Stress is sometimes beneficial to health, helping to increase the ability to regulate emotions and activate the body's self-healing mechanisms.
Medically speaking, not all stress is bad. According to Dr. Safia Debar, a stress management expert at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London, healthy levels of stress help the body and mind build resilience. She explains the difference and how to differentiate between good stress and bad stress, and how to identify when you’re at risk of psychological burnout.
According to Dr. Debar, stress is a physical and psychological response to a need. That need can be anything. Stress can sometimes be beneficial, even bringing a feeling of happiness called eustress. For example, during a major event like getting married, this type of stress can exist in one or both partners.
"It's important to be aware of stress and how your body handles it. Chronic stress affects every organ system in your body. You may experience anxiety, depression, and digestive problems. Stress triggers a series of responses in your mind, which leads your body to many types of behavior.
In normal or harmless stress, the human body goes from a state of relaxation to a stressor that triggers a stress response. This response peaks, then subsides, and the mind returns to a state of relaxation.
When faced with a threat, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, causing an increase in the stress hormone cortisol. Human thoughts begin to turn negative when experiencing or imagining, predicting something bad. At this time, the heart, lungs, and muscles enter a state of "fight or flight". Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing increase, the body provides more oxygen to the cells. The digestive and reproductive systems slow down because they are not urgent.
The immune system shifts its attention from fighting microscopic "invaders" like viruses and cells to inflammation mode, increasing the production of proteins called cytokines to regulate this process.
Chronic stress is harmful to health. Photo: Freepik
Once the threat has passed, your body begins to “clean up,” shifting into a state of repair, renewal, and growth. Your breathing slows, your blood pressure normalizes, stress decreases, and your digestive and reproductive systems resume normal function. You begin to feel the need to connect with others to talk about the threat you’ve just experienced.
Now you complete the cycle, your mind is not worn out, there is no damage. In fact, this feeling is good for you, because it helps increase endurance, increase resilience, Dr. Debar said.
If you have survived a stressful event in your life and are able to fully process it, your body and mind will gradually adapt to the next similar experience.
However, if a person is constantly exposed to excessive stress, the ability to return to a normal state gradually weakens.
"At this time, you may experience stress with prolonged reactions. The body is always in a state of high alert, constant anxiety," Dr. Debar explains.
Signs that you are under too much stress include:
- Feeling anxious and stressed constantly and continuously
- Uncontrollable stress, you cannot achieve a state of relaxation, feel yourself lacking vitality.
- You have problems regulating your emotions.
- You start to avoid life or the people around you.
- You experience physical symptoms such as headaches, chest pain, stomach pain, difficulty sleeping, or frequent illness.
Dr. Debar recommends that people address emotional and physical stress in relationships. Chronic stress can have long-term health effects and damage the brain. She recommends that people who are experiencing chronic stress seek help from a doctor or therapist.
Thuc Linh (According to SCMP )
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