Clear Thinking About Stress
Clear Thinking About Stress
Bruce Taylor
Unison
Coaching
Introduction
There seems to be a lot of confusion and loose thinking about
stress in popular journals and books. How else can you explain
terms like "good stress" and concepts like "A certain amount of
stress is good for you," or advice like "Stress is unavoidable."
Once you understand the meaning of stress you'll realize that
stress is always harmful, that there is no "safe" level of
stress, and that you can deflect stress if you know how. Let's
start by straightening out the definition of stress: stress is
not a mental or emotional state, and it's certainly not a moral
or metaphysical issue. Stress is a physiological and medical
condition, produced by prolonged feelings of insecurity and
anxiety.
Physical and Mental Symptoms
The Japanese word, "karoshi" means, approximately, "death by
stress," and it's a significant source of mortality among
Japanese workers, especially middle-aged white collar men.
Stress kills them either directly, by causing their bodies to
break down, or indirectly, through depression and suicide. In
either case, stress is bad news and it's no exaggeration to say
that your life is at stake in a stressful situation. Chronic
stress has been linked to degenerative diseases of the heart,
brain, intestines, skin, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and immune
system. There is virtually no system or organ of your body that
isn't at risk from stress.
Our Biological Inheritance
If stress is so harmful, why in the world are we so susceptible
to it? Wouldn't you think that evolution would have eliminated
it? In a sense, stress was invented millions of years ago, long
before we became human, as an adaptation to living in a
dangerous world. To explain this paradox, let's imagine one of
our long-ago ancestors on the plains of Africa who suddenly
looks up and sees a leopard on the branch over his head. In much
less than half a second, without any conscious thought, his
brain registers the picture of the leopard and classifies it as
a life-threatening danger. Then the brain starts to mobilize the
body either to run away or for defense.
Fight or Flight?
When the brain perceives the leopard in the tree and decides
that it is dangerous, it sends a signal to the adrenal glands,
which sit on top of your kidneys. In response, the adrenal
glands produce two hormones: first adrenaline and later
cortisol.
Adrenaline acts very quickly on almost every part of your body.
Your heart begins to beat more quickly and strongly, the small
blood vessels in your skin contract (that's why you look "white
as a sheet" after you're scared), your stomach stops digesting
food, and your vision narrows to a "tunnel". All of these
changes make you, for a little while, stronger and quicker than
you normally are - ready to run away from the leopard.
As you're running away from the leopard, the adrenal glands
start to produce a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol acts to
increase the amount of sugar in your blood for quick energy, and
if you have to flee for days and days without food, cortisol
helps your body convert muscle and bone into energy.
The combined effect of adrenaline and cortisol is to give us
the energy we need to deal with dangerous situations - and
that's why we evolved the fight/flight response in the first
place.
Where Does the Stress Come In?
As long as your body is reacting to a leopard in a tree,
everything is fine: you run away and the stress hormones start
to disappear after an hour or so. But if you can neither run
away from the danger nor fight it, then the levels of stress
hormones never go down. The adrenaline keeps on making your
heart beat hard, and the cortisol keeps breaking down muscle and
bone to keep your blood sugar high. If this goes on for days at
a time, you will start to feel the effects: changes in your
sleep and eating patterns, tunnel vision, abnormal tiredness,
and a general anxiety and uneasiness. What we commonly call
stress is your perception of your body's physical reactions to
elevated hormones.
Why Does Work Cause Stress?
"Well," you might ask, "That's all very nice about reacting to
the leopard in the tree, but why does my work trigger a stress
reaction - I haven't noticed any leopards about." It seems that
the brain is not very sophisticated about recognizing danger: it
reacts to an angry boss, or an upcoming deadline, or an office
bully in just the way it would react to the leopard: it starts
to mobilize the stress hormones to either fight or run away. But
in the office you can't do either one - you can't punch people
in the nose and you have to come back tomorrow, even if you
don't want to. This combination of perceiving danger and not
being able to do anything about it triggers job stress, and it
won't stop until you can either fight or flee.
More Control Means Less Stress
If lack of control makes stress worse, then it follows that
being in control counters stress. "Being in control" means
different things to different people. For some workers, it just
means getting to decide when they take their breaks, and to have
some flexibility in scheduling. For others, it means getting to
decide how to get the job done: what order to machine the parts
or how to process the forms most efficiently. But for all
workers, getting to make decisions about how and when to do
their job reduces the feeling of danger, lowers stress and
improves health.
Learning Conquers Stress
Many, many studies show that one of the best things you can do
to reduce your stress level is to start learning something new.
Ideally, it should be something new at work, but that's not
necessary. If you're feeling stress at work, taking an evening
course, or even listening to books on tape helps put you back in
control of your life and, as we've seen, more control produces
less stress.
Social Support Helps Fight Stress
The last big thing that you can do to reduce your stress level
is to build up a set of friends to support you. Studies show
that, when assembly line workers are allowed to talk and
socialize at their work stations, their level of stress goes
down and the quality and speed of their work goes up. Similarly,
if you can walk down the hall and drop in on a friend for a
five-minute conversation, the social contact will start to
reduce your anxiety and the stress associated with it.
What Does This All Mean For You?
We started out with the fuzzy thinking that produces notions
like "good stress," and we learned that stress is inherently bad
for you - very bad. We discovered that stress is not just in
your head - it's making changes in your entire body. And we
learned why we have stress in the first place - it's a leftover
reaction to perceived danger, that gets triggered by modern-day
situations like toxic work environments. And we learned at least
three ways to reduce your stress level - take more control,
start learning new skills, and develop a social support network.
The bottom line is this: you need to take job stress seriously,
because it can kill you; and there are actions you can take
right now, on your own, to start lowering your stress.
About Bruce Taylor
Bruce Taylor is the owner and principal of Unison Coaching, and
helps people deal with difficult tasks and decisions in their
lives. Bruce specializes in helping workers cope with stressful
jobs, toxic job environments, and workplace bullying. He can be
reached at bruce_taylor@unison
coaching.com