It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.
Did you know chronic low-grade stress is far worse for your health than smoking a packet of cigarettes a day and drinking excessive alcohol?
Its amazing the number of patients I’ve seen in my clinic who don’t recognize that stress is a problem in their life. Others may develop signs and symptoms of an anxiety or panic attack and brush it off as something else.
Of course, we’re all human beings who are the same inside and are subject to various stress patterns in our lives. It is possible to recognize these patterns and take action before we succumb to the more insidious pattern of adrenal fatigue, the 21st-century stress syndrome.
Let’s look at a common scenario: flying. This is an actual case, with the patient’s name changed for privacy.
The captain of a large jet airliner had just switched off the seat belt sign when Susan’s heart started racing.
She experienced palpitations, sweaty palms, and a feeling of sickness in her tummy. Even electing to fly business class didn’t make a difference.
Susan felt awful on the plane and couldn’t understand why. After all, her doctor had given her a clean bill of health just weeks ago.
Yet, that morning on the plane, her skin felt prickly, and she knew something was wrong. Taking deep breaths didn’t help; her chest felt tight as a drum!
What Susan didn’t know was that she was experiencing her first anxiety or panic attack.
Was Susan scared of flying?
Not really. It was the chronic low-grade stress Susan had been experiencing for many years. The panic attack was triggered by an extra shot of adrenaline and cortisol, the two main stress hormones.
Susan had been working very hard for over ten years in the banking and finance sector, climbing the corporate ladder. As a successful career woman, she spent over 100 hours a week advising powerful corporate clients.
“Now that I think back, I was setting totally unrealistic expectations in my work, but I thrived on the challenge of meeting them ” she revealed.
“The stress of the job was thrilling. I loved it.!”
But all this success came at a cost. Susan had gone through a divorce, a major promotion, and the death of her mother all in the same six month period.
As Susan made her way from Auckland to Los Angeles to inform employees they were being made redundant, her body finally caught her mind’s attention.
“Eric, it was really silly because I didn’t even feel stressed,” she says.
Telling herself she was fine, Susan recovered from her panic attack. But the episodes that followed were harder to ignore, and she noticed that coffee often triggered these episodes.
Years later, fearing she might have a heart attack, Susan returned to her doctor. After performing an ECG and other heart checks, he told her she was suffering from stress-induced breathing problems.
Susan is one of those patients addicted to stress, and it was slowly killing her. Like anger, fear, anxiety, and other emotional states, stress can mean different things to different people. But the single constant in today’s fast-paced world is the status stress endows on its owner. We live in a society that encourages multitasking and working around the clock. Technology makes people far too accessible, and those who wear pressure and strain as a badge of honor are driven, consciously or subconsciously, to seek stressful situations.
Dr. James Wilson, an expert on adrenal fatigue, once told me that some folks need to go skydiving or bungee jumping just to feel great because they are so addicted to that rush of adrenaline.
We live in an age where faster, quicker, and instant has become the norm. Nobody wants to wait for anything anymore.
When we order a coffee or meal, we expect instantaneous service. And with emails: “Hey, didn’t you get my email this morning? You haven’t replied yet” is normal today, whereas years ago it was: “Did you get my fax a few days ago?”
We need to slow down a little. We have become a society of rats on treadmills with no end to the wheel turning. And the unfortunate thing is that many busy people aren’t even aware they are on that wheel themselves.
How’s your wheel going?
“People addicted to stress pursue it because they believe it to be good for them, but they ignore the increasing cost,” points out psychiatrist Dr Jeffrey Streimer.
Like many bad habits, initially stress feels good. “Some people enjoy the adrenaline rush that is associated with stressful situations,” says Dr Sarah Edelman, Australian Psychological Society spokesperson and author of “Change Your Thinking”.
“And stress can be good for us.” The healthy type of tension called “eustress” or otherwise known as good stress, can be a real motivator. It makes us more alert and pushes us to achieve. After all, people who have too little of it in their lives can become bored and unproductive.
