Do you feel stressed often? Or maybe you don’t even remember what it feels like not to experience stress at all? You aren’t alone. According to recent statistics, around 33 percent of people frequently experience stress. [1]
As Stress Awareness Month is approaching, it’s time to look at misconceptions about stress. The more you learn about how it works, the easier it will be for you to work on managing stressors in your daily life.
So, let’s get straight to debunking some myths:
1. Stress is always bad
It’s commonly known that stress is associated with poor mental wellbeing and physical symptoms, and it simply feels unpleasant. However, it is also an evolutionary response that allowed us to flee predators in the past. While the dangers of modern life can’t be escaped in a literal sense, stress still plays an important role in helping you survive and deal with your responsibilities.
For example, imagine that you have a deadline at work, which makes you feel nervous because you really care about your job. That distress gives you the motivation to submit your work and resolve this feeling as soon as possible.
Some psychologists such as Kelly McGonigal believe that stress shouldn’t be seen as the enemy and encourage people to see it in a more positive light. While investigating stress and looking at several studies, McGonigal found out that stress has a negative impact on people’s health but only if they view it as harmful.
This might not be as dangerous as we previously thought it was and your attitude towards it matters. However, this doesn’t mean that your job is done here, and you can just forget stress management techniques and give up on changing your lifestyle. It means that changing the way you think about worries can adjust the way your body responds to it and give you the space you need to learn how to manage it in the long run.
In her Ted Talk, McGonigal also mentions a study conducted by Harvard University, which findings revealed that participants who were taught to rethink their stress response, ended up feeling less anxious than participants who saw this as negative.
What’s even more surprising, the first group’s physical stress response changed too; their blood vessels stayed relaxed as opposed to constricting more. So, the next time you feel stressed tell yourself that it’s okay to feel this way. Instead of seeing stress as your enemy, imagine that it’s your body’s way of preparing you for what’s to come and work with it, not against it.
2. Stress motivates you
At the same time, too much stress is never a good thing and might have the opposite effect. If you constantly feel distressed, you might become overwhelmed and lose the ability to prioritize tasks. Heightened stress levels might also affect your concentration, causing you to procrastinate more often.
The more you delay completing a task, the more stressed you might feel and the less likely you’re to deal with it, which can trap you in a vicious cycle. Just like everything in life, stress is only beneficial in moderation.
3. Life is stressful so you can’t do anything to manage stress
If you think about it, there’s so little you have control over. Sure, it’s up to you to work towards your goals and make sure you live a fulfilling life but the unexpected can shatter your plans in an instant, a natural disaster, war, chronic disease, sudden death and so on. Even if you’re an optimist, you must admit that life is stressful and it’s difficult to take a break from daily responsibilities.
However, it doesn’t mean that you should just accept being stressed and not do anything to try to manage it. If you let stress escalate, you might soon find yourself under chronic stress and suffer from many unpleasant health difficulties. The key is finding a technique that allows you to achieve your goals and fulfil your responsibilities without feeling too overwhelmed.
4. Stress management techniques are one size fits all
Mindfulness, breathing, going for walks, doing yoga, eating healthy… I’m sure you’ve heard it all. And if you incorporate those techniques into your daily life, you should live stress-free, right? Unfortunately, it’s impossible to eliminate stress from your life and not every coping skill will suit everyone’s needs because we all have different personalities and deal with different life circumstances.
People who are neurotic are more prone to overthinking and might need a different approach than people who have a more optimistic mindset. Similarly, while journaling can help some clear their minds, other people might find themselves stuck in their heads even more and people who are restless might find practicing mindfulness to be initially too frustrating, which will only add to their distress.
Additionally, while self-care is important, taking time to relax might not be enough to successfully reduce it. A helpful approach includes identifying your values and increasing activities that help you live according to these values. This approach will allow you to increase your sense of purpose and make you more resilient and equipped to deal with stress.
If you’re currently dealing with worries and don’t know where to start, choose one stress management strategy and if it doesn’t work, don’t give up. It’s easy to jump to conclusions and think there’s something wrong with you but remember that stress is complex.
