Distress and Eustress - the myths behind mental health busted
#myth 1 - stress is always bad for us so we need to avoid it
There is actually no fixed definitions of good or bad stressors only our reaction to it. What causes stress for one person may not for another. I have a friend John, who's a leader of a Risk and Safety evaluation company providing consulting for the Oil and Gas industry to ensure risks are mitigated. He is also a storm chaser - he goes to America on holiday to chase tornados, for fun! For most people tornados cause huge stress but for him it's exciting.
So if it's not the stressor itself what is it that makes one person feel distress?
Neuroscience research tells us that there are two types of stress; distress and eustress (from eu - Greek word for good). These two different types of stress produce different responses in our neuroendocrine system, releasing different catecholamines (for simplicity read chemicals) adrenaline (distress) or dopamine (eustress). But if there is no good or bad stressors how does our mind and body decide what chemical to release and therefore whether we feel distress or eustress? Essentially it's how we feel about of the stressor event and our perception of it.
If we have high self efficacy and high skill the more in control we feel, therefore when we don't believe we have the skills (even if we do have them), we become anxious and distressed. Those people who believe in themselves but don't have the skills can still experience eustress because they know they can learn the skills required. You may have seen or felt this is action over the last few weeks with technology, for some people even though they didn't know how to run online meetings, they seemed to take it in their stride and soon seemed to have it under control. For others the whole experience is distressing and they can't wait to get back into the office so they don't have to deal with it anymore.
You can see from the model above moving one square across from distress to eustress is possible, it's about identifying which state you are in to know what action to take. Follow these 3 tips for moving into Eustress flow state:
Distress - where Fight,Flight or Freeze syndrome is in effect, you'll know as your heart will be racing, palms sweaty, jaw clenched. Move to Eustress and release your seeker system by firstly re-engaging your prefrontal cortex (mindfulness exercise works best), then asks: What can help me solve this? What haven't I tried before? Who could help me?
Distress - where you are experiencing negative self talk, you know those thoughts that say you're not good enough, who are you to think you can do this. Move to Eustress where you can experience flow by reframing your self talk to a positive view or engage a friend to help.
Eustress - you've released your seeker system but haven't found your flow yet, you know you're in this state when lots of ideas are bursting forth, you're starting to experiment. To move into flow you need to start pinning them down and taking action or you could enter overwhelm territory. This where putting ideas to paper can help try the crazy eights exercise. Divide a piece of paper into 8 boxes and draw your idea in each box allowing 1 minute per box. Then pick the top 3 and flesh them out more until the best option presents itself.
Asking for help is never misplaced and will always move you forward so reach out and book in a time with me to discuss how I can help you.