It is when we experience constant “distress” that our bodies come under fire, and particularly the adrenal glands, the glands which help us recover from stressful events.
I have found that the fundamental problem occurs when people, like Susan, come to see stress as a “normal way of life”. And things don’t really become obvious to a stress junkie until the stress gets out of control, and then it can become harmful, like a panic attack.
“Eventually, people reach a tipping point and instead of becoming stretched in their lives, they become more strained. Instead of being a motivator, stress does the opposite and a person can become unproductive,” says Meiron Lees, author of D-Stress: “Building Resilience In Challenging Times”.
In short, chronic stress is not only damaging to our minds, it also becomes very detrimental to our health. In the old days, they used to talk of a nervous breakdown.
Today we use the term burnout. Are you heading for burnout?
The Two Main Types of Stress
This is the friendly type, which helps to motivate you to achieve your goals and leaves you feeling challenged but in control. Eustress can be as simple as fronting up to work every day, keeping appointment times, managing your kids and family life, or planning and organizing your life.
This is the bad type, which leaves you anxious, unsettled, and unmotivated. How do you know if your good stress is turning bad?
“Look for the warning signs,” says psychologist Dr. Sarah Edelman. “If you feel shaky, tense, tight in the chest, irritable, or have problems sleeping, getting grumpy with your kids and partner, then the stress is getting too much for you to handle.”
“When you feel out of control, stress usually becomes a problem and the cracks are showing,” agrees stress management expert Meiron Lees.
Top Tensions: Establishing your career and climbing the corporate ladder. Forming meaningful relationships and possibly marriage.
Stress Solution: Build the confidence to handle life’s difficulties.
“Every day, write something that went well, no matter how small. It will remind you of your achievements,” says stress management expert Lees.
Work on a regular exercise plan. It will set you up for life and focus on eating the right foods. These are good habits to cultivate early on.
Top Tensions: Managing a career with the challenges of being a parent and/or partner.
Stress Solutions: Say no and don’t overload yourself.
“Realize that although society says you can do everything, your body says you can’t. Decide what’s important in your life and make sure your time is devoted to that,” says Lees.
Delegate or let go of the rest.
Top Tensions: Trying to create wealth and establish a quality of life by balancing work and play.
Stress Solutions:
Have a plan. Whether you want an investment property or a healthy body, work out steps to get there. Outsource sources of anxiety by consulting a financial planner or a personal trainer.
Everything has to be just right. You may know someone like this or be like this yourself. Do you ever feel that no matter how much you accomplish, it’s just not good enough? Do you focus on minor mistakes rather than major achievements?
There’s nothing like a looming deadline to get your heart racing. It’s a stressor most of us experience, but some put themselves under this pressure daily by procrastinating. Psychologist Dr. Sarah Edelman explains that if someone constantly delays tasks, they might need to rethink their career or be insecure about their abilities.
If chronic stress is bad, why do we do it?
“There is the idea that to be successful means you have to work long hours and always be busy,” says Lees.
Many workers associate being stressed with being effective, reinforced by bosses who commend them for their efforts.
You might think you’re complaining about work, but you may use stress to air personal emotions. Some people look for stressful situations to release pent-up emotions caused by other aspects of their life.
“People can seek aggression to help them feel in control,” says Dr. Streimer.
6-Steps for the Management of Chronic Low-grade Stress
1. Admit the Problem: Recognize that stress plays a role in your life and is becoming a problem. Ask yourself why you’re stressing out and whether it’s helping the situation.
2. Minimize Unnecessary Stress: Don’t panic over work, weight, and the well-being of your family and friends. Choose the most important thing to contemplate right now.
3. Exercise Regularly: Exercise, such as walking, can lower cortisol levels and distract your mind from stress.
4. Eat Well: The body reacts to food stressors similarly to other stressors. Eat the right foods to avoid raising cortisol levels.
5. Relaxation: Balance work and play, ensure daily relaxation, and get plenty of sleep.
6. Supplementation: Use targeted nutritional supplementation for adrenal fatigue.