The (Very Basic) Science of Interpreting Stress

Human beings are programmed to seek out danger. This is not a philosophical viewpoint; it is biological and neurological fact. Our ancient ancestors lived with constant threat as soft, hairless, pink, fragile, and relatively unskilled middle-of-the-food-chain primates. The bias towards identifying the “bad” was a necessary mechanism for survival. Over time, as successive iterations of Homo sapiens learned to make fire and use tools, then weapons, then more advanced technology, and began to band together into tribes and settlements and cities, the level of mortal threat diminished (except for from each other, obviously). These days, most of us don’t live with that kind of constant threat; we have crafted societies built around tools and technology that have taken us from middling to some version of primacy, and from hardship to relative convenience and ease.

This modern paradigm has had the unintended effect – among many, which constitute a longer discussion – of leaving our built-in, threat-detecting survival mechanism with no target. So, our natural negative bias goes looking for a way to apply itself, and boy have we gotten good at giving it places to work! In doing so we have let it run away from us. Negativity is everywhere, because it is but also because we have a powerful tendency to emphasize it over the good, and turning the tide on that practice – finding our way to a new point of view – is a challenge. One might even go as far as calling it “stressful.” In my experience, change often begins with seeking understanding of the very thing that we’re trying to change. So, a little science.

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is what governs all of the functions in the human body that we don’t think about, the things that keep us generally alive, functional, and, hopefully, healthy. The ANS is made up of two balancing halves: The Parasympathetic Nervous System, or PNS, controls our “background” automatic functions like digestion, circadian rhythm (sleep), deep breathing, muscle relaxation, heat management (sweating) and slowing the heart rate. Think of this as the “rest and digest” system. It is rare that most of us notice when the bodily functions controlled by the PNS are working well; when was the last time you said, “wow, I’m really digesting like a boss!” What we notice more often is when it’s NOT working properly; our medical system is built around symptoms of dysfunction.

The other half of the ANS is called the Sympathetic Nervous System, or SNS; this is what is commonly referred to as the “fight, flight, or freeze” mechanism, and it is our built-in stress response. Once again, a functioning SNS often is only talked about in the context of its potential dysfunction, such as in cases of trauma or exposure to chronic stressors. Despite this negative bias in the general discussion, the SNS is not an inherently problematic system; it is not only the “trauma” system. We need to be able to prime for action, and the SNS makes sure that our fast-twitch muscle fibers are ready, that our heart rate is elevated, and that blood is moving away from our digestive system and towards our heart, lungs, and muscles. Vision and focus narrow, and we are able to react quickly. Yes, it’s useful for avoiding being eaten by a sabre-tooth tiger, but also in standing up to a bully, or getting ready to compete on a field or court. It is also the system that turns on when we’re excited, pleasantly surprised, or sexually aroused.

Here’s how it works in a neurotypical (regulated) brain: The brain receives a stimulus through our sensory organs (eyes, ears, skin, etc), and interprets it in order to activate the appropriate system. Let’s say the stimulus is a deer running in front of your car (I live in a town where this happens ALL THE TIME). You don’t hit the deer because in an instant, your eyes see the deer and your SNS activates. Your vision narrows and your heart rate spikes, adrenaline floods your system and your cortisol releases, blood flies out towards your extremities and you hit the brakes. Crisis averted. Heart still pumping fast but slowing, breathing still fast and shallow but slowing and deepening. Sometimes there will be a little stomachache and a feeling of relief as the fear dissipates. This is all happening within a couple of seconds; a functional ANS is efficient.

A person’s overall health - denoted by a state of overall homeostasis - is determined in large part by the healthy function of, and balance between, the two halves of the ANS. The system itself originates in the deepest regions of the brain and is connected to every part of the body. The amygdala and hypothalamus are the areas of the brain that are the first to develop, and in addition to autonomic function and stress response, these are where our emotions are housed in the brain. Makes sense, right? We talk about FEELING stressed or FEELING traumatized, or FEELING excited. Every experience, every digestive issue, every lack of sleep, every difficult and every amazing experience, have an inextricable emotional component. That’s how we’re built. And yet, we don’t have to live every moment or make every decision from a place of whatever emotion we’re feeling. In fact, it’s better to NOT make big decisions when we’re emotional. Just like in the situation with the deer, how the stress affects us is, in fact, up to us. Wait, what? Let me explain: It begins with understanding that stress is neutral.

Stress is not necessarily a bad thing. Let me say that again, for the people in the back: stress is not inherently bad. Like many neutral stimuli, stress triggers only take on a positive or negative connotation when we interpret them or assign them value depending on who we are, what we’ve been through, where we are in a given moment, and other internal and external factors. There is extensive research to back this up, but an easy way to understand it is in considering how different people respond in varying ways to the same event or stimulus. One person’s worst nightmare – for example, a large crowd – is another person’s bucket list dream. Say that large crowd is gathered in an arena to hear their favorite band play a show! The person for whom this is a dream and the person for whom it’s a disaster will respond very differently to this same “neutral” trigger, a variance that is governed by several factors. These may be biological, hereditary, environmental; what kinds of trauma has each person experienced? What associations do they make with crowds? How do they relate to substance use? How sensitive is their nervous system? Do they have social, visual, or auditory sensitivities? How stressful is their job? How much do they love the band? Who are they with? How healthy are they in general? These factors, and others, come into play any time a person is presented with a potential stressor.

