[di meliora]

In 2009, Newsweek asked, "Who Says Stress Is Bad For You?" http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...d-for-you.html
Most already know not all stress is bad.

Sure, stress can be bad for you, especially if you react to it with anger or depression or by downing five glasses of Scotch. But what's often overlooked is a common-sense counterpoint: in some circumstances, it can be good for you, too. It's right there in basic-psychology textbooks. As Spencer Rathus puts it in "Psychology: Concepts and Connections," "some stress is healthy and necessary to keep us alert and occupied." Yet that's not the theme that's been coming out of science for the past few years. "The public has gotten such a uniform message that stress is always harmful," says Janet DiPietro, a developmental psychologist at Johns Hopkins University. "And that's too bad, because most people do their best under mild to moderate stress."

The author:

When I started asking researchers about "good stress," many of them said it essentially didn't exist. "We never tell people stress is good for them," one said. Another allowed that it might be, but only in small ways, in the short term, in rats. What about people who thrive on stress, I asked—people who become policemen or ER docs or air-traffic controllers because they like seeking out chaos and putting things back in order? Aren't they using stress to their advantage? No, the researchers said, those people are unhealthy. "This business of people saying they 'thrive on stress'? It's nuts," Bruce Rabin, a distinguished psychoneuroimmunologist, pathologist and psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told me. Some adults who seek out stress and believe they flourish under it may have been abused as children or permanently affected in the womb after exposure to high levels of adrenaline and cortisol, he said. Even if they weren't, he added, they're "trying to satisfy" some psychological need. Was he calling this a pathological state, I asked—saying that people who feel they perform best under pressure actually have a disease? He thought for a minute, and then: "You can absolutely say that. Yes, you can say that."

The conclusion:

This is the problem with all stress-management tactics: you have to want them to succeed and be willing to throw yourself into them, or they'll fail. If you force yourself to do them, you'll just stress yourself out more. This is why exercise relieves stress for some people and makes others miserable. It's also why Sapolsky says he's "totally frazzled" but doesn't bother with meditation: "If I had to do that for 30 minutes a day," he says, "I'm pretty sure I'd have a stroke."

For all of the science's shortfalls, there's animal research that suggests why something that should lower stress can actually cause stress if it's done in the wrong spirit. In a classic study, scientists put two rats in a cage, each of them locked in a running wheel. The first rat could exercise whenever he liked. The second was yoked to the first, forced to run when his counterpart did. Exercise, like meditation, usually tamps down stress and encourages neuron growth, and indeed, the first rat's brain bloomed with new cells. The second rat, however, lost brain cells. He was doing something that should have been good for his brain, but he lacked one crucial factor: control. He could not determine his own "workout" schedule, so he didn't perceive it as exercise. Instead, he experienced it as a literal rat race.

This experiment brings up a troubling point about stress. Psychologists have known for years that one of the biggest factors in how we process stressful events is how much control we have over our lives. As a rule, if we feel we're in control, we cope. If we don't, we collapse. And no amount of meditation or reframing our thinking can change certain facts of our lives. With the market languishing and jobs hemorrhaging and the world going to hell, too many of us probably feel like that rat in the second wheel: it's hard to convince ourselves we're in control of anything.

But stress science even provides a little hope here, if we go back to Selye. He first published his ideas during the Great Depression—a time of stress if ever there was one, and a time in which survival demanded creativity. That Depression ended. Now we're entering what may be a new one, and we'll need more creative thinking to get out of it. We're going to have to figure out what parts of our future we can control, and we'll need to engage with them thoughtfully. Fortunately, we have the kind of brain that permits that. Sure, it will be stressful. Maybe that isn't a bad thing.

Dr. Liz Hale has a different view:

Have you noticed the mixed messages in the media about stress?

A national news magazine recently put an eye-catching title on their cover, “Stress Can Be Good for You.” How is it after years of warnings about the damage stress can do to your heart, your immune system and your psyche, we are now hearing that stress can be good for you? Dr. Liz Hale, our own Clinical Psychologist says, don’t believe everything you read.

Stress is indeed hard on everything just mentioned – it’s also likely hard on the brain. New research in animals reveals stress can shrink brain tissue and make our neurons less effective at communicating with each other. Scientists are also investigating the genetic link with stress. How genes may affect the way our brains process stress and depression and how stress effects pregnancy.

Q: What is the stress mechanism exactly…how does it all occur and what exactly happens to our body and mind?

Here is a list for you to use: Might be impressive to have it scroll thru while I mention only a few specifically…..?

• Increased heart rate
• Increased blood pressure
• Blood vessel constriction
• Heart rhythm disturbances
• Increased stomach acid
• Increased muscle tension
• Increased cholesterol
• Increased blood sugar
• Short shallow breathing
• Abnormality in immune function
• Fluid retention
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Anger, rage or hostility
• Irritability
• Decreased concentration

Hale then discusses some of the problems related to stress and provides some steps to reduce stress. I found her article well worth reading.

