Stress

Stress in a Nutshell

Stress forms in a threatening or straining situation, when we feel like our needs, goals, and abilities clash with what is demanded from us. For instance, if we don’t have the cognitive abilities or skills to finish a task, we find the situation stressful.

Examples of Common Stressors:

• constant hurry
• changes in relationships and living conditions
• lack of social relationships and feeling lonely
• lack of support
• financial problems and poverty
• unreasonable expectations and schedules
• illnesses
• bullying and discrimination
• unhealthy lifestyle

On top of the demands from outside world, we often set unachievable goals ourselves. Having too high expectations and aiming for perfection are harmless ways to live. We can’t help but fail because no one is perfect. If you have trouble accepting your imperfection, even small things can stress you out. We get stressed and experience stress individually. What stresses one person can be a resource for another. Person A gets more easily stressed than person B. Challenges in different parts of life can exhaust one person and inspire another.

Everyone has their individual reaction to stress and several factors affect stress tolerance. For instance, personality traits, situation in life and lifestyle have an effect on it, and sometimes even a little pressure in a difficult life situation can lead to stress and strain.

Not all stress is harmful, though. Beneficial stress activates us in new situations and sets us into motion. Sometimes we might even momentarily exceed our own powers. If there’s no sense of stress, we might get bored and get nothing done. The key is whether our stress is temporary or chronic. Short-term stress is usually harmless but instead it makes people perform well, unlike long-term stress which can be harmful in many ways.

Good and Bad Stress

Being excited and focused brings out the best in us. Our tasks are rewarding and make us feel in control. At best we’re able to be so immersed in our task at hand that we lose awareness of our surroundings. This is called being in a flow. When progress is made, you feel energetic and motivated. You can feel satisfied.

These experiences are related to good stress. It boosts our action, gives energy and helps focus. In a physiological sense good stress is experienced the same way as bad stress. This means that also positive stress is straining, and your body needs to recover from it.

Setting unachievable goals makes us mess things up, get tired and even panic. On the other hand, too little stimulus, doing nothing and feeling inadequate can also cause negative stress. It’s wise to adjust your demands based on your current resources. Pushing yourself too hard, having unachievable goals, perfectionism and self-punishing do not spur you into action but discourage you. Making up excuses or procrastinating are not motivating either.

Are You Stressed?

Many things affect our wellbeing and it’s important to know the limitations of your energy levels. Don’t compare your stamina with others’ because it can wear you out and increase feelings of stress. Listen to yourself when studying because study performances are individual. When you exceed a limit, your stress levels become harmful. Your mood affects your experience of stress as well. When you’re in high spirits, you can handle stressful situations better. When you’re stressed, you might neglect your wellbeing. You might feel unable to focus and make decisions. Difficult situations may seem like threats instead of challenges that require action. This can cause burnout. You’re in bad mood, feeling down and frustrated.

It’s vital to recognise the feelings of stress early on. This gives you the opportunity to act before the pressure is too high.

Green Traffic Light: High Energy Level

• Feeling some stress is fine and it keeps you alert.
• You feel like you’re coping well.
• You have enough time off to recover.

Instructions: Keep up the good work!

Yellow Traffic Light: You’re Pushing Yourself Too Hard

Chronic stress can cause:

• your mind and body getting worked up
• being tired and anxious, having trouble focus
• being irritated and tense
• trouble sleeping
• not being able to enjoy sex
• feeling down
• excess smoking and alcohol use when trying to relax
• physical symptoms such as headache, indigestion, neck and shoulder pain

Instructions: Prioritise, there’s only so much you can do. Find and remove your stressors and make sure you sleep and rest enough. If you don’t, you might risk your body being able to fully recover. Use different relaxing methods.

Red traffic light: you risk burning out if you wont’t remove stressors

Extreme chronic stress can cause:

• your mind and body being unenergetic
• lack of energy and resources, feelings of giving up, exhaustion, burnout
• underperforming and lack of trying
• indifference, feeling hopeless
• being oversensitive, crying fits
• being forgetful
• fear of losing control
• serious depression
• outbreak of illnesses

Instructions: Seek professional help. Your situation requires re-evaluating your life.

Prolonged stress can put your health at serious risk, like cause severe depression or anxiety, heart disease, high blood pressure, exhaustion and trouble sleeping. Thus, it’s important to react to signs of stress on time and make changes to decrease the stress in your life. You can also read the stress management and relaxing chapters of this course.

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