Eustress is the name for what we might call “good” stress. A small amount of stress can be good for us. The chemical reaction that provides us with adrenaline and noradrenaline can put us “in the zone” for specific tasks, but when is it enough and how to we know when we’re tipping over?
Acute stress moves us on from that comfortable and sometimes exciting “buzz” of adrenaline when we are on form. It is more uncomfortable but unlikely to cause permanent damage. The parasympathetic nervous system is working overdrive here trying to counter-balance the effects of the alarm response.
Chronic stress is where the body has effectively shut down, in other words exhaustion. The body is no longer able to cope with the constant physical effects of the chemical battle going on inside the body. At his stage there is a real danger of more serious mental health illness.
An event, situation or circumstance that causes stress is called a stressor.
The concept of being able to control stressors is an interesting one. Stress can be created externally or internally and in theory, that which is created externally can be controlled, that is, it’s possible to change the environment in which the stressor originates. For example, if the stressor is work, in theory you could change jobs, however that’s not always the reality.
Internal stress is much more difficult as we do tend to live our lives in our heads. If we go back to caveman days, we didn’t really have that much to worry about. Kill or be killed, eat and procreate. These days we have significantly different pressures and 24/7 information telling us we’re “not doing it right”. The concept of self-imposed stress seems a bit harsh, but it’s exactly that. Internal stress could be avoided if we could just sort out our own thoughts! An example might be striving for perfection, putting pressure on ourselves at work or pehaps to be good parents!
The most important thing is to identify the stressor. It’s not always easy as you may not know it’s happening. Also, just because something on a particular day is stressful, doesn’t mean it always will be, and conversely something which isn’t stressful one day could be the next.
Stressors come in roughly four main categories:
- High demands
- Change of circumstances
- Loss of control
- Uncertainty
Becoming self-aware and knowing what is causing difficulty is the very first step to managing stress.
