We always hear about the health issues that arise from stress, and how stress can cause negative effects to our body over time. What if the hormones weren’t released, or were released in smaller amounts, when high pressure was on you? Thinking about that question provides you with perspective on what you should be targeting, and leaves you in a more realistic mindset. Here I discuss the impacts of stress, what stress normally connotes, and how to view it as a tool:
Stress And Some Background On Its Purpose
In acquiring research information on the topic, I found a review paper that matched part of the point I was looking to bring up here. According to Stress and Memory: Behavioral Effects and Neurobiological Mechanisms by Carmen Sandi and M. Teresa Pinelo-Nava:
Although stress effects are frequently regarded as deleterious to cognitive function, very intensive work during the past decade is delineating a great complexity, both in the nature of interactions between stress and memory functions and in their outcome. In addition to the overemphasized negative side of stress on brain and behavior, there are many instances in which neural function and cognition are either facilitated by stress (de Kloet et al. [2]; Joëls et al. [8]), or even not affected (Warren et al. [10]; Beylin and Shors [11]).
One point I was looking to make is identified in the phrase “overemphasized negative side of stress”, as stress is brought up the majority of the time as a negative item. High stress is said to cause health problems. Stress isn’t normally thought of in a positive light. However, this paper presents it as a tool or buffer. I wrote in a past article that pressure causes memories to be made or learning to occur, and here that information is linked with stress chemicals placing that pressure(AKA causing the physical learning pathway changes) on sections of the brain.
Stress Hormones Keep Us Active
Without stress hormones or chemicals being a part of our natural response system, neural function and cognition suffer. Although this doesn’t link directly to the physical occurrence, you can think of stress in the mind being the pressure of a pen that writes on the paper of the mind. In that sense, it is a requirement for our functioning. Now, in the sense of high stress conditions, they are just as helpful. The body’s response to high stress, in releasing chemicals to provide more ability for you to handle the stress, protects, or buffers you, from further complications.
Without Stress Hormones, Deadlines Are Meaningless
If the body didn’t release these hormones for high-stress situations, you wouldn’t get the signal to continue to meet a deadline or complete a task. A few rocks or a concrete slab are under no stress of the cognitive type, but they are also not processing anything. Stress is the signal that you have something relevant to your continuity that needs to be worked on. Productivity loses relevance when there is no mental reminder of the urgency of completing anything.