Believe it or not, you have stress in
your life for a good reason. To understand why stress can be a useful, adaptive
response, you need to take a trip back in time.
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Imagining you’re a cave person
Picture
this: You’ve gone back in time to a period thousands of years ago when men and
women lived in caves. You’re roaming the jungle dressed in a loincloth and
carrying a club. Your day, so far, has been routine. Nothing more than the
usual cave politics and the ongoing problems with the in-laws. Nothing you
can’t handle. Suddenly, on your stroll, you spot a tiger. This is not your
ordinary tiger; it’s a saber-toothed one. You experience something called the
fight-or-flight response. This response is aptly named because, just then, you
have to make a choice: You can stay and do battle (that’s the fight part), or
you can run like the wind (the flight part, and probably the smarter option
here). Your body, armed with this automatic stress response, prepares you to do
either. You are ready for anything. You are wired.
Surviving the modern jungle
You’ve
probably noticed that you don’t live in a cave. And your chances of running
into a saber-toothed tiger are slim, especially because they’re extinct. Yet this
incredibly important, life-preserving stress reaction is still hard-wired into
your system. And once in a while, it can still be highly adaptive. If you’re
picnicking on a railroad track and see a train barreling toward you, an
aggressive stress response is nice to have. You want to get out of there
quickly.
In
today’s society, you’re required to deal with few life-threatening stressors —
at least on a normal day. Unfortunately, your body’s fight-or-flight response
is activated by a whole range of stressful events and situations that aren’t
going to do you in. The physical dangers have been replaced by social and
psychological stress triggers, which aren’t worthy of a full fight-or-flight
stress response. But your body doesn’t know this, and it reacts the way it did
when your ancestors were facing real danger.
Imagine
the following modern-day scenario: You’re standing in an auditorium in front of
several hundred seated people. You’re about to give a presentation that is
important to your career. You suddenly realize that you’ve left several pages
of your prepared material at home on your nightstand. As it dawns on you that
this isn’t just a bad dream you’ll laugh about later, you start to notice some
physical and emotional changes. Your hands are becoming cold and clammy. Your
heart is beating faster, and you’re breathing harder. Your throat is dry. Your
muscles are tensing, and you notice a slight tremor as you hopelessly look for
the missing pages. Your stomach feels a little queasy, and you notice an
emotion that you would definitely label as anxiety. You recognize that you’re
experiencing a stress reaction. You now also recognize that you’re experiencing
the same fight-or-flight response that your caveman ancestors experienced. The
difference is, you probably won’t die up there at that podium, even though it
feels like you will.
In
the modern jungle, giving that presentation, being stuck in traffic,
confronting a disgruntled client, facing an angry spouse, or trying to meet
some unrealistic deadline is what stresses you. These far-less-threatening
stressors trigger that same intense stress response. It’s overkill. Your body
is not just reacting; it’s overreacting. And that’s definitely not good.
Copyright © Allen Elkin Phd – Originally appeared in Stress Management for Dummies 2nd edition by Allen Elkin
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