Stress! Show me someone who says they’ve never experienced it and I’ll show you someone who is lying…or superhuman…but probably lying. Stress comes from a multitude of sources and 2020 has given us plenty of opportunities for it: job loss, health concerns, keeping our families safe and healthy. Unfortunately, all of it can take its toll on our bodies. 

What exactly do I mean when I refer to stress? Well, stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. This tension can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. Stress is your body’s normal reaction to a challenge or demand. In short bursts, stress can actually be positive. Consider a time when stress helps you avoid danger or finish a project by its deadline. But, what keeps us alive can also kill us. In other words, it can be handy for focus, but constant and continuous exposure to stress can change your brain.

Sources of Stress

Stress can come from good and bad things. It isn’t always triggered by the same thing for different people, but here are some of the common causes of stress:

• Being unhappy in or losing your job
• Having a heavy workload, working long hours, or having too much responsibility
• Arguments at home or even domestic violence
• The death of a loved one
• Divorce or marital problems
• Increased financial obligations
• Getting married
• Moving to a new home
• Having a chronic illness or injury
• Emotional problems (depression, anxiety, anger, grief, guilt, low self-esteem)
• Taking care of an elderly or sick family member
• A traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, theft, rape, or violence against you or a loved one

Sometimes you can stress yourself out by just worrying. Worry, fear, and anxiety are actually common culprits of stress. When you regularly hear about the threat of terrorist attacks, global warming, toxic chemicals, or Covid-19 on the news, it can cause you to feel stressed, especially because you feel like you have no control over those events. And even though disasters are typically rare, the constant and vivid coverage in the news may make stress worse. Fears can also hit closer to home, such as being worried that you won’t have enough money to pay your bills this month. 

Attitudes, perceptions, and the way you view the world can also determine what causes you stress. For example, if your car is stolen and you take the attitude, “I have insurance, so I can buy a new one,” you’ll be far less stressed than if you think, “My car is gone and I’ll never get it back! What if the thieves follow the GPS and come to my house to steal something else?” Similarly, people who feel like they’re doing a good job at work tend to be less stressed than those who worry that they are incompetent.

Unrealistic expectations lead to stress for many people. No one is perfect. If you expect to do everything right all the time, you’re setting yourself up to feel stressed when things don’t go as planned.

Your stress level will differ based on your personality and how you respond to situations. Some people let everything roll off their back, like water rolls off a duck. To them, work stresses and life stresses are just minor bumps in the road. Others will literally worry themselves sick. Sometimes, it’s healthier to “be a duck”.

Science has also studied the biological markers of hereditary stress and the trans-generational influences of stress.  We know we inherit mitochondrial DNA from our mothers, so researchers are studying the generation after significant events to see if their stressors are behavioral or truly inherited. For example, studies have been done on the children of Holocaust survivors as part of the research. Are their children more biologically dispositioned to stress because of their parents’ trauma? Did you parents endure a traumatic event before your birth that may have passed onto you in your DNA?

Also interesting is that men and women have different strategies and seem to use different parts of their brain when dealing with stress. Males and females exhibit differences in how they learn to extinguish fear related behaviors, so gender can play a role in stress.

Allostatic Load & Physiological Responses to Stress

If you’ve been stressed (even for a short period of time), you may start to experience physical symptoms as a result. These are some of the most common physical signs:

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Difficulty sleeping
• Moodiness 
• Isolating yourself
• Difficulty concentrating
• Upset stomach
• Irritability

When thinking about stress, the thing I am particularly concerned with is Allostatic load. Allostatic load is “the wear and tear on the body” and can accumulate as an individual is exposed to repeated or chronic stress. The term was coined by Bruce McEwen in 1993 to represent the physiological consequences of fluctuating or heightened neural or neuroendocrine responses which result from repeated or prolonged chronic stress. 

Bear with me while I get a little scientific with you. Allostasis is the process of achieving stability through physiological or behavioral change. Basically, your brain begins to predict your response to stimuli by regulating or stabilizing your internal sensations. Your brain anticipates your needs and prepares to fulfill them before they arise.

Your brain works with your body to regulate a lot of things – core body temperature, blood sugar levels, heart beat, breathing, etc. When you are repeatedly exposed to stressors (whether from an external source or internal mindset), your brain conditions your body to respond to it – sometimes unnecessarily. It’s almost like changing the new ‘normal’ of your body to be in constant defensiveness.

A stressor would normally initiate the fight or flight instinct of survival – which again, can be beneficial in some situations. However, people in allostatic overload experience an exceeding demand on their energy supply and their body becomes accustomed to living in emergency mode. The “flight” mode of the fight or flight instinct isn’t triggered anymore. In order to reset this, individuals would need to learn new behaviors and make significant and intentional changes to help reverse the conditioning done in their brains and bodies.

Reducing the Risks

To reduce and manage high allostatic load, individuals should pay attention to structural and behavioral factors. Structural factors include their social environment and access to health services. Behavioral factors include diet, physical health, and tobacco use, which can lead to chronic disease. 

Low socio-economic status also affects allostatic load. Focus on eliminating the causes of low SES will reduce allostatic load levels. Support from the community and the social environment can manage high allostatic load. Achieving financial stability allows people to gain control and improve their psychological health. Improving inequalities in health decreases the stress levels and improves health by reducing high allostatic load on the body.

Lastly, improving sleep quality and quantity, self-esteem and wellbeing, diet, and avoidance of alcohol or drugs can make stress more manageable, along with physical activity to improve health and significantly reduce the onset of high allostatic load.

One of the greatest things you can do to tackle your stress load and reduce allostatic overload is to partner with a trained professional who can help you along the way. We have tools and practical activities to implement which help you regain control of your brain and body’s response to stress stimuli. Ready to conquer your stress levels? Call me today and let’s chat.

-Joel