If you are reading this, you may be feeling stressed. Stress is an emotional response to an external trigger. You have a lot of demands at work, you are not getting enough sleep, you are stuck at home... All of these things are stressors, i.e. factors that release stress hormones and contribute to your emotional state.
But if you continue to feel stressed in the absence of these stressors, then it may be more a case of anxiety (1). Keep this in mind, as the distinction will be useful in the initial stages to know what to do.
Stress is not just psychological. Lifting a refrigerator is a stressor; it releases stress hormones. This is called physical stress. Physical activity is also a stressor, and knowing this will help us understand that we need to regulate stress just as we regulate physical activity.
Stress is positive
We often blame stress for all kinds of problems, but in reality, it's an incredibly useful mechanism in the body. Did you know, for example, that in response to stress, the body usually reduces pain (2,3) and releases cortisol (4), a stress hormone that also has an anti-inflammatory effect?
How we view stress matters
Stress is great because it boosts our intellectual performance, prepares our body for danger, and speeds up our heart rate like physical activity. So, given that physical activity helps us live longer, is this also true for stress?
Well, it depends! Stress is often seen as negative: “it reduces life expectancy,” “it makes you tense and painful,” etc., and this is true... under certain conditions. In a study involving 27,583 people (5), those who said they were very stressed had a 43% increase in the risk of premature death... but only if they thought it was negatively affecting their health!
It's hard to believe that thinking stress isn't bad can prevent us from losing life expectancy, isn't it? You're right to be cautious, as this is only one study where statistics were drawn from questionnaires. But, and there is a but, it has a BIOLOGICAL basis.
A healthy dose of stress for the heart
In a small experiment (6), researchers trained people to see stress differently before subjecting them to a stressful event. Those trained to see stress as positive had less constriction of their blood vessels and their hearts worked better. And to drive the point home, a study replicated similar results in 2017 (7). No wonder bodybuilders don't hesitate to slap themselves hard on the back, triggering physical stress, to improve their performance (8).
So yes, it's crazy, but who knows, reading these few lines might increase your life expectancy. So only show this article to those you want to see live longer!
The difference between good stress and bad stress
In Anglo-Saxon cultures, a distinction is often made between good stress, known as “eustress,” and bad stress, known as “distress.” Researchers have investigated the differences between good and bad stress, and the results seem to point to one conclusion (9)... THEY ARE THE SAME THING.
The same stress can be both good and bad depending on your point of view and the moment you are in. Having a deadline causes stress that can make you feel bad at first, but then increase productivity as the deadline approaches, which could be seen as beneficial.
Consume in moderation
If stress is a good thing, maybe we can have too much of a good thing. While being under stress and thinking it's positive may be linked to better blood circulation in the short term, the hormones released during prolonged stress, particularly cortisol, a natural anti-inflammatory, may actually decrease over time and may even be blocked from being secreted (4).
“Bad stress” may therefore be more a result of maintaining it through ineffective management strategies than the nature of the stress itself. These strategies may include recurring thoughts about stress, avoidance of stressful situations or people, or the use of substances to reduce stress (10).
Sources :
1. American Psychological Association. What’s the difference between stress and anxiety? [Internet]. American Psychological Association. 2022, February 14 [cité 2022, March 3]. Disponible sur: https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/anxiety-difference
2. Butler RK, Finn DP. Stress-induced analgesia. Prog Neurobiol. 2009;88(3):184‑202.
3. Ferdousi M, Finn DP. Stress-induced modulation of pain: Role of the endogenous opioid system. Prog Brain Res. 23 août 2018;239:121‑77.
4. Hannibal KE, Bishop MD. Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation. Phys Ther. 2014;94(12):1816‑25.
5. Keller A, Litzelman K, Wisk LE, Maddox T, Cheng ER, Creswell PD, et al. Does the perception that stress affects health matter? The association with health and mortality. Health Psychol. 2012;31(5):677‑84.
6. Jamieson JP, Nock MK, Mendes WB. Mind over matter: reappraising arousal improves cardiovascular and cognitive responses to stress. J Exp Psychol Gen. août 2012;141(3):417‑22.
7. Sammy N, Anstiss PA, Moore LJ, Freeman P, Wilson MR, Vine SJ. The effects of arousal reappraisal on stress responses, performance and attention. Anxiety Stress Coping. nov 2017;30(6):619‑29.
8. franceinfo. VIDEO. La meilleure façon de motiver un haltérophile ? Une grosse claque dans le dos [Internet]. Franceinfo. 2012 [cité 3 mars 2022]. Disponible sur: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sports/jo/video-la-meilleure-facon-de-motiver-un-halterophile-une-grosse-claque-dans-le-dos_124285.html
9. Bienertova‐Vasku J, Lenart P, Scheringer M. Eustress and Distress: Neither Good Nor Bad, but Rather the Same? Bioessays. 17 juill 2020;42(7):1900238.
10. Amnie AG. Emerging themes in coping with lifetime stress and implication for stress management education. SAGE Open Med. 20 juin 2018;6:2050312118782545.