23. Stress

Introduction

. Stress is defined as

"...a psychological response to any change, whether good or bad, that alerts the adaptive flight-or-fight response in the brain and the body..."

Herbert Benson as quoted by Bronwyn Fryer, 2006

Stress

"...It is simply adrenaline and cortisol rushing through our bodies..."
Phil Barker 2019

There are 4 components to stress

i) mental (as shown by worry, pressure, demands, meeting deadlines, etc)

ii) emotional (can be positive and/or negative like excitement, jealousy, anger, loneliness, sadness, happiness, guilty, etc)

iii) physical (as shown by illness, fatigue, cold, hunger, thirst, drugs, alcohol, etc)

iv) genetic background (your genes can help or hinder handling stress)

NB Stress is part of growth.

Furthermore, components of stress like pressure are part of your daily lives. However, everybody reacts differently to pressure.
"...a certain amount of pressure is good for you because it helps motivate you to act and keep you focused. This is because when you experience a right amount of challenge and interest, chemicals are released in your brain (noradrenaline and dopamine), making you more alert, motivated and ready to learn..."

Michelle Gibbings, 2023n

Need to find your zone of optimal performance, ie
"...where a task or learning something is neither too challenging nor too easy..."

Michelle Gibbings, 2023n

There are 2 main hormones involved in stress, ie  cortisol and cholesterol; with cortisol being the more important. It is the natural flight/fight response. However, over a long period of time, high cortisol levels have a negative impact on the immune system.
(source: Brad Johnson 2020)

Some examples of factors causing stress:

- demands (including workload, work patterns and working environment)

- amount of control (how much say does someone have in the way they work)

- amount of support (including encouragement, sponsorship, resources, other staff, etc)

- work relationships (including promoting positive work practices to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour)

- understanding role (staff understand their role within the organisation; minimal conflicting roles)

- impact of change (how is it managed and communicated)

(source: Mackay as quoted by Ryk Croukamp, 2018)

Some symptoms of stress

* physical symptoms can sometimes caused by more serious medical conditions, rather than stress.
(source: https://skills.carergateway.gov.au/pdfs/CarerSkills-Module_1-Dealing_with_stress-a.pdf)

The initial reaction to change can result in employees disengaging. Also, with the increasing job demands from the change and a loss of control, there is an increased chance of stress and fatigue occurring. However, as employees become accustomed to the new situation, their engagement level can recover over time.

. With increasing pressure to perform in the work environment, stress is an intrinsic part of work and a critical element of achievement. Increasing pressure is coming from such factors as intensified competition, rapid market changes and an unending stream of bad news on natural disasters, terrorism and the state of the economy, etc combined with apparent helplessness at being unable to influence these activities

. Stress can cause people to act out of character. For example, some make selfish choices, use sexist language , make superficial judgments, etc.

. When people are under pressure or stress, their strengths can turn into the dark sides of their personalities that can cause derailing behaviours. They can become too extreme, eg
"...- from authentic and calculated to impulsive and manipulative
    - independent and challenging to loyal and conforming
    - naive, trusting and forgiving to suspicious, argumentative and shrewd
    - tolerant, flexible, undemanding to hard-working, scrupulous and controlling
    - tactical, detailed focus to strategic, unfocused and expansive
    - appropriate and modest to dramatic, flirtatious and noisy
    - peaceful and relaxed to volatile, passionate and emotional
    - humble, constrained and self-depreciating to forceful, arrogant and demanding..."
Ben Hogan as quoted by AFRBoss, 2015a

Some specific examples

- boldness can become narcissistic (News Corporation ‐ Rupert Murdoch)

- detailed-oriented and hardworking can become demanding and micro-managing (former Australian PM, Kevin Rudd)

There can be a fine line between boldness and bullying, healthy scepticism and suspicion. Need to be aware that sometimes positive character traits  too intensified and thus less helpful when the individual is stressed.
In some situations, qualities, such as boldness and imagination, become extreme, undesirable, anti-social traits under pressure. Generally leaders score high on boldness, mischievousness, helpfulness and imagination. On the other hand, if they become too extreme in any one trait when under pressure or stress, it backfires. For example, if they are bold, they may become extremely domineering.

. Stress can be linked to anxiety and fear. Too much fear/anxiety/stress can disrupt our ability to make logical decisions and over-estimate risks. On the other hand, small amounts of stress can enhance performance. There is evidence to suggest that efficiency increases when stress increases, but only up to a point; after that, performance decreases dramatically

. It is interesting to note that our brains (especially the amygdala) are designed to act first and to think later; with far more connections leading from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex than in the other direction. The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain most responsible for planning and reasoning. This may be one reason why it is difficult to exert conscious control and logic over our fear. In other words, because

"...our brains are wired to feel before they think and indeed to feel at lightning-fast speed, our amygdala will often make mistakes..."