5. Stress looks the same to everyone
Stress manifests itself differently in everyone. Some people might experience racing thoughts, others increased heartbeat or sweaty palms and some a combination of both emotional and physical symptoms. Similarly, the impact of it will vary from person to person because we all handle things differently. Therefore, it’s so important to experiment with several stress management techniques and find the one that works for you specifically.
6. You can always tell when you’re stressed
Do you ever give yourself a full-body scan and pay attention to where you experience stress in your body and how intense it is? Most people don’t bother analyzing their stress levels because they see it as something straightforward: you either feel on edge or you don’t. However, things aren’t this simple and it’s common to experience stress and not even realize it.
For example, people who deal with prolonged but not acute stress might not notice a change in their mood but start getting unexplained pains, experience concentration problems or get sick more easily. If you have new symptoms that can’t be tied to any other diagnosis, stress is likely to be the culprit.
7. You should start worrying about stress only when it gets bad
The longer you wait to deal with your worries, the more it escalates and the more difficult it gets to manage in the long run. While you’ll experience very few symptoms at first, you might end up feeling overwhelmed in the future. It’s best to treat every symptom as a warning sign and not delay seeking help because the consequences might be costly.
For example, minor stress can be managed with lifestyle changes but if you ignore the problem, you might find yourself unable to work, lose your job as a result, neglect your relationships, and develop physical symptoms. Don’t wait until you can no longer cope and take care of your health as soon as you notice that something’s wrong.
8. Sleeping well and eating right is all you need to reduce stress
A healthy lifestyle isn’t enough to cope with stress because it doesn’t get to the root of the problem. Eating well might help you improve your mood and getting the required amount of sleep will increase your focus but while these kinds of positive changes in your lifestyle are beneficial, you should also consider the source of your stress, not just treat the symptoms.
For example, if work overwhelms you, it might be because you’re afraid of failure or don’t think you’re good enough. In that case, you’ll need to improve your self-esteem and reduce a tendency towards perfectionism. An important part of stress management isn’t just doing relaxing activities but also finding out where it’s coming from and working on correcting the problem.
9. Stress management techniques aim to eliminate stress from your life
Contrary to what some people might think, avoiding everything that might cause you stress isn’t the goal here, not to mention that it’s not possible. If you try to avoid stress, you’ll never progress and you’ll be stuck in the same place in life.
For example, you’d no longer attend job interviews, you’d stop going on dates and never take risks to achieve your goals. Learning how to manage it can help you become more resilient and facing a challenge helps you grow.
10. Stress is just a reaction to what’s happening around us
A lot of people believe that stress is a natural reaction to what’s happening in their lives, which is true to some extent but also implies that we have little control over how we approach to stress. It is mostly a product of our thoughts. For example, consider the way people with social anxiety and those without it approach social situations and how their experiences might differ.
The first group might feel stressed at the thought of meeting new people because they imagine worst-case scenarios while the second won’t think twice about it. Understanding this is important because it reminds you that modifying the way you think about stressful situations can help you change the way you react to them.
11. Positive events don’t cause stress
Have you ever felt excited but worried at the same time? If you care about something and want to do it well, it’s natural to feel stressed even if the event or experience is positive. For example, findings from a study that looked at brides’ stress indicate that women who are engaged and dealing with wedding planning are more likely to be stressed. [3]
While your wedding is supposed to be the happiest day of your life but very often comes with heightened levels of stress. Similarly, the main purpose of traveling is to go on a holiday but packing and planning might be stressful.
12. Stress causes cancer
While prolonged stress can put you more at risk of developing certain health issues, it doesn’t directly cause them. Often, people turn to harmful coping skills as a result of stress, such as smoking or unhealthy eating, that might all contribute to developing cancer in the future. Believing that stress can cause cancer can only add to your distress. Instead of worrying about potential consequences, focus on what you can do to do better manage it.
13. Stress is a mental health issue
While it can be debilitating, it’s not classified as a mental health issue or a disease. However, chronic stress is commonly associated with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and puts you more at risk of developing them. Therefore, it’s important to seek help once you feel like things are getting out of control.
References:
[1] https://geekhealthjournal.com/stress-statistics/
[2]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306452214005387?via%3Dihub
[3] https://www.proquest.com/openview/c99993662fdb216ca2ce0c325834b8e3/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
