Man must know how to live in good terms with himself, how to manage and control and sometimes improve himself. “Make it thy business to know thyself,” said Cervantes. “Which,” he added, “is the most difficult lesson in the world.”
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.
Just being free from disease is not enough. One needs to include emotional, interpersonal, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being.
We must take the responsibility on ourselves to keep healthy. To keep well, by being confident, and to the extent possible, being in control of our own little world.
Is there something holding us back from this endeavour and preventing us from being in control of situations? This niggling, nagging demon is Stress, STRESS, and STRESS. While it is very common to blame all ills on stress, do we even realize what exactly stress is?
Stress is simply the body’s non-specific response to any demand made on it. Simply put, stress is something that happens in your body whenever you are faced with a situation.
The situation can be anything, from a life threatening illness to merely being late for work, from losing a loved one to a school admission, from uprooting yourself from known surroundings to a quarrel in the family.
No two individuals need react to the same stress in the same way, or even regard the same situation as a stressful event.
Stress is not synonymous with nervous tension or anxiety, as is commonly believed. Stress has its good points, and an optimum level provides the means to express talents and energies and pursue happiness. The important thing to remember is that stress is normal and essential.
No. In fact, stress is a motivating factor. It is just that continuous and accumulating stress is detrimental to health. Stress is needed to perform.
Before we begin to discuss what exactly are the body’s responses to stress, let us start with the attitude that a little bit of tension, a little bit of anxiety, in short, a little bit of stress is a good and essential requisite for our well-being.
Let me introduce you to this family that is so quintessentially Indian. Perhaps in this family, we will identify a little of someone we know, or someone we deal with everyday of our lives; we may even identify our own persona.
Like in all family sagas, we have the grandfather Mr. Surendranath and we have his wife, Kamala. Surendranath retired as a head clerk from a government office, while Kamala stayed at home and looked after the children. They have three offsprings. Vijay, the eldest, works as a scientist in a Government office and is married to Sarita, a computer programmer. They have two little kids, a boy aged six, and a girl aged four. Surendranth’s daughter Anita is a lecturer in a college, and was recently married to Gopal, an engineer working with a private firm in the same town. The youngest boy Ramesh dreamt of going to medical college, but not having made the grade, had to give up the idea as his parents did not have the financial resources to send him to a private college. He is now training to be a microbiologist, but remains somewhat disgruntled that his parents found the money to pay for Anita’s marriage, but refused his request to pay for tuition to a private medical college.
All of them live in a modest house that is the ancestral property of Surendranath. This house is mortgaged to the bank to raise a loan for Anita’s marriage. Vijay and Sarita contribute to the running of the house, and occasionally there is grumbling in the family that they should also help in paying off the loan as eventually, they would be the beneficiaries of Surendranath’s estate, such as it is. Sarita and her mother-in-law get along reasonably well most of the time. Sarita is grateful that she does not have the problems of her colleagues when it comes to minding the children, but she occasionally differs from her mother-in-law in various aspects of child-rearing. There is some conflict whenever she splurges on clothes and some small jewellery. The elders feel that a little thrift can help in paying off the loan.
Anita visits her parents over the weekend with her husband. While it was initially welcomed, Sarita feels this is as an intrusion into her time and space, while the elders feel it is a pleasure, and that Sarita should go out of her way to entertain her sister-in-law and her husband. Sarita is bad-tempered over the weekend, and complains to her husband Vijay that all this makes for extra work and as a career woman, she needs some rest too. Vijay is uncomfortable telling this to his parents, and on an odd occasion he tried to, was fobbed off by, ‘don’t be a hen-pecked husband reply’. Most often, Vijay is helpless, and Sarita is angry with him. This reflects on the children too, with the grandma complaining that she does not get enough rest. Sarita says she is helpless.
Ramesh adds his little bit by being demanding in terms of his needs like good clothes and fancy dishes to eat. He takes every opportunity to remind his siblings that he has been treated in a step-motherly fashion.
So life goes on, with its little problems and small arguments. In this apparently happy family, there is a little tension, a little maladjustment and few major conflicts. Every now and then, we will keep getting back to them to understand the process of stress.
With this story in the background, let us look at what happens when we encounter a stressful situation.
One can respond with one, two or all of the following sequences of events. All of them take place in our body for varying lengths of time; this generally determines our attitude to the situation.
When the person encounters a stressful situation— let us call it a “stressor”—all body activity increases. It literally goes into high gear. Commonly, it is called a “fight or flight” response. We so commonly use the word, pumping up of adrenaline. Scientifically, this is what exactly happens. The body produces increased quantities of the hormone adrenaline that gives the body extra momentum.
