Oh Stress, I love you!!

First things first…

Disclaimer: If you are one of those brave people who have fought through the hard stressful times or perhaps are battling through it right now, you have all my respect and I do not mean to demean you in any manner.

While “Stress” in itself is centuries old, why is it that it has started to wreak havoc only now?

So, let's take a dive into the history of it. Stress is funny in that it has marked its presence all the way from Physics to Biology… and now our very own lives.

It was first formalized in 1822 by this guy:

For the curious ones, “YES!”, he is the same guy who brings about “Cauchy” in the famous “Cauchy–Schwarz inequality”. Little did he know that his terminology for — the theory of linear elastic response for isotropic solids, a.k.a “Stress” would go on to become the “Health Epidemic of the 21st century”.

But in 1936 “Stress” found a place for itself in Biology (Neurology to be precise), all thanks to this guy:

Although absolutely cheerful in his picture and quite the same in real life, Hans Selye did some excruciating experiments on rats to conclude that irrespective of the kind of damage done to the organism, a typical syndrome appears with symptoms representative, not of the stimulus but the damage itself. He called this syndrome, “Stress”.

To put it plainly, he described stress as a “Non-specific response of the body to diverse nocuous agents”, much like fever really.

Let’s keep that handy for a while…

Non-specific response of the body to diverse nocuous agents

Yes! We are all stressed… almost every day.

I find it particularly amusing how people blatantly deny being stressed, some for the fear of being labeled and viewed in an ominous light, and some perhaps for they are too scared to accept that it's normal.

If you run long distances, burn calories in the gym, work long hours, or even if you play FIFA all day, chances are you have actually enjoyed stress more than you care to admit. That last mile that you cover when you are almost out of your breath, isn't that what makes you want to run again? That last-minute thrill when you are desperate for the winning goal in FIFA, or that last hour deadline before a product launch, isn’t that what makes you feel more alive than ever? And guess what, biologically, all of these instances have the same “Stress” working its magic.

But wait, then why is this “Stress” killing me??

Now, that’s what we really need to look at. Because, if am being honest here, I too have had my moments of helplessness and devastation.

Well, here’s the short answer:

“Its not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.”

— Hans Selye

And here’s the long one:

Stress is, after all, a “biological response of your body” to a certain “nocuous agent” and so is fever, both equally important for you to be consciously aware of what’s happening to your body. Fever is never the problem, rather it’s more of an indication of some serious problem with your biological system. If you were incapable of fever, you’d probably just drop dead someday unaware of the underlying illness.

Analogously, stress is never the problem, rather it’s more of an indication of something being out of place. When running out of breath, stress is right on top of you, telling you to take a break or you’ll drop unconscious for lack of oxygen. When you are running behind your schedule to finish within the deadline, it’s there to let you know that if you don’t start now, you’ll probably not finish in time. So, in a sense, it is like that tough coach who might inadvertently seem to be killing you, but actually is looking out for you even when you aren’t.

Okay, that’s great but I don’t want to be stressed!!

That’s perfect! Cause nobody wants to be stressed (just like nobody wants to be under the fever). If stress is like fever, why not treat it the same way?

When I feel under the weather, here’s what I follow:

1) Take the rest and figure out the nocuous agent.

When under stress, take rest. Maybe throw in some pizza and binge Netflix. But do make sure to take some time to think rationally and figure out what’s out of place. A writing pad could be a great friend here.

2) Understand your problem, Befriend it!

Let’s suppose you are stressed and that your life is slipping away from your hands, maybe you didn’t get that promotion, or perhaps you flunked in your term papers, just put it all down on the paper.

Figure out just two things:

a) what really went wrong that needs to be avoided in future

b) what is the best course of action now (for it is all that matters now)

Once you have understood the problem through and through, you would feel much relaxed. It’s because you would have conquered your “Phobophobia”.

Part of the fear is fearing the fear itself.