STRESS!!!!

 
AaakK! Stress!

How did it get to be October already? The lazy days of summer are all over folks, fall is technically in full swing, and the Holidays (cue scary music) are hard upon us.

As we move into the spooky season it seems like a great time to crack a scary subject. Stress. We all have it, we all talk about it, but why is it so scary? Well, because it is a mystery. We all kind of know what it means, we all kind of know that it is not so good, but for the most part we don’t really know why. For example this is a definition of stress via Wikipedia (obviously the end all be all of information, duh):

Stress typically describes a negative concept that can have an impact on one’s mental and physical well-being, but it is unclear what exactly defines stress and whether or not stress is a cause, an effect, or the process connecting the two. With organisms as complex as humans, stress can take on entirely concrete or abstract meanings with highly subjective qualities, satisfying definitions of both cause and effect in ways that can be both tangible and intangible.

Well! That sure clears that up!

So for the next few blogs, we will look at stress, what it is, what it does both bad and good (yes some stress IS good). And what you can do about it.

For now, let us frame stress as a biological reaction as opposed to an amorphous blob (IT’S THE BLOB!!! RUUUUNNN!) The Stress Response is simply what happens in your body when you react to certain stimuli. The layman’s term for the stress response is “Fight or Flight.” That’s right, every time you feel that overwhelming “I am so stressed out” feeling” it is the result of your primal self protection mechanism.

The really scary part, is that we are basically always triggering the Stress Response in our modern life. Instead of being spooked a couple of times a day by a prowling saber toothed tiger or woolly mammoth, we get a little burst of the same biological activity when someone cuts us off in traffic, or when we can’t find out keys when we are late, or when our boss gives us the stink eye when we slink into the meeting 20 minutes after it started.

Next time we will go into what is happening in your body when your Stress Response gets triggered. Until then, try to notice what happens when you get those little hits of the stress response. Instead of just giving into the feeling of “stressed out” try to pick out the physical sensations that go along with it and see if you can’t pick out some of the things that happen in your body when you start to “get stressed.”

Dr. Lou will is holding weekly Workshops, many of which focus around Stress.  This week "Emotional Stress!" on Wednesday, 10/10/12 at 6:30 pm.  Come on down, you will NOT be disappointed!