You’ve probably felt at some point that everyday life was an uphill struggle. Moments of nervousness, of feeling that there simply weren’t enough hours in the day. You may have felt rushed through life and even started to notice physical symptoms as a result. Does that sound familiar? That’s stress. And although everyone talks about it, do we really know what it is? In this post, we clear things up.
Stress, uncovered
Stress is a normal—and sometimes even essential—reaction in all people. It occurs in response to changes or situations that pose a threat or simply increase demands beyond what is usual. This response, which involves a series of physiological, emotional, and behavioral changes, helps our bodies adapt to these situations.
Stressors can be of very different kinds. For example, hunger, lack of sleep, or cold can trigger stress in order to ensure our survival. Likewise, emotional factors such as anxiety or anger can also provoke it. One particular feature of stress is that the way it manifests in a person is independent of the type of factor that triggers it—in other words, the body activates the same mechanisms whether the cause is a physical injury or bad news.
So how is it possible that something necessary for our survival can also undermine our emotional well-being?
Hero or villain?
Saying “I’m stressed” is almost always synonymous with discomfort. Stress is often seen only in a negative light, as the villain of the story. However, stress has been preserved through evolution because it has been—and still is—extremely useful and necessary to ensure our survival and adaptation to environmental demands. When a threat appears, our body activates a series of responses aimed at increasing efficiency, such as boosting energy availability or heightening alertness and vigilance. This state of hyperactivation is known as the fight-or-flight response and involves the activation of processes that provide us with the tools we need to face the situation.
Just as this mechanism helped us escape predators in prehistoric times, in today’s world stress helps us overcome everyday challenges that are necessary to achieve positive outcomes. For example, it gives us that extra energy, focus, and motivation to pass an important exam, give a public presentation, or care for a newborn—even when we’ve been seriously sleep-deprived for weeks. This type of occasional stress is known as eustress, or positive stress, and it helps us grow, mature, and thrive. A certain level of stress actually optimizes our abilities. In fact, when we are below our optimal stress threshold, with low physical, psychological, and biological demands, the body runs at “half speed,” which can even lead to fatigue or apathy if rest is excessive.
However, when the frequency, duration, or intensity of stress episodes increases—or when they are not followed by a recovery period—it turns into distress, or negative stress. Distress is experienced as unpleasant and is characterized by excessive and dysregulated psychological and physiological activation, which diminishes our well-being and causes significant personal wear and tear.
In short, while a certain amount of stress can turn us into a better version of ourselves, beyond the optimal level the body becomes overstimulated, exhausted, and worn out. As in so many areas of life, the key lies in balance.
The physiology of stress
On a physiological level, when the nervous system detects a stressor, it activates the production of certain molecules in the adrenal glands, such as catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline) and glucocorticoids (cortisol and cortisone). These hormones trigger a series of changes in the body. Initially, catecholamines increase heart rate and breathing rate, cause blood vessels to constrict, promote blood clotting, and increase muscle tension. If the stressor persists, glucocorticoids raise blood pressure, increase liver glucose production, and mobilize energy reserves, boosting triglyceride and cholesterol levels in the blood. In addition, the activity of certain systems that are not essential for survival—such as the immune or reproductive systems—is inhibited.
When maintained over long periods of time, these adaptations are responsible for the metabolic and organic alterations associated with stress.
Knowing and identifying our limits
Stress manifests differently from person to person, which is why it’s advisable to recognize what happens in our own case and establish our personal “stress thermometer.”
In general, stress can cause noticeable changes in our bodies, such as headaches or chest pain, muscle tension or pain, fatigue, digestive issues, changes in sexual desire, or difficulty falling asleep. It’s also very common to experience mood changes such as anxiety, restlessness, lack of motivation or concentration, irritability, sadness, depression, or the feeling that we can’t cope with everything. Finally, we may observe behavioral changes such as eating more or less than usual, exercising less, outbursts of anger, increased use of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, and social withdrawal. Do you recognize yourself in any of these?
It’s important to be aware of which stress levels are tolerable for each person and of our own capacity to adapt to stress. Certain genetic traits, personality factors, as well as social and economic circumstances or events that occurred early in life, influence our ability to cope with it. Being clear about our tolerance threshold allows us to improve our quality of life and live more calmly.
