Chronic stress has many negative health consequences, mentally and physically. Reducing stress is often the only solution, but how do you break the stress cycle you are stuck in? In this blog we explain how you can recognize and break that stress cycle.
What is chronic stress?
Do you feel like stress is always in your body? Are you flooded with negative thoughts? Do you feel restless, agitated, find it difficult to relax and find it hard to fall asleep? Then chances are you are suffering from chronic stress. Chronic stress occurs when we get stuck in a stress reaction and fail to break through or complete it. In fact, stress consists of a process with many phases. You complete such a stress reaction when you let your body know that you are "safe" again after a stressful situation. This, unfortunately, is where many people go wrong. Safety stays out and stress keeps coming.
Curious about the different causes and symptoms of stress? You can read about it in this blog.
The five phases of stress
The cycle of stress roughly consists of five phases: the external stressor, the internal assessment, the physiological response, internalization and coping. Below we briefly explain these five phases:
1. External stressor
The external stressor is the trigger that causes the stress.
2. Internal assessment
This happens around the same time as the trigger occurs. The external information enters through the senses and is sent from there to the amygdala. This part of the brain is responsible for emotions such as fear and anger. When activated, the amygdala sends signals to the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, which are responsible for maintaining balance in the body.
3. Physiological response
This takes your body to the next phase. The hypothalamus and pituitary activate the sympathetic nervous system (the gas pedal), which activates the body's fight-flight response. This is accompanied by physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. At the same time, the parasympathetic nervous system (the brake) is suppressed, halting processes such as the immune and digestive systems.
4. Internalization
This is when you become aware of the stress you are feeling. For example, you feel your heart rate go up or your stomach aches, as well as emotions of fear and anxiety.
5. Coping
This is the final stage, which represents how you deal with the stress. Some responses aggravate the stress (which can result in a panic attack), other ways push the stress away by seeking forms of distraction (which makes the cycle keep repeating itself), and the last way brings the nervous system back to calm which makes the stress disappear.
The latter, of course, is what we want and we'll go into that in more detail later in this blog. As long as your coping method is sound, having occasional stress is not at all unhealthy and even a healthy "shake up" of your system!
The effects of chronic stress
It is only when you do not get out of your stress response and stress is therefore chronic that you can suffer. There are numerous negative consequences of chronic stress. As you just read, in the stress cycle, the parasympathetic nervous system is suppressed, shutting down processes such as the immune system and digestion. This makes you more susceptible to disease and less able to absorb nutrients, which are just so important. Moreover, stress in the body also consumes more nutrients, making you more prone to deficiencies.
In addition, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for relaxing the body, allowing you to fall asleep, for example. Sleep therefore becomes a lot more difficult with chronic stress, so your brain rests less and you will actually experience more stress.
Stress also causes an excess of proteins (cytokines) to be produced, which causes (chronic) inflammation in the body. And we could go on and on. As you can see, the longer you suffer from stress, the worse the body starts to function, the more stress builds up again. So time to get out of your stress reaction! Mar how do you do that, reduce stress?
Reduce stress by interrupting your stress response
You break through your stress response by consciously stepping out of the body's fight/flight response, giving your body a signal that it is safe to relax again.
There are a number of activities that can help you achieve this.
1. Move
Any form of exercise can help when you experience a lot of stress, because through exercise you have an outlet for the stress hormones in your body. Through exercise, you "burn" them, so to speak. Moreover, your body produces positive hormones when you exercise, such as dopamine and oxytocin. You can think about walking, swimming, yoga, pilates, basketball or strength training, for example.
Read 7 benefits of strength training here!
2. Breathing exercises
Your brain affects your body, but it works the other way around, too. Your breathing goes up or down depending on how stressed or relaxed you are. But the way you breathe, in turn, also sends signals to the brain. So by consciously controlling and lowering your breathing, you can tell your brain that you are relaxed and there is no reason for stress. This information is sent through the vagus nerve, which then activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation.
3. Laughter
Laughing hard, sincerely with someone is a panacea for stress and gets you right out of the stress cycle. But if that fails, positive, social interactions also help. That can range from having coffee with a friend to simply saying hello to the cashier at the supermarket.
4. Crying
Crying, like exercise, helps to release physical tension in the body. That's why you often feel calm and relieved after a big cry.
5. Being creative
Creativity acts like medicine for the brain because this activity is satisfying and causes you to produce dopamine. Moreover, it is harder to fret when you are physically engaged and using your imagination. So go drawing, painting, writing, baking, dancing or singing (the latter also activates the vagus nerve again, so win-win!).
6. Hug
A big hug of just twenty seconds helps release the love hormone oxytocin, which makes you feel relaxed and safe.
7. Replenish your nutrients
Chronic stress costs your body an awful lot of energy, causing you to consume more nutrients than normal. In addition, fewer nutrients are also absorbed, because the digestive system goes into a low gear when stressed.
So it is important to replenish the supply of nutrients so that your body has the energy to get out of the stress cycle. Magnesium is especially important here, because it promotes muscle relaxation. Because stress actually increases muscle tension, a lot of magnesium is consumed. When this is depleted, your body has difficulty relaxing.