As noted, the line between helpful stress and bad stress has no bright line. Undoubtedly, at least for me, learning how to manage stress is essential to a healthier life.

Dr. Grohol has a lot of good information about stress here: Stress Management

[-jimi-]

Like said, the word is control. If you can control the situation you're not the victim of bad stress. No one who has no control ever has good stress. People who has no control at the workplace for example, can never dial down their stress. Their manager can. Even if he looks busy, he can go with the ups and downs. What HE doesn't have is the social stress caused by being the common worker. Social stress is probably the worst. It becomes chronic, and when stress is chronic the body suffers, you get heart disease and neuron death.

The problem? The hierarchy that lets us use people as if they weren't alive and human.

[Hellion]

Any more of the article in the link and i just might get too stressed. First off people and things make me feel ways all the time regardless of if I want them to or not, if I could simply choose to turn off that part of my brain and not be effected by people and things I would....its not as though I enjoy being sensitive to things like insults, harsh criticism or bullying. And I certainly don't 'choose' to be so overwhelmed I'm on the verge of a mental breakdown when things get too overwhelming.

Anyways not trying to offend, however its rather clear to me that maybe that article is about normal stress levels and not chronic PTSD stress and how that effects ones ability to deal with even small amounts of stress.

I mean I cannot just tell myself to not 'let' things or people make me feel any way. That sort of thinking leads me to push myself too hard when I need to be careful to avoid too much stress so I don't freak out or simply get totally burnt out. I need to be aware of how much people and things are likely to stress me so I can prepare for it or not go into a situation or around certain people if its too much at that time.

[di meliora]

Hottest High Octane Stress Articles in 2012
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...ticles-in-2012

Sherrie Bourg Carter, Psy.D., is the author of the blog: High Octane Women While the focus of the blog is on women, I found the articles interesting. Having experienced burnout, I was not that surprised when Carter stated the most read article in the two-year history of the High Octane Women blog is: Running on Empty: How to Recognize When You're on the Road to Burnout

But notice I said that the curves are inevitable, not the crash. And to keep the crash from happening, it's important to know the signs to look for, the warning lights that signal burnout.

• Physical signs, such as chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, stomach pain, sleep problems, frequent headaches, chronic fatigue, gynecological problems, and/or increased illness
• Psychological signs, such as loss of enjoyment for activities once enjoyed; sadness; excessive anxiety or worry; panic attacks; feeling trapped without options for relief or escape; loss of motivation; loss of concentration; emotional hypersensitivity at seemingly inconsequential things; feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, or pessimism; and/or increasing feelings of irritability, frustration, or anger
• Behavioral signs, such as skipping meals; little or no appetite or overeating; increase in alcohol or drug use; increased absenteeism; drop in productivity; many uncompleted projects despite long work hours; and/or isolative behaviors, such as wanting to be alone, closing doors to prevent others from access, being generally inaccessible, eating lunch alone, or being a poor team player

Part II: Refueling Your Engine: Strategies to Reduce Stress and Avoid Burnout

My last post, Running on Empty, described symptoms that, if present, suggest you might be on the road to burnout. If you found yourself identifying with a lot of those symptoms, it's normal to feel upset. When you're used to traveling at Mach 3, pulling back to a comfortable Mach 2 may seem ... well, a little disappointing.

But the important thing to keep in mind is that you are still the same person you were when you entered the race. Your drive, your enthusiasm, your passion, and your energy may have gotten buried under the weight of the stress you've been carrying around, but those qualities and all the other good ones are still inside you. You just need to find ways to reach inside and find the sparks that first ignited your engine so that you can climb back into the driver's seat and reenter the race.

Carter then offers suggestions to help to return to being productive. I never got back. I have done a lot of volunteer work. For two years I worked part-time. My therapist was upset when I resigned my position at work. He acted like I had failed him. Now, I am told to accept I likely will not get better.

Stress is nothing to fool with.

I was piqued by the exercise references. Too bad that wasn't expounded upon...seems to me exercise may well be the best choice in deburring a stressful life. The best but difficult in ways beyond mere brow wiping after some 'routine' and 'hey, chaulked up another one.' Physical exertion...it's an option now. A game...even reduced to some pop culture mating ritual for Christs sake...not so much a natural result of living with less. Not much at all...in our culture anyway.

Sedentary life...that's a fair new concept isn't it? By and large? The 50s post-war booms perhaps ushering in this modern concept?

Ah but we have pills potions and psyguys to buffer this improved lifestyle. Preferable? No...just the way things have evolved here. Science is trumping the natural. Well science had just better focus on ways to change our progressive culture. Haha...we'll fight against the dying light like our lives depend on it! Just eat better and move your arses folks. Maybe something unfailing WILL happen to encourage us en masse...until then articles will be written and folks will fret. Ah us mortals be...fighting the reaper and ignorantly denying time.

I'll vote for the trad stress views. It wracks and wreaks. The numbers
seem to prove that. Anyway lessons in free will would perhaps benefit our pore hearts and minds best...hah! Or at least as well as anything else could if one shuns health as key to the equation.