Stress

Stress is defined as a physiological and psychological response when we face a threat that we feel we don’t have resources to deal with. Stress response is part of the evolutionary design that is supposed to help or increase the probability of our survival.

When we were cave men and women, when we were faced with threatening situations in our environment, for e.g., faced with a Tiger, our body responded to the threat. The heart beats faster, pumping more blood to the peripheral organs like hands and legs. The lungs dilate and increased breathing provides more oxygen to the muscles to help generate more energy. The liver releases glucose for energy. We sweat, there is an increase in blood pressure. Adrenalin is pumped into our blood that helps us either to run away or to stay and fight with the threat (flight or fight response).

Our body doesn’t differentiate between life threatening situations and a psychological threat like a deadline, traffic jam or an overwhelming emotion. When we feel threatened or overwhelmed by the situation our body reacts exactly in the same way that it reacted thousands of years ago as though we are faced with a tiger. This is what we call Stress response. The situation is called the stressor.

Stress can be good too. This is called Eustress – e.g., The exam times makes us study harder or deadlines makes us perform better, in the face of an imminent collision – we become alert and slam the brakes to avoid it. Beyond a threshold, the stress becomes Distress. When that happens we are unable to study, performance goes down, energy levels come down, and we are unable to focus.

When distress occurs over a prolonged period of time (chronic), our body is subjected to the stress response (like increased BP etc.) for a prolonged period of time. Wear and tear occurs, leading to both Physiological and Psychological illnesses. Physically – hypertension, ulcers, heart diseases etc., can occur. Psychologically – depression, anxiety disorders, mood swings, irritability etc., can occur. Some suppressed emotions can also manifest physically as Psychosomatic Disorders.

This would occur if we haven’t learned to manage the stress and our response in a better manner, and to keep it under the threshold. Can this be done? Thankfully the answer is a “YES”.

There are many techniques of relaxation that can help manage stress better. It could be meditation, yoga, relaxation, deep breathing etc., that can cause a state of relaxation that is the opposite of the stress response.

It is not just enough to learn techniques for stress management, (which of course is beneficial), but it is also important to understand the stressors, the triggering factors etc. It is also important to understand and be aware of the emotions that are evoked in us and to be able to accept, express and manage them in an effective way.

If you would like to meet with a professional counsellor, call us at +91 96321 46316 or write to us at counselor@innerdawn.in

We provide professional and confidential counselling services at different locations in Bangalore – Jayanagar, Koramangala, Cox Town, Marathahalli, Mahadevpura.