amygdala, its evolved threat detection module. It’s there for a very evolutionary purpose. Imagine you have encountered a lion in the African bushes. Your heart might start racing, you might start breathing heavily. Or you may freeze, unable to move. You may also have the urge to run away. These are all symptoms of stress and essentially prepared the early humans to face danger in the African savanna. In today’s world stress may come from a variety of sources. Normal stressors are meant to make you feel nervous and scared for a short time and are meant to help us cope with something we perceive as danger. The challenge comes when some of these evolve to a long lasting stressor. Most of our bodies are not designed to deal with it.
Whenever our amygdala senses danger, it sends out two kinds of distress signals. The first triggers our ancient fight-or-flight system. This pumps out adrenaline, making us more alert, breathing more efficiently and pumping blood into our muscles - the better to outrun that lion in the African plains. The second pumps the hormone cortisol, which keeps our stress response active and releases stored glucose in our blood to give us energy.
The good news is that by understanding how stress works, we can learn to manage it and be like our never stressed out friend.
There are certain things that affect this diverse stress response in our bodies. One is genetics. There is a chemical called Neuropeptide Y or NPY that acts as an on-off switch for stress. When we are stressed, production soars and triggers a rapid response but levels quickly return to normal once the danger is over. It’s been seen in studies conducted on elite soldiers that people who can sustain higher levels of NPY can deal with stress for a longer period without getting stressed. And since we all inherit different genes to control production of NPY in our bodies, some of this response is genetic.
Upbringing is another factor in our response to stress. It has been seen in studies that early childhood trauma, particularly before two years of age, affects an individual’s reaction to stress as an adult. Those who suffered trauma at that age had a decreased level of cortisol in their system, indicating underlying damage to the normal stress response. This was also associated with long-term behavioral problems and an increased risk of depression.
Studies have shown that building resilience, practicing mindfulness and meditating daily help alleviate stress to a significant level. Also a loving and healthy family with plenty of social relationships has been shown to help build resilience against stress. And the role of diet is an important one. Chemicals called resolvins, which our body synthesises from omega-3 fatty acids, help inflammation return to normal after the initial reaction to stress is over. Also exercise has been shown to be enormously beneficial to reduce stress. It works by reducing stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and producing endorphins. And if exercising is too much work, try laughter therapy. Laughing releases some of the same hormones as exercise and makes us less likely to ruminate on stressful events. So the next time you are stressed, tune in to that stand up comedy show you had been meaning to watch a long time and watch away and see your stress levels reducing. Or if stand up comedy is not your cup of tea, open up YouTube and watch some Rowan Atkinson skits as Mr. Bean and laugh away. And there is evidence that taking part in group activities like singing or dancing your hearts away reduces stress as well. Or even something as mundane as a picnic with friends.
And above all, don’t forget that a little bit of stress isn’t a bad thing. After all, there is the old adage, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’.