Before I begin, fellow human, I want to give a 5-star shout-out to college, and Stephen King for being the real MVPs for introducing me to a unique level of stress I can only express by whisper-shouting “STREEEESSS”.

In a Studio Photography class during my senior year of college, my professor was relaying a story about his relationship with Ohio. “…I tried to get away from Ohio,” he said, “and it brought me back”. That resonates with me now to some degree as I take the definition of stress from an article from the Cleveland Clinic. It states: Stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Stress is a normal part of life. You can experience stress from your environment, your body, and your thoughts. Even positive life changes such as a promotion, a mortgage, or the birth of a child produce stress.

How long have you thought that stress was solely synonymous with the negative? Go on, raise your hand.

Yes, we’re all judging you.

There is a duality of stress that we undergo through our lives: Eustress which is positive stress, and Distress which is negative. In that duality, the different conditions of stress that we may go through on the distress spectrum are acute stress, chronic stress, and toxic stress.

In an article on MentalHelp.net it describes the charateristics of eustress and distress, which I have listed below.

Eustress:

• Motivates, focuses energy.
• Is short-term.
• Is perceived as within our coping abilities.
• Feels exciting.
• Improves performance.

Distress are:

• Causes anxiety or concern.
• Can be short- or long-term.
• Is perceived as outside of our coping abilities.
• Feels unpleasant.
• Decreases performance.
• Can lead to mental and physical problems

Eustress is what you feel as your body prepares you to conquer a challenge, or floods you with good feelings. It’s that short-term mama-cheering-you-on-like-a-banshee-in-the-bleachers feeling. Whereas, distress is an enemy of progress, a long-term stress that can affect your health in detrimental ways. Both forms of stress have the ability to change your biology, cognitive capacity, neurological structure, and physiology.

Stress has got to be one of the most fascinating emotions we go through that generate a series of reactions that manifest themselves both inside and outside the body. And we go through stress to one degree or another, every single day.

Alright, to understand how the body’s stress-response system functions let’s meet the primary parts of the body responsible for releasing hormones, and process information. This breakdown is taken from The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity by Nadine Burke Harris. It’s an amazing book that uncovers how high doses of ACE’s (Adverse Childhood Experience) can manifest themselves in your adult life.

Before we continue, I wanted to explain the significance of ACE scores, and what it means to have a low or high ACE score. ACEs are factors of dysfunction within a family that negatively affect a child. The ACE test comes in the form of a questionnaire, and where applicable to the taker, a point is marked against the question. Once completed, your score reveals where you stand on the spectrum. In the article written by Vincent Felitti, and Robert Anda in 1998, they ‘found a strong graded relationship between the breadth of exposure to abuse or household dysfunction during childhood and multiple risk factors for several of the leading causes of death in adults.’ I would encourage you to read up on ACEs, and the work Dr. Harris is doing.

Below is #TeamStressResponse (I promise I’ll never hashtag like that again).

• The amygdala: the brain’s fear center
• Prefrontal cortex: the front part of the brain that regulates cognitive and executive function, including judgment and mood and emotions
• Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: initiates the production of cortisol (longer-acting stress hormone) by the adrenal glands
• Sympatho-adrenomedullary (SAM) axis: initiates the production of adrenaline and noradrenaline (short-acting stress hormones) by the adrenal glands and brain
• Hippocampus: processes emotional information, critical for consolidating memories
• Noradrenergic nucleus in the locus coeruleus: the within-the-brain stress-response system that regulates mood, irritability, locomotion, arousal, attention, and the startle response

In her book, Dr. Harris uses an example of being confronted by a bear in the forest, and describes how each part of the body reacts to get us up and out of that situation. I can’t relate too much to confronting a bear in a forest, but I can tell you that having an African Elephant charge after you makes you wish you carried a second pair of underwear on your person.

The ACE study

I can remember one of my first experiences with eustress, and it was in primary school. My thumbs and forefingers were split along the starting line, and the balls of my feet were weighed down with my toes in the earth. The gun hadn’t gone off yet. I could feel my heart in my thighs, my ears, and behind my eyes. My body was taut.

The moment between my body’s explosion off the ground and crossing the finish line feels like it didn’t exist; it happened so fast.

“Do you believe the human body is forgiving? Do you believe you can heal yourself?” I heard my physiotherapist say to one of her patients, as she needled his thoracic region. Unholy noises were emitted from the gentleman that day.

The human body can be forgiving, and heal itself. Research has shown that shifting one’s attitude to one of optimism, and seeking activities that promote the release of endorphins. It’s also important that you are physically active for at least an hour every day. Exercise of any nature that gets exercises the heart is great for you.

Exercise does not always help manage your mental state, and you need a professional to guide you through. I am for people seeking help from professionals in whatever form it comes in, it is not a sign of weakness. Finally, be mindful of what is going on with you and your surroundings, allowing you to be in tune with your pleasures, and your pains.

I hope that you’re able to dig a little deeper into understanding your stress. Finding out what your ACE score is, engage with something that makes you come alive, and leverage that banshee-hollaring mama of yours to get you the best results out of stressful situations.

Stay well, fellow human.