Someone who had been suffering from severe stress once said to me that he had come to the conclusion that stress is self inflicted. I found this an interesting thought that I had not considered before.
We think of stress as something external. A dark shadow of pressure that hangs over us, bearing down and crushing us. Stress weakens our resolve and damages our self confidence. It leaves us drained and exhausted but if it is an external force we could hardly say that stress is self inflicted so can it be true that we bring it upon ourselves?
Causes Of Stress
The causes of stress are almost as varied as the people who suffer from it. The causes are often external but invariably they are problems we could cope with when we feel positive and strong. The trouble seems to be when we are feeling less strong, less confident of ourselves and emotionally more fragile.
Stress in the natural world is a positive effect. It helps wild animals avoid succumbing to attack from another animal. Stress is often referred to as the fight or flight mechanism and that works well in the natural world. The problem for us in the 21st century is that we are generally far removed from the natural world. For many of us the stress we feel comes from paperwork, personal relationships and legal requirements and duties. For most of us in the western world the stress is more likely to be about our inability to do anything practical and constructive about financial problems than it is about choosing whether to fight or run from a hungry wild animal.
Physical Responses To Stress
The physical responses to stress remain much as they did 10,000 years ago. Your body will produce adrenaline to help in our battle with the predator or to help us run away. Our blood supply may increase as our heart pumps more blood around the body to fill our muscles with oxygen and energy ready to take action. This is one reason why exercise can be beneficial when you are experiencing stress because it uses up that adrenaline release as you burn off energy exercising.
Stress Is Self Inflicted
When all we can do is sit there and worry about a problem the physical responses to stress can become counter productive giving us lots of energy to worry even more about whatever the stress provoking problem may be. So, yes, our body does inflict stress on us and therefore stress is self inflicted but we do not do this consciously or intentionally.
The lack of opportunity to make use of the bodily reactions to stress makes us feel more pressured and uncomfortable. This is the modern world and in this world we are more likely to become angered or feel threatened by an email than a Lion and we need to establish a sensible way of coping when stress is self inflicted in this way.
Coping Strategies For Times When Stress Is Self Inflicted
There are all types of coping strategies promoted and a couple are mentioned here.. Two Techniques For Coping With Stress but coping techniques need to be personal. What works for someone else may not work for you. The main feature of all these techniques for coping when stress is self inflicted is to allow yourself to avoid the stress by not letting the problem get to you. Build some sort of self defence mechanism that puts things into perspective and says, ‘This is not such a big deal’, even if it is.
Stress Can Have A Paralyzing Effect
Stress can have a paralyzing effect and it can stop us from thinking clearly and leave us totally confused and unsure how to react but being prepared and learning coping techniques can allow us to cope better and, hopefully, avoid many of the effects stress can induce in us. We cannot completely stop physical reactions that have been inbuilt for generations but we can use our improved knowledge of the effects of stress and have procedures in place that help us avoid the worst effects when stress is self inflicted by our natural reactions.
Video Showing The Effects Of Stress In The Office
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