Stress Management 101 Program Recap

Thank you to Dr. Rajiv Vyas from Capital Health Behavioral Health Specialists for presenting on the topic of stress management. We all experience stress in our lives, yet with the current pandemic, many of us have found new or worsening levels of stress for a variety of factors. While stress will never go away, we can help our minds and body by learning to identify what stress is, the impact of stress on our minds and body, and ways to help manage and reduce stress.

What Is Stress

According to Merriam-Webster, stress is a bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium. Essentially, stress is one way our body responds to a challenge or threat. While we often think of stress as negative and having an adverse affect on our health, there are certain circumstances where stress can be positive and motivating. Perception plays a key role in how our mind and body interprets stressful situations, and working to change how we perceive things can ultimately change how our body reacts to stress.

There are many factors that can cause stress and our response to stress is mediated by complex interactions between the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Stress can have a wide-range of consequences on our body, mind, and behavior, including fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety, depression, and drug or alcohol misuse. Generally short-term or acute stress has little or no lasting effect on us, such as an argument or upcoming deadline, and our bodies are evolutionarily suited to handle acute stress. Long-term or chronic stress can have a lasting impact on us and can arise from repeated acute stress triggers, such as health problems, toxic home environment, or unhealthy relationships.

Results of Stress

Stress can affect us in a variety of ways and each person’s response to stress is different. Stress can compound upon other health or mental issues we may have, worsening their effect. For example, stress can affect your heart in direct and indirect ways, most commonly causes increases in inflammation which can cause high blood pressure. Additionally, stress can lead to poor sleep, poor diet, reduced exercise, smoking, and alcohol use. Because of this, chronic stress can increase your risk for hearth disease, cardiac arrest, and even stroke.

Stress can have a lasting impact on our mental health as well and may lead to the development of cognitive distortions. Some distortions include:

All or none thinking – everything is black and white, and more often black than white
Mental filter – instead of seeing things positively (rose-colored glasses), stress trains our brain to interpret things and events negatively (dark glasses)
Overgeneralization – one event, oftentimes negative, predicts all events
Disqualifying the positive – seeing negative in something positive
Magnification (catastrophizing) or minimization – “making a mountain out of mole hill”
Emotional reasoning – feelings start to dictate how we interpret reality

Chronic stress can also lead to a variety of other mental health concerns, such as depression, anxiety, or addiction. As these conditions get worse, they can lead to the same effects of poor sleep, diet, substance abuse, etc., that can aversely affect our bodily health.

Ways to Reduce Stress

Stress will always be around and no matter how hard we try, we cannot avoid it. However, learning to recognize how we react to stress and manage our responses can significantly improve our quality of life. First, let’s look at some ways physical strategies to reduce stress. Exercise is one of the most important ways to reduce stress in our body because it provides so many other health benefits. It bolsters our immune system, release serotonin and endorphins which improve our mood, it decreases tension in the body, and helps improve our sleep. Additionally, exercise has an antidepressant effect that can help those struggling with depression.

Some ways to ease into becoming more active that have also help reduce stress include relaxation exercises, yoga, and tai chi. Yoga is an effective way to improve our physical and mental health because of its activation of our parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) while dampening our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). Other ways to help manage physical stress include getting adequate sleep, eating a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet, and being outdoors.

While reducing physical stress is important, making sure we effectively deal with mental stress is just as important. Engaging in relaxation techniques can help activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which slows our heart rate, breathing, and brings about a return to our equilibrium. These techniques include meditation, deep breathing, guided visualization, progressive muscle relaxation, prayer, and yoga. One popular technique is mindfulness, where you focus our mind and body on the present by pushing away from outward thoughts and feelings and focusing on inward attention and awareness. Additionally, mindfulness involves acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations without judgement by letting go instead of holding on.

There are natural supplements that have a proven record of helping us manage results of stress, including anxiety and depression. Ashwagandha root extract has shown benefits related to improving anxiety and sleep. Cannabidiol (CBP) has also shown to have positive effects when trying to improve anxiety. In regards to depression, there is less proof regarding Omega-3 fatty acids and folate or folic acid. Additionally, supplements such as St. John’s Wort and L-tryptophan, while shown to have positive outcomes with mild depression, can still have side effects similar to antidepressant medications as well as adverse reactions with other medications. As with all supplements, it is important to know that the are NOT regulated by the FDA and companies can make claims about benefits without evidence.