Explaining Stress
Stress is your body’s reaction to a particular degree of stimulation. Stress is highly individual. What may be stressful to you could be exhilarating to someone else. Some stress is good, but too much is bad. Eustress is stress that has a positive effect, like exercise. Eustress energizes you and motivates you to make a change; it increases your performance.
On the other hand, distress negatively affects you, and can cause fatigue, mood changes, a lack of sleep, chest pain, a change in appetite, and digestion issues. Distress is what you are thinking of when you think about the general term “stress.” You can separate distress, or just “stress,” into three types: acute, episodic, and chronic.
Acute Stress
Acute stress occurs with change. If you are suffering from acute stress, then you are dealing with changes that you are not use to. This could be a change in your job, your diet, your relationships, or your exercise routine. Acute stress disturbs your body’s equilibrium, and this unbalancedness results in “a lot of nervous energy.” Under acute stress you may feel over-aroused, short-tempered, irritable, anxious, or tense.
Episodic Stress
Episodic stress is similar to acute stress, because it also involves change. The difference is that episodic stress has many life changes that occur all at once and over a certain time period. You could think of episodic stress as suffering from multiple personal disasters back-to-back in a week, month, or even a year.
For example, if your roof caves in, you overdraw your checking account, you get sick, and get a speeding ticket all in the same week, you’ll have episodic stress. It is described as always being “in the midst of tragedy” and “having terrible luck.” Symptoms of episodic stress are feeling overwrought, intense, irritable, angry, and anxious.
Nonetheless, episodic stress can also be due to a series of positive changes in your life. For example, episodic stress can occur if you have a whirlwind romance, a big wedding, a tropical destination honeymoon, a new home purchase, and you move in with your new spouse all in one year. All this change is fun, romantic, and thrilling, but it’s also stressful.
Episodic stress can also come in the form of worrying. Worrying is like inventing stress before it happens. Excessive worrying can develop into anxiety. Worrying and anxiety can cause dry mouth, heart palpitations, hyperventilation, and fatigue. Worrying is mostly a matter of habit. You can retrain your brain by getting a move on. All the bent up energy that goes into worrying can be diffused in an exercise routine like jogging in the park while getting fresh air.
Chronic Stress
Chronic stress is different from acute or episodic stress, because it does not involve change. It is constant, long-term stress on your body, spirit, and mind that is unrelenting. An example of chronic stress would be living in poverty for years. Another example is having a chronic illness like migraine headaches or rheumatoid arthritis, or another health condition that causes constant pain.
Chronic stress can develop as a result of either acute or episodic stress. For example, a sudden illness can result in chronic pain. Another example is an abused child growing up to be self-loathing or have low self-esteem. Be careful not to get used to chronic stress. When you suffer from chronic stress you have “nervous breakdown” energy. You should be trying to get out of such a situation.
Effects of Stress
All types of stress have the potential to cause a downward spiral in your overall health, such as anxiety, depression, illness, and spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical breakdowns. Stress can even kill by causing a heart attack, suicide, a stroke, or some violent act. This is why you should be implementing techniques for stress management.
You can’t eliminate all stress, but you can minimize negative stress. Some stress management techniques can be doing social activities, having alone or quiet time, meditation, assertiveness training, and learning to delegate. There are four parts to stress management: your stress tolerance point, your stress triggers, your stress vulnerability factors, and your stress response tendencies.
The Process of Stress Management
Step One: The Stress Tolerance Point
The first step in stress management is understanding how much stress you can handle. This is called your stress tolerance point. Your stress tolerance point is the point when your response to stress turns from productive to counterproductive. Stress feels good and increases performance until a turning point – the stress tolerance point. Performance decreases after this point, and the effects on the body turn from positive to negative. The stress tolerance point depends on the individual, so you will have to determine if you respond positively to a high, medium, or low level of stress.
However, for the purposes of filling out a stress log, you will grade your stress on a scale of one to ten (ten being the most stressful, and one being the least). Scores from three to about seven mean that you were moderately stimulated and relatively productive. Scores below a three mean that you were under stimulated and probably bored. Scores of eight or higher mean that you were over stimulated which most likely caused chaos and strain.
Step Two: Stress Triggers
The second step in stress management is to figure out which category most of your stress triggers fall under. Triggers are the things that cause stress. Categories for stress triggers include environmental stress, personal stress, physiological stress, and social stress. Environmental stress is caused by the world around you (perhaps environmental changes). For example, you may feel stressed if you move to a new home in the city when you are used to a suburban environment.