This is a very essential and favourable reaction to any stressor. The situation could be as simple as a dog chasing you. The extra adrenaline gives you that extra burst of speed to rally and run from the situation. It is not necessary that this happens only in unfavourable situations. Suppose Sarita’s son is about to participate in a race, the mixed emotions of anxiety, desire to win the challenge, all these add up to tell the body that a stressor lies ahead, and the body responds by giving it a spurt of adrenaline—enough to run, and maybe win the race.
What happens in the first phase is called the good stress. Technically, it is called primary stress.
What you feel during this adrenaline rush is—
Your heart beating much faster than normally, and your palms being sweaty.
Don’t you recollect this entire scenario happening when you are about to face an interview, or take an examination or maybe when you are about to be interviewed by the visa officer at the American Consulate or even called by your boss to explain something?
There is a slight variant to this, secondary stress where you know that the event is due to happen, you want it to happen, but you are all the same tense about it. Some common examples are, just before your wedding, or a distant journey, or you are off on a foreign assignment leaving your family for the first time. Or when you know you or your loved one needs an operation and you are tense. This reflects in your body in the form of—
Loss of appetite
Rapid breathing
Increased heart rate and blood pressure
Sweating.
Anita probably felt all this just before her wedding, as would have Surendranath. He has the tension of arranging for the finances, but he is also happy that his daughter is getting married. This form of stress takes a little longer to abate, and here the mind is aware that you are tense about an upcoming situation that you are willingly undertaking. In spite of your willingness, the very nature of the event puts some amount of stress on your psyche and over some time, causes the symptoms like loss of appetite etc.
Seems that this is the phase that most poets wax eloquent about; the longing and the quality of mystery and apprehension that is described as sweet sorrow and other quizzical metaphors.
This initial, mobilisation of energy phase is transient, and soon gets over.
It ends with the completion of the event that caused the stress.
We concluded that the first stage would end with the conclusion of the event, be it an examination, race or operation. What happens if the situation is prolonged, or the end unsatisfactory? Suppose you did not fare well in the interview, and are very unsure of the outcome? Or the athlete lost the race, and is worried about the consequences of losing?
Maybe Ramesh feels a sense of dejection that he could not go to medical college. He has not been able to adjust to his new career even though it is three years since he started this course. Surendranath also occasionally feels the tension of the loan he has taken for Anita’s wedding. Recently, he developed high blood pressure and is now under treatment. His wife Kamala is sometimes upset about the little upsets in the family, and feels everyone is taking her for granted. She does not yet know it, but she is falling victim to stress.
Anita and Sarita’s problems can be categorised as in the second stage, and some honest introspection on both their parts can prevent escalating tension in the family. Particularly, there is potential here for Vijay to become a stressed-out person, apart from Sarita who is already feeling the tension.
If a sincere attempt is made to correct the behaviour pattern at this point by firstly realising that a problem exists, and with introspection and dialogue coming to an agreeable solution, they can happily come back to stage one, or they retain the potential to proceed onto stage three, from where the journey to normalcy becomes that much more difficult.
When there is no escape from stage one, the body begins to release stored sugars and fats, using up its reserves. It is literally emptying out its storehouse to meet the continued stress situation. The body begins to feel—
Tired and fatigued
Feel pressurised
Increase in anxiety
Increase in smoking, drinking coffee, and alcohol
consumption
Memory loss.
When an individual fails to take corrective action some time during stage two, the body more or less uses up all its reserves. To illustrate, let us take the case of the sportsman who failed to win a race. He is worried about the repercussions it will have on his career. He lets the issue dominate his thought process to such an extent, that he even loses focus on his routine training. Expectedly, his performance deteriorates, and this, in turn, aggravates his anxiety, and builds on his stress levels. Or take the case of the executive who is unsure of his performance in the interview. His anxiety persists, and hinders him to such an extent that he is unable to take constructive steps. When this continues to happen over a prolonged period of time, it leads to—
Heart disease consequent to the neglected
high blood pressure
Stomach ulcers
Personality changes
Errors in judgement.
At the end of it, the affable athlete and the smiling executive and the loving grandpa undergo so much change in temperament that they become Mr. Grumble and Mr. Grouch.
This seems to be the stage where Ramesh is just now. He is not willing to reconcile to his being unable to join Medical College, and bears some hostility to others for the situation.
Surendranath also is in a state of tension about repaying the loan, and that his elder son, Vijay, has not been particularly cooperative in helping out. He did hope that both he and his wife, Sarita, would help. Now, it has become a source of worry, and with his high blood pressure, he further worried that after his demise, his wife would find the going tough.
Sarita and Vijay may soon join this segment if they do not take corrective steps as soon as possible.
