Stress has become such a common word in our language that we rarely stop to consider what it is and how it fully impacts us. As a result, we don’