Let’s look at another example: In a sport environment, healthy SNS activation is what helps prime an athlete for competition; muscle activation is critical while digestion is not. This is why it’s not good to eat a lot right before a game; competing ANS priorities reduce performance. We need our hearts to pump and our breath to flow and our focus to narrow, minimizing digestion and distraction and focusing on What’s Important Now. A healthy relationship between the two halves of the ANS is also why recovery from training and competition is SO important; bodies rebuild, heal, grow, and come back into balance during periods of parasympathetic activation (rest and digest), not when they are “in action.” Recovery is also when our habit and skills - good or bad - that are trained through repetitive practice become embedded in the brain, with the building and solidifying of new or increasingly-travelled neural pathways. An athlete needs both halves of the ANS to work together in order to perform at their peak sustainably over time. If that system is in a state of dysfunction - whether due to a mental health challenge, a traumatic injury, a physical ailment, or bad habits - peak performance and emotional homeostasis are unstable.

It is, then, easy to see that if we train too much, play too much, work too much without allowing the PNS to assert itself and bring us back into homeostasis through built-in recovery, the SNS becomes overworked and dysregulated. This can lead to chronic stress and an out-of-whack (scientific term, in this case meaning either over- or even occasionally under-active) stress response. This is often when injury and burnout become real problems, and makes it more likely that an athlete will interpret stress negatively; what we think of as “stressed out” is technically called distress – as opposed to eustress, which is “good” – and this depends on interpretation. That’s right, you have the ability to choose a different way of viewing stress. As Dr. Kelly McGonigal said, we can choose to “make stress our friend.”

So, what does that choice, that shift in perspective, look like? In my experience, seeking understanding and choosing to take some control of my perspective begins with three simple practices:

1.    Be where my feet are. This means being very honest about what is happening, how I’m feeling, what information I have and don’t, doing my best to avoid assigning a value judgment to the experience or myself. This practice of mindfulness, humility, and truth helps center me in a place where I have some agency and the ability to choose: The present moment.

2.    Be curious. Once I’ve gotten really honest about where I’m at, I can begin to ask questions about what I would like to change or shift, what I need in this moment, and how to get there. Curiosity itself begins to shift us away from our built-in negative bias and towards a solution-focused, optimistic, courageous place from which we can act on the answers to our questions. Kobe Bryant once said that “the most important question an athlete can ask is ‘why?’” Why did that happen? Once I know why, I can begin to work on the how of transformation.

3.    Choose repeatedly. Like any skill, mindset requires intentional, dedicated practice, the formation and maintenance of good habits. For me, this is the hardest step. Interpreting stressors as opportunities instead of threats is not a one-and-done event, nor are the habits and behaviors that can actually serve to change the way we think by altering the structure of the brain. The mechanism that we are trying to overcome has a 100,000-year head start, so the Opportunity Mindset is something we have to choose, over and over. The stumbles along the way are, in and of themselves, chances to make this shift.

Here is some good news, also from Dr. Mcgonigal’s research: Stress, as it turns out, is not the killer that we thought it was. Rather, believing that stress is bad for one’s health is the thing that gets us. In essence, our interpretation of stress becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Are there is such things as being spread too thin, committing to too much, running ourselves down, neglecting or ignoring the signs of one’s own ill health? As my dad would say, “hell yes.” You can tax your nervous system to the point that, because of its dysregulation, any supposedly neutral stimulus puts you over the edge, making a mindset shift both challenging and a lesser problem than the mental and physical health problems that come from ANS dysregulation. In this case, and in the case of acute or chronic trauma, just “changing your mind” is not going to be enough. An autonomic nervous system that spends extended time in a state of dysregulation requires more help to get it back to homeostasis.

What does that help look like?

·       Therapy is great, with the right counselor.

·       Meds exist for a reason, for the right person.

·       Finding the right care team is essential, whether those are doctors or PTs or herbalists or nutritionists or therapists.

·       Have a self-reflective practice: Journaling, voice notes, meditation, breathwork, anything that create space for you to reflect without judgment on your habits, relationships, and the situations in which you repeatedly find yourself.

·       Get into nature. A huge problem that we have is that, moving at our modern human pace, we’re out of step with Nature. Time to slow down and let your nervous system recalibrate.

·       Having people in your life that support you in the healthy changes you’re trying to make is amazing, and if the people in your life are not those people, it might be time to find some new friends. Someone isn’t down with the new and healthier you? Those that mind don’t matter, and those that matter don’t mind.

·       Then there are mentors, people who advise us and model for us the habits or ways of being towards which we are taking our first or 4th or 10th steps.

·       Be honest about where you’re at. It’s the only place from which you can move forward.

If you want to know more about the science behind the interpretation of stress, check out Dr. Kelly Mcgonigal’s 2013 TED Talk.

Originally published on September 18, 2023