Understanding and Coping with Stress

The World Health Organization defines stress as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and threats in our lives (WHO, 2023).

I often define stress as the difference between what you believe is expected of you or what is being asked of you (the challenge or the task at hand) and what you feel able to do (the skills you have or the access to or availability to the resources you need in order to complete the task), and the shortfall between those two things….and therein lies the stress. If you feel equipped to complete what’s being asked of you, you may feel little to no stress, but when demands exceed or tac our adaptive capacity, we will likely feel a moderate to extreme amount of stress.  

Stress is a natural part of life and can take on different dimensions, including duration, frequency, proximity, and intensity. It’s also important to emphasize the element of perception here, since our response to stress reflect differences in personality, our physical response to stress, and how we appraise the stressor. Stress is a very unique and subjective experience, so what may bring about feelings of stress for one person may not for another.  

But is All Stress Bad? Not necessarily. There is a difference between eustress and distress.

Good stress is referred to as eustress because it is attributed to stressors that relatively positive and connected to personal growth and achieving milestones (such as pursuing education, getting a promotion, retiring, having relationships). These events still activate the stress response, but are experienced as pleasant overall.  Complete absence of stress or the experience of boredom is bad for the body, because there is no stimuli activating any arousal in your system. Exposure to chronic stress are considered the most toxic because they are most likely to result in long-term or permanent changes in the emotional, physiological, and behavioural responses that influence susceptibility to disease.  

We might even be able to make friends with stress. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal explores how stress doesn’t have to be the enemy. In fact, she says when we change the way we view the physiological changes that take place when our stress response is activated (like our heart rate picking up) we can reframe our attitude about stress. For example, what if we took our heart rate increasing as a sign that our body was energized in a way preparing you to meet the challenge that lied ahead of you? Or that breathing faster is getting more oxygen to your brain? By reframing stress from a negative feeling to a positive one, stress can be productive, and we can make friends with it if we direct that energy towards productivity rather than panic.   

There are several different approaches to coping with stress: 

1.)     Emotion-focused coping which focuses on the emotional and physiological effects of stress. The goal here is to feel better in the midst of stress, so this could be all the coping strategies you have to help engage your parasympathetic nervous system (having a warm bath, journalling, walking in nature). However, avoidance is a common emotion-focused coping strategy. This is problematic because it prevents effective behavioural responses . For example, you have a deadline, you feel stressed about it, so you avoid it. Does this add to your stress or take away from your stress?

Having said this, there are some positive emotion-focused coping, including: 

-engaging positive emotions (people who are most optimistic, finding the positive even in the midst of negative, counting your blessings, practicing gratitude) 

-finding benefits or meaning behind things (look for silver linings or the lesson: how have you grown from this stressful event? Reminding yourself that you have survived 100% of your bad days) 

-accommodate the stressor vs suppressing the stressor. This is similar to the serenity prayer used in AA meetings; the focus becomes accepting the reality and moving forward with life as best as you can using the resources we currently have access to. 

  2.) Problem-focused coping which focuses on altering the causes of stress. The goal here is to alter or remove the stressor itself. This might look like asking for assistance, seeking out information or education to learn more if you lack the skills or knowledge around something causing you stress, using logic and reason to avoid overexaggerating the stressor, and acting on steps that can be taken. For example, instead of seeing the huge project you have to complete and thinking about all the time it will take you to complete, focus on working on it for 10 minutes vs avoiding altogether.

3.) Prevention of stress by altering the physical environment or building resilience. Remember, the focus is on prevention vs treatment. Before you get to the burnout phase, how might you create a toolkit of sorts that you can implement if needed later down the line when experiencing a stressful situation? This might include building a social support network and connecting with individuals or groups which can act as buffers to help you cope with stress, exercising and develop a healthy lifestyle which will help you endure the physiological effects of a stress response, utilizing effective time management skills, seeking out and cultivating environments with less stress, and preparing for anticipated stressors (fail to plan and you plan to fail).

Stress management techniques are designed to activate our PNS (parasympathetic nervous system) in order to achieve homeostasis. The key is to achieve flexibility and your ability to return to a resting state after your stress response is activated. Each time you use a practice that regulates your nervous system and return to a resting state, you strengthen those neural networks in the brain which, in turn, increases your resilience or ability to bounce back from adversity.

~Kate

WHO. (2023). Stress.

The information provided by Rooted in Wellness Canada is solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. If you are struggling, you are advised to consult with your physician or other medical professionals.