By: Camden Baucke MS LLP
In modern American society, I’m not sure I know someone who doesn’t face stress on a daily basis.
At the same time, the internet is filled to the brim with article after article about stress and how to manage it.
There is plenty of information on the neurology of stress and its symptoms such as:
(1) Dysregulation of hormones that affect how you think and how you feel, leading to anxiety and depression.
(2) Reduced functionality of the prefrontal cortex leading to difficulties with impulse control and planning.
(3) Increased inflammation triggering tension headaches, migraines, and seizures (if epileptic).
(4) Overstimulation of the amygdala, dysregulation of the hippocampus, and disruption of normal serotonin and dopamine pathways – generally disrupting how you interact with the world around you.
Stress is also already known for its physiological symptoms such as:
(1) Adrenal fatigue leading to exhaustion and tiredness.
(2) Cardiovascular issues regarding raised blood pressure, heart rate, and risk of heart attack.
(3) Gastric reflux, nausea, and indigestion.
(4) Increased inflammation, resulting in aches and muscle tension.
(5) Decreased libido, virility, and more painful menstrual symptoms.
(6) Decreased immune function leading to more frequent and severe illnesses with longer recovery times.
Overall, stress has become a very physiological and neurological topic. However, what does sensation and perception have to do with stress? When does psychology come into play?
In this article, I will cover how our perspective and behavioral psychology plays a part in the challenge of stress. To start, we need to look at what stress is and how we interact with it.
What is Stress?
To put it simply: stressors are a form of stimulus and stress is the reaction we have to that stimulus.
There are two types of stress: (1) Eustress & (2) Distress
Eustress (Eu = good stress) is when we face a pressuring stimulus, but it’s in a rewarding context.
For example, football practice is an experience of eustress. Your blood is pumping but in a rewarding and fun situation.
Distress is a negative reaction to stressors. This is the pounding in your chest, not from excitement, but from dread.
From these two types of stress comes the challenge of determining which is which. That’s where psychology comes in.
The Psychology of Stress – EAT
Can something be inherently stressful or does our perception play a part?
Between the stimulus and our physical reaction to it, there is a barrier of subjective perspective.
The mind does a mental calculation – what does the stressor demand of me and how much can I afford to give?
Demand
Stressful stimuli are naturally demanding – even eustress comes from demands.
When you face a stressor, your mind does an EAT test and evaluates what resources will be needed, such as:
(1) Energy
(2) Attention
(3) Tact
If something demands energy, you need to be ready to move to meet the demand. You must have room in your attention span and enough tact to handle a situation with the appropriate amount of skill.
When your energy, attention, and tact are all demanded, you must evaluate how much you have to give.
Resources
You can only give what you have – nothing more.
Energy can literally mean how much zeal can you show – how much fuel does you body have to run on?
Attention can be mental and visual – can you successfully pay attention without distraction and feeling overwhelmed?
Tact is a little more ambiguous, but it could be generally described as exercising skill – are you using your skill enough to effectively manage a situation?
Result
Resource debt in a negative and distressing scenario presents a pretty bad dilemma.
Let’s tip the scale of either resource or demand – if you have an average stressor that demands an average amount of EAT, but you have almost no energy or attention resources left, then you’re in trouble.
The same goes for having an average amount of EAT resources, but facing a massive EAT demand. The result will also be failure to meet that demand.
If you can’t successfully meet the demands of a challenge, you might come up short. If you expect failure, you expect consequences.
The Threat of Failure
Stressors are demanding and have consequences for failure.
If you don’t have enough EAT resources to complete your school work, you might fail the class.
If you can’t afford to meet the demands of a nursing job, then you could fail a single task and inadvertently hurt a patient, lose your license, and risk unemployment and poverty.
This expected course of events reflects catastrophic thinking.
If you don’t have the resources to meet a stressor’s demands, then you could fail and face what scares you the most.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Unfortunately, recognizing that you can’t meet the demands of a stressor only makes it worse.
Your reaction to an impending doom only creates more distress, because now your fight-flight-freeze response is kicking in to protect you from a perceived threat.
Autonomic arousal only costs you more energy and attention, which will make you further unable to meet a stressor’s demands for resources.
Also, most of this happens unconsciously – meaning that way before you can say “I’m stressed“, you could be experiencing the physical ramifications of distress.
Final Thoughts – Balance the Equation
If you can understand the equation of EAT – resources available vs. resources demanded – you can start to balance it.
This means adding rest to regain resources and potentially (and maybe only temporarily) reducing experiences that drain you of EAT resources.
If you can balance the equation, then you can avoid the litany of neurological and physical symptoms mentioned.
Additionally, you can ask for help from friends, family, colleagues, or mental health professionals – people who can help give you some time or space to refill your resources or share the demand of your stressors.
You don’t always have to do it alone.
Reflections 
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