WHAT IS STRESS & WHAT CAUSES IT?

Stress is one of the words that we say and hear almost every day in our lives. When there is a lot of work load that we do not even know how to begin to tackle, we can feel stressed out. When there is heavy traffic and we arelate for work or school, we can feel stressed out. Some people are more vulnerable than others to stress; for some, even everyday decisions or tasks feeltoo great to be overcome. What is stressful to one person is not necessarily stressful to another. Some of the most common causes of stress are bereavement, family problems, illness, financial matters, relationships, overcrowding, pollution, a buildup of minor challenging situations and many more. But do we really know what stress is and how it affects our physical and mental health?

To simply put, stress is the feeling we have when under pressure, while stressors are the things we respond to in our environment. Stress is caused by two things. Primarily it is down to whether we think situations around us are worthy of stress or distress. And then it is down to how our body reacts to our thought processes. This instinctive physical response to unexpected events or stressors is known as ‘fight or flight’.

Our fight or flight response is our body’s sympathetic nervous system reacting to a stressful event. Our body produces larger quantities of the chemicals cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline, which trigger the physical reactions listed below in order to help us protect ourselves in a dangerous or challenging situation.

When we are stressed the following physical responses happen:

Heart rate (pulse) rises

Blood pressure rises

Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body (e.g., genitals leading to difficulty obtaining erection)

Dilation of blood vessels in major muscles in the body (e.g., legs)

Breathing becomes more rapid (hyperventilation)

Increased release of fats and sugars (to increase energy supply for muscular action)

Pupil dilation

Relaxation of bladder (need to urinate)

Digestive system slows down

Digestion slows down or stops

Immune system goes down

Muscles become tense, particularly around the neck, shoulders and chest areas, and jaw

Increased mental alertness

Increased sweating

Tunnel Vision

Stress Vs. Anxiety

In any given day, everyone experiences stress or anxiety. Are they different? Yes they are. Stress is typically the feeling of feeling as though your demands outweigh your resources. In other words, feeling overwhelmed with pressure, which results in a flight or fight response. Such stress thoughts might be “I have so many assignments to get done by the end of the week – why did I leave all this to the last minute?”. In this situation, the person feels under the pump to get a high load of work done in a short amount of time, but they are not necessarily worried that it is not going to work out okay in the end.

Anxiety on the other hand, has a similar physiological response of flight or fight, though is quite different on a cognitive (thought) level. For a similar situation of assignments being due, the thought may be along the lines of “There are so many assignments to get done by the end of the week. There is no way that I am going to finish these. I’m going to fail for sure, then I’m not going to be able to graduate, everyone else is going to graduate instead, and I’m going to look like an idiot”. With anxiety, fear overcomes all emotions accompanied by worry and apprehension (e.g., if will complete all the assignments in time, or fail), making a person a recluse and a bagful of jitters. Other symptoms are chest pains, dizziness, and shortness of breath and panic attacks.

If stress persists, it can turn into an anxiety, and this anxiety can remain even after the stressor has gone or been resolved.

The physical symptoms of anxiety are caused by the brain sending messages to parts of the body to prepare for the “fight or flight” response. The heart, lungs and other parts of the body work faster. The brain also releases stress hormones, including adrenaline.

Common indicators of anxiety include:

• Diarrhea
• Dry mouth
• Rapid heartbeat or palpitations
• Dissociative feelings where you feel as though you are outside of your body, or the world seems unreal
• Insomnia
• Irritability or anger
• Inability to concentrate
• Fear of going “crazy” or losing control
• The feeling of worry and apprehension, and fear
• Mind racing that you find difficult to slow down

There may also be panic attacks which are periods of really intense anxiety or fear that come on within minutes and during these periods, it is typical to feel as though you are going “crazy”, losing control, having a heart attack, or going to die.

Symptoms of Stress