Personal stress is the stress that is caused by your personal life. Think in the realm of your sense of self-worth, your self-esteem, and your perception of relationships. Physiological stress is stress that happens to your body, like an illness or pain. Migraine headaches, arthritis, cancer, stroke, and a heart attack all cause physiological stress. This kind of stress also includes hormonal changes in your body like PMS, menopause, or pregnancy. Social stress is related to your own appearance in the world. How do you think people see you? How do others react to what you do? Societal opinions and reactions concerning you are the source of your social stress.
Step Three: Stress Vulnerabilities
The third step in stress management is determining your stress vulnerabilities which have to do with your personal tendencies. Your stress vulnerabilities indicate how sensitive you are to stress in certain areas. Your stress vulnerabilities are related to your stress triggers.
Examples of stress vulnerability areas include: spending too much time alone or a lack of social content (for those who are extroverted); spending too much time around others (for those who are introverted); worrier/caretaker responsibilities (usually those with dependents); financial pressure (those concerned about financial status or worried about getting needs met); family dynamics (bad familial relationships); obsessive worrying (those who are prone to worry); the need for constant validation by others (those who are worried about their personal image); a lack of self-control, motivation, or organization (for those who haven’t taken control of their habits or life); a need to control (for those with control issues); job/career (for those under high pressure to succeed); and low self-esteem (for those vulnerable to attacks on their self esteem).
Step Four: Stress Response Types
The fourth step in stress management is to determine how you typically respond to stress. There are four categories for stress responses: ignore, react, attack, and manage. You have an ignore stress response type if you tend to ignore the stress in your life. This can be a good coping strategy sometimes. Other times it’s less productive when it is better for you to acknowledge your stress and then resolve it. You have a react stress response type if you tend to react to stress in ways that are either unhelpful or distracting. Examples include self indulgence like reaching for snacks, drinking alcohol, or smoking.
You have an attack stress response type if you don’t just handle stress, you throttle it. You refuse to let stress get the better of you, but you sometimes go overboard. You have a manage stress response type if you do a good job of managing the stress in your life. Your reactions to stress tend to be moderate instead of extreme. You give yourself time to assess a situation before acting on it, and you don’t worry a lot about the things that you can’t control. The manage stress response type is clearly the desired outcome.
Step Five: The Daily Stress Log
The fifth step in stress management is keeping a daily stress log. You begin a stress log at the end of a day. First, you list out what your stress triggers where for that day. Next, you are going to assign a vulnerability score for each trigger on a scale of one to ten (ten being the most vulnerable, and one being the least). When assigning a vulnerability score for your triggers, think about the number line showed in the Scoring Stress With The Stress Tolerance Point graphic. You have to determine how much a trigger affected your stress score for that day. The more a trigger raises your stress score, the more vulnerable you were to that trigger.
Next, score your overall stress for that day on a scale of one to ten (you can use the Scoring Stress With The Stress Tolerance Point graphic for this also). Now, indicate in the stress log if you were “At” your stress tolerance point (usually scores between three to seven), “Below” your stress tolerance point (for scores below three), or “Above” your stress tolerance point (for scores around eight and higher).
Step Six: Implement Stress Relief Techniques
The sixth step in stress management is to implement stress relief techniques. One set of techniques you can use to help relieve stress is breathing exercises . A popular breathing technique used for reducing anxiety is the 4-7-8 breathing technique. With this method, you breathe in for four seconds, hold the breath for seven seconds, and exhale for eight seconds.
You can use this method at any time of the day to help rest your mind; however, many people use this method to battle anxiety at bedtime so that they can get to sleep. Breathing exercises are also used in meditation, which is another technique for relieving stress. There are many types of meditation styles, including mindfulness.
Step Seven: Measuring Results
The seventh step in stress management is measuring results. After recording your stress in the stress log, and then implementing stress relief techniques to deal with that stress, you need to monitor the results of implementing your stress relief techniques. You can do so with the Stress Technique Monitor Log shown in the graphic here. You can use this simple stress technique log to monitor how effective your stress techniques have been for you.
To fill out the log, you will list the stress relief technique that you have implemented. Next, you will list how often you have used this technique (e.g. number of times per day or per week). Next, you will rate how effective you think this technique has been at relieving your stress on a scale of one to ten (ten being the most effective, and one being the least). Then you will indicate whether you will keep this technique (by marking “K”) or not keep it (by marking “N”). Fill out the log for every stress relief technique that you use, and you will be able to figure out what is working for you and what is not. At Sambience BTG, we give you best wishes for lower stress levels! And if you should ever fill that your stress is having a negative effect on your mental health such that you can not handle it on your own, do reach out to a professional like a counselor or therapist.
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