Robert Winston (2002)

eg mistaking a stick for a snake

"...emotion paves the road for conscious thought for one very good reason: if it didn't, we'd all have been bitten by snakes long ago..."

Robert Winston (2002)

. The question is: When does stress help and when does it hurt?

"...Studies show that the way we respond to stress depends upon the type of stress and whenever we feel able to control it. Short-term controlled stress......can actually boost the production of the body's own infection-fighting cells. Similarly, long-term controlled stress can result in increased production of the relaxant chemicals such as endorphins and enkephalins. This might explain why, when engaged in a period a high stress, we often fall ill after the pressure has eased off, rather than during it......most damaging kind of stress is the stress we feel we cannot control......various types of uncontrollable stress can cause most damage to the immune system...... help them to improve the response of their immune system. This is a possible reason why activities like group therapy and relaxation techniques may have beneficial effects......the more we feel we can control stress, the better placed our immune system to cope with its effects..."

Robert Winston, 2003

Furthermore, the duration of the stress is important. It is suggested that we have evolved to handle acute stress, ie facing danger of seconds or minutes but not chronic stress, ie under pressure for hours, days, weeks, etc. In modern society, chronic stress is more prevalent and we are not designed to handle it.

"...Stress causes the body to produce a real nasty set of hormones......glucocorticoids. They are good for short-term response to trauma and strain, but they aren't supposed to hang around for long. Certain types of stress can cause these hormones to overstay their welcome, and if they do, real damage occurs to the body, including your brain. The webbing between brain cells that holds your most precious memories can become disconnected. The brain can stop giving birth to new neurons. Stress hormones seem to have a particular liking for the cells in the hippocampus, and that's a problem because the hippocampus is deeply involved in many aspects of human learning. The result? Stressed people don't do math very well. They don't process language very efficiently, and they have poorer memories, both short- and long-term......one study even showed that adults with chronic high stress levels performed 50 percent worse on certain cognitive tests than adults without stress..."

John Medina as quoted by Diane Coutu, 2008

Remember: the brain is less interested in reality, and more in survival. Thus it will change the perception of reality to "survive".

. Eustress is defined as good stress which gives us energy and motivates us to strive and produce. The benefits of eustress are clear thinking, focus and creative insight. It has 3 indicators (engagement, forgiveness and good behaviours)

. On the other hand, too much negative stress (distress) can cause "burn-out" and suppresses the immune system which can increase the vulnerability of some people to diseases and illness, including depression, heart condition, diabetes, cancer, etc. Some symptoms of negative stress include

- anxiety

- increased aggression

- feeling of being overwhelmed and unable to cope

- lower work performance

- increased sick days

- fatigue

- depression

- sleeping difficulties

- cognitive difficulties, such as reduced ability to concentrate or make decisions

- headaches

- heart palpitations

- gastrointestinal upsets, such as diarrhoea or constipation

It has been claimed (Samantha Keen, 2007) that reactions to stress need to be managed, before they become more dangerous risk factors for cancer and heart disease than either cigarette smoking or high cholesterol foods

. When most people talk about stress, they are referring to the negative type that can be caused by activities at work, in the home and/or world events ‐ anything which contributes to making us feel helpless

 . When exposed to excessively long periods of the fight-or-flight response, our system becomes flooded with hormones, such as epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol. This causes blood pressure to rise and the heart rate and brain activity to increase, which produces effects that are very deleterious over time.

When under stress, the heart rate, sugar release and other action-orientated functions are stimulated, ie more adrenaline is produced, your blood pressure rises, your production of cortisone increases and your anxiety peaks. This alters the immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, reproductive system and growth processes. This helps explain why chronic stress is slow to heal and puts you at a greater risk from auto immune-related conditions.

Stress levels can be caused by the 'fight/or flight or freeze' response. These responses serves us well as it readies the body for immediate muscular activity to handle the imminent threat. However, this response puts on hold
"...long-term functions that relate to tissue repair, immunity, digestion and reproduction. Where we sustain stress over months or years, negative effects accumulate......these included a more rapid hardening of the arteries, worse ratio of high-to-low-density blood fats and a tendency towards both central obesity and insulin resistance..."
Wilkinson as quoted by Andrew O'Keeffe, 2011