Published by The Royal Bank of Canada

Stress in Perspective

Since the only cure for stress is death, we

should try to understand this force that is

always within us. To cope with it and turn

it to our advantage, we must think of

others as well as ourselves...

In engineering terminology, stress is the forceexerted when one body or part of a body presses,pulls, pushes or twists another. It is crucial to con-struction and mechanics. Without it, buildingscould not be made to stand, or machines to run.

So it is with stress in the more modern sense ofthe word: little if anything could be accomplishedwithout it. But as in engineering, the right balanceof stresses must be struck to achieve the desiredcreative tension. Too little, and nothing holdstogether; too much, and everything flies apart.

When people think of stress today, they areusually thinking of the effects of having more thanenough of it. They talk about it in the saine spirit,and in much the same language, as an engineer dis-cussing stress tolerances. They will say that theyare overloaded, pressed for time, being pushed todo too much.

There is, however, a vital difference betweenstress among inanimate and animate things.Among the inanimate, it is produced by externalpressure. Among the animate, it can be generatedinternally, because living creatures can feel.

The peculiar creature known generically as mancan not only feel, but speculate and imagine. Thusmuch of the stress he encounters emanates from hisown emotions and mind.

Strictly speaking, all stress is internal, since itis the reaction of the body to any force that actson it. It is not, as is frequently assumed, the forceitself.

The latter is called the "stressor," which evokesa programmed reaction within our physical sys-teins. If, for example, the temperature suddenly

drops, we shiver. If we smell out Sunday dinnercooking, we salivate. The cold and the aroma arestressors. The shivers and the salivation are stress.

We are under the influence of stressors everyminute of every day, but we normally only becomeaware of stress when we feel tense and edgy. Weare particularly conscious of it when we sense thatthe stressor concerned could do us harm.

According to Dr. Hans Selye, the Austrian-bornMontrealer who was the great authority on stress,we tend to misuse the term in common parlance."Any kind of normal activity -- a game of chess oreven a passionate embrace -- can produce consider-able stress without causing harmful effects. Damag-ing or unpleasant stress is ’distress,’ " he wrote.

Distress occurs when we undergo what WalterB. Cannon of the Harvard Medical School termedthe "fight or flight response." In his ground-breaking studies during the 1920s, Dr. Cannonnoted that, when faced with danger, animais instinc-tively prepare either to stand their ground or run.

Their reaction to potential harm triggers changeswithin their bodies. Hormone production, respira-tion, the heart rate and blood pressure ail increaseto provide the needed boost in energy. Musclestighten, including in the stomach, which is affectedby a sudden stoppage in digestion to divert moreblood to the brain, arms, legs and shoulders. Bowelsand bladder loosen in preparation for lightening thebody for running. All the senses go on the alert.

This happens in an animal when there is a clearand present threat to his or her life or territory. Manalso experiences the fight or flight response, andthere is a good case for saying that without this bio-

logical alarm system, he never would have survivedor progressed. But as human society has grownmore complex, the reaction has been extendedbeyond direct physical menaces. It now applies notonly to the danger of death or injury, but to thedanger of emotional or material loss.

Often there is no stressor in the air at all: it existsonly as a conjecture about what might happen. Ourhabit of speculating on events makes us prey toanxiety -- the "anticipatory tension or vague dreadpersisting in the absence of any specific threat."

"How much pain the evils cost us that have neverhappened !" Thomas Jefferson remarked. Yet it isfutile to tell people in a state of distress not to worrybecause their fears are probably exaggerated. Themost we can do is try to see the stressor clearly forwhat it is -- to find out what it consists of, and toassess to what extent it is actual or imaginary. Andperhaps to keep in mind the old joke: "Don’t tell methat worry does no good. Why, the things I worryabout never happen!"

Alone among the earth’s creatures, man has asense of time, and thus of urgency. In the world hehas built around himself, time and necessity gohand in hand. A waitress has so many minutes toset the tables before the lunch-time rush; a truckdriver so many hours to move a shipment from oneplace to the next; a farmer so many days to get hiscrop in. Whether they are on the board of directorsor the cleaning staff, workers who fail to meet dead-lines put themselves in danger of losing their jobsor status. This brings on a fight or flight response.

Man can change his condition,and thus control distress

The man-made world is full of incidental stres-sors which exacerbate the tension we already feel-- noise, crowds, traffic and other vexations. Thepressure is also heightened by our society’s systemof responsibility, which places demands on peopleto worry about what happens to others.

