Rethinking Stress: Enemy or Ally?

Nowadays, stress is an integral part of modern life, and we face it every day.
While anyone can be affected, people perceive and respond to it differently.
It’s a highly individual experience, and much also depends on the type of stress involved.

In this article, I will take a simple yet closer look at what stress is. You will explore the different types of stress, what triggers it, how it affects us, its consequences, and how the body signals when positive stress turns into unhealthy stress.

The body comes under pressure when we perceive a situation as challenging or demanding. It helps us react and cope and can contribute to success, but it can also become damaging if it lasts too long or occurs too often. Let’s examine this further.

 Our lives are so varied that the stress we experience can be divided into several types:

• Positive (Eustress) – To enjoy the small things and many of life’s situations, this type of stress is essential. It motivates us to achieve better results, improves performance and creativity, and creates a sense of excitement. It even plays an important role in life-threatening situations by supporting self-preservation. Positive stress also enhances our ability to learn and is beneficial for both our well-being and our brain.
• Negative (Distress) – This type of stress can harm the body just as much as excessive alcohol consumption, an unhealthy diet, or smoking. It raises the risk of disease and speeds up aging. What begins as mild stress can gradually become overwhelming. Over time, it may lead to chronic restlessness, health issues, and mental exhaustion. As it escalates, it can trigger panic, burnout, and even complete collapse. If ignored, it may seriously endanger our health and quality of life.
• Specific – This type of stress is intentionally triggered, for example, during adrenaline sports activities.

• Short-term stress – This type of stress only lasts for a short time, is mostly positive, and helps us initiate various physical or mental activities.
• Chronic stress – If stress persists for a long time, it becomes harmful. We become overloaded, and the body is exhausted. It continues to function, defend itself, and protect us, which places it under even greater pressure. At this point, the cycle of chronic stress has begun. This leads to a rapid decrease in immunity and has a serious impact on both the body and the mind. The longer we remain in chronic stress, the worse we feel.

• Hypostress – This is a very low level of stress that we quickly become accustomed to and that does not cause us any difficulties.
• Hyperstress – This is a severe and dangerous form of stress. Its high level represents a limit beyond which we are no longer able to cope. As a result of hyperstress, burnout, complete physical and psychological collapse, and even death can occur.

Stress begins in the mind and spreads rapidly throughout the body. It is triggered by our internal interpretation of an action, sound, or event. It causes an immediate reaction. The hormone adrenaline is released, causing our breathing to quicken, our heart rate to increase, and our pupils to dilate. We may also sweat or shiver. All of this helps us cope with the situation. As long as it lasts for a short time, it is a natural process that protects us from danger or allows us to experience the excitement of life. However, as mentioned earlier, it becomes harmful when it occurs regularly and we remain emotionally tense. In the long term, it can take a toll on us, and our body may begin to break down.

Stressors are factors that cause stress. Our reaction to them can threaten our overall well-being. There are many of them, and they can be divided into different groups. Personally, however, I prefer to classify them as external stressors, internal stressors, and childhood stressors.

• External stressors – These are sources of stress that we cannot control. The only thing we can change is our reaction to them. Here are some common examples of external stressors: traffic jams, pressure at work, world news, weather, political situations, hostile behavior from others toward us, time pressure and deadlines, major life events (such as the death of a loved one, job loss, illness of a family member, or the birth of a child), excessive noise, and many others.
• Internal stressors – This includes everything related to our lifestyle. These factors can be influenced by our actions. They include lack of sleep, high caffeine intake, fatigue, overwork, an unhealthy diet, financial problems, relationship issues, arguments, unemployment, unsuitable living conditions, moving, a hectic lifestyle, overly pessimistic thinking, low self-confidence, loss of control, fear, and many more.
• Childhood stressors and other adverse experiences – We can work with these, just like internal stressors, but on a much deeper level. These are situations we experienced in the past, yet their influence can extend into adulthood. They may remain stored in our subconscious or resurface when triggered, sometimes even decades later. They include memories and situations in which we were exposed to stress at an early age, childhood abuse or neglect, alcoholism of one or both parents, sibling rivalry, lack of affection within the family, excessive demands placed on us, witnessing aggressive arguments, as well as assault, car accidents, rape, and similar experiences.

These are warning signs that the body is sending us to indicate that something is wrong.

For example:

The most typical responses are fight or flight (and their modern variations), which are innate.

In general, we recognize three phases of stress:

1. In the first phase, the stressor triggers a stress response, and the body reacts accordingly.
2. In the second phase, the body adapts to the repeated stress but also becomes fatigued.
3. In the third phase, after a long period of constant pressure, the body becomes exhausted and begins to collapse. It can no longer function properly, and we react with hypersensitivity even to the smallest stimuli. In this phase, stress tolerance is reduced to a minimum. Burnout and complete breakdown may occur.

Especially long-term chronic stress can have serious and often subtle consequences, leading to a wide range of physical and psychological problems.

• The most common psychological problems include personality issues, depression, mood swings, suicidal thoughts, nervousness, ADHD, hypersensitivity, and self-destructive behavior, ...
• The most common physical problems include heart disease, insomnia, menstrual disorders, loss of sexual desire, hair loss, various other illnesses, chronic fatigue, cancer,  infertility and the list goes on.

Stress is natural. It has always been. We need it as long as it occurs in small amounts, remains positive, and is short-term, also if supporting the self-preservation movement. The other form, as described throughout this article, is not good. However, in modern times, stress as a natural bodily response has become an insidious problem.

In my view, this stems from a lack of respect for our bodies. We have pushed them for so long, exposed them to constant stress, and driven them beyond their limits that we have turned stress into a widespread, long-term condition affecting many generations.

To free ourselves from the grip of destructive stress, we need to learn how to work with it. Still,  taking a one-time break from work will not solve the problem; we would only be ignoring its deeper roots. If we would rather not rely on energy drinks, alcohol, chocolate bars, cigarettes, strong coffee, or antidepressants just to get through the day, we need to adopt healthier ways of coping. And break the vicious cycle of stress in our lives.

I will dedicate another article to this topic, offering inspiration for a lifestyle that allows us to live with more energy, joy, and inner peace and with minimal stress, which is the most realistic goal in today’s world. 

Stress is part of modern life, and it cannot be eliminated.

Fortunately, it can be gradually, consciously, and effectively managed.

I’m already looking forward to the second part of the article, and I hope you are as well.  :)

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Thank you for reading this article and for your comment. ♡