In western countries, at least, conditions arealways changing, and many of these changes seri-ously affect our working and personal lives. As ifthat were not enough, the media constantly carrynews of new troubles and hazards. AU this gives riseto negative stress.

The presence of too many stressors can keepsome people in a more or less constant state of fight

or flight, and the consequences of living in this statecan be brutal. Heart and arterial disease, strokes,chronic indigestion, stomach ulcers and migraineheadaches are only some of the more familiar ail-ments associated with distress.

People who try to evade or relieve it let them-selves in for ancillary conditions such as alcoholismand drug addiction. On the psychological side, it canbring about depression and paranoia, with sideeffects like impotence and obesity. A few years agoThe New York Times surveyed a number of physi-cians who reported that up to 80 per cent of all thepatients they treated suffered from stress-relatedills.

Doctors make the point that stress-related ail-ments do not usually stem directly from stress assuch. You can take two people under the sameamount of pressure, and one will be healthy whilethe other is sick. Our accommodation of stressdepends partly on what type of personalities wehave: broadly speaking, those who are highly com-petitive, insecure, materialistic and abrasive aremore likely to succumb to the effects of stress thanthose who are less prickly. It also depends on thekind of lives we lead. In a recent article on theravages of distress in American business,Newsweek magazine reported: "Some psychiatristsbelieve that baby boomers are especially vulnera-ble. They are more mobile, marry later, and havefewer children -- all factors that weaken the sup-port systems that helped earlier generations copewith stress."

In every case, however, the question of whetheror not stress takes a heavy toll on our physical ormental health ultimately depends on how we han-dle it. Of all the characteristics that humans haveand animals do not, the one that stands out mostis man’s ability to do something about his condi-tion. We can control our thoughts, feelings andactions. We are thus capable of exercising controlover the impact on us of stress.

"Learn to ignore what you can’t control and learnto control what you can," writes Dr. Peter G. Hanson,author of the commendable The Joy of Stress, arecent best-seller. "Take an active role in your ownmanagement; do not be just a passive touristthrough life."

When we turn our minds to dealing with stress,however, we should be careful to make the distinc-

tion between controlling it and trying to escapefrom it. People who believe that they can hide awayfrom the pressures of life by "doing nothing" mayfind that inactivity is very stressful. People subjectto stress underload are liable to be wakeful, with-drawn, and have poor appetites. If they work, theytend to be accident-prone, have a high absentee rate,and lack judgment. What they are missing, clearly,is the energizing tension which stress exerts.

Unfitness is a major sourceof distress in its own right

Experts in the field speak of a "stress comfortzone" in which there is neither strain nor slack ona piticular person. The dimensions of the zone varywith personalities. The threshold seems higher forsome hardy souls than it is for the majority. Buton close observation, you may find that these cool-headed individuals are able to adapt to pressure bet-ter than others because of their positive attitudes.

"Complete freedom from stress is death," Dr.Selye wrote. Still, if it cannot be avoided, it can beneutralized and even turned to your advantage.Where work is concerned, the first step in neutraliz-ing stress is to learn the difference between hurryand haste.

Hurry is precipitate and disorderly; haste is calmand methodical. A good deal of negative stresscould be obviated simply by making a routine ofhaving everything in its proper place, lined up andready for any contingency.

In general, any effort to deal with stress will bereinforced by considering what steps you can taketo make yourself physically fitter. Unfitness is amajor source of distress in its own right. The tradi-tional ways of alleviating tension fly in the face ofkeeping fit: smoking, drinking and perhaps eatingtoo much, taking tranquilizers. By merely follow-ing a healthful diet and exercising a little, you canuse physical stress to fight mental distress. Thefirst line of defence against pressure is the confi-dence that comes from feeling vibrantly alive.

Fighting distress with stress is a standard tech-nique. Athletes doit when they "psyche themselvesup" before a competition. In this way, they increasetheir adrenalin supply so that they can perform atpeak capacity.

People in time-sensitive jobs such as journalistswill deliberately hold off until deadlines are staringthem in the face on the theory that the rush willsharpen their creativity and make their work bet-ter. Many executives actively court stress by load-ing on work as a spur to higher productivity.

This recognizes the American theologian TyronEdwards’ view that "there is nothing so elastic asthe human mind. Like imprisoned steam, the moreit is pressed the more it rises to meet the pressure."To exploit this phenomenon, it is necessary to seestress not as a challenge, nota threat.

"Don’t hide from stresses," Dr. Hanson exhorts;"go out and challenge new ones. Take the thrill fromstress, but leave the threat behind... See howgratifying the unbeatable combination of a properlymaintained body and a well organized mind can be."

Defeating self-doubt is thekey to stress management

"I have never known a man who died from over-work, but many who have died from doubt," wroteDr. Charles Mayo of the famous Mayo Clinic. Forthe word "doubt" we might substitute "self-doubt."One of Sigmund Freud’s most important discover-ies was that fear of oneself and fear of the outsideworld are closely related, and that they often inter-act. As the psychologist Abraham Maslow haspointed out, we are naturally afraid of our ownimpulses, memories, capacities, potentialities anddestinies. We tend to transfer such apprehension toreal or anticipated external events which might testour inner strength.

In the stress management courses now given bymany companies to enable employees to cope withStress and turn it to good use, heavy emphasis isplaced on the self-defeating thought patterns whichstem from a lack of self-confidence. Writing of thesein a recent edition of the British magazine Manage-ment Today, management consultant Brian Simpsonlisted some typical examples: "Selective envy (thegrass is always greener on the other side}; catas-trophic extrapolation, imagining that smallproblems will grow with catastrophic results;homogenizing, making a general judgment and sys-tematically misinterpreting future events to sup-port that judgment; and projection, basing yourthoughts on the fatally flawed belief that other peo-pie think and feel as you do."

These tendencies may be countered by what isknown as "positive re-evaluation." For instance,you can put selective envy behind you by runningover all the reasons why the object of your envymight envy you. Catastrophic extrapolation can bedealt with by working out how you would defeat thedragon in your mind should it ever materialize,rather than assuming that you are bound to bebeaten by it. Homogenization can be de-clawed bygoing over the reasons for your original judgmentand re-interpreting them from a positive point ofview.

Simply thinking positively is a great help inaccommodating stress. It is no accident that themost cheerful characters in any group of people arealso those who deal with life’s tribulations mosteffectively. A century before anyone had ever heardof occupational stress, Thomas Carlyle wrote: "Oh,give us a man who sings at his work... Wondrousis the strength of cheerfulness, and the power of itsendurance -- the cheerful man will do more in thesame time, doit better, will persevere in it longer,than the sad or sullen."

A philosophy of livingaccording to nature’s plan

Cheerfulness is not currently in fashion, whichperhaps is why we hear so much about stress thesedays. No more, it seems, are perky popular songswritten urging us to smile, to forget our cares andtroubles. On the contrary, popular culture nowappears to promote a psychological regime of fret-fulness about the state of the world and ourselves.

Perhaps because the literature of stress is socouched in jargon, it often fails to get the basic mes-sage across that you should never take life, or your-self, too seriously. Fate has a way of playing jokeson the overly-earnest, and if you can’t take a joke,you make an ideal target for distress.

In a cheerful, positive mind, stress becomes apositive force, a source of stimulation and enjoy-ment. The person who knows how to handle itknows enough to regularly exchange one form ofstress for another: the frustrations of business, forinstance, for the frustrations of golf.

Diversions are important, because they enableyou to go back and tackle stressful situations withrenewed energy, and perhaps overcome them by see-ing them in a fresh perspective. And, of course, weall need to relax, both physically and mentally. Thebest forms of relaxation are those which compel youto put potentially negative stressors temporarilyout of mind.

Only one form of diversion, however, provides aconstant and permanent support for the successfulmanagement of stress. It has to do with the factthat much of the distress that afflicts people comesfrom being too wrapped up in themselves. Hencethey take too desperate a view of their ownproblems, disappointments and fears.

After a lifetime of studying the medical aspectsof stress, Dr. Selye concluded that the key to coun-tering distress is to develop a philosophy of livingwhich follows with nature’s unbreakable pattern.He labelled his philosophical prescription, detailedin his 1974 book Stress Without Distress, "altruis-tic egoism." It takes account of the natural law thatselfishness is central to ail existence -- that organ-isms will always look after their own interests first.

Altruistic egoism, he wrote, is "the selfish hoard-ing of the goodwill, respect, esteem, support andlove of our neighbour [which] is the most efficientway to give vent to our pent-up energy and to cre-ate enjoyable, useful, and beautiful things." This isdone by working to "earn thy neighbour’s love."Anyone practising Selye’s philosophy will have lit-tle time to dwell on the strictly self-centredproblems that cause distress. It does not deny thepresence of stress, but channels it into creativeways to play one’s part as a member of society. Itfollows the eternal rule that by helping others, onehelps oneself, whether in dealing with stress or any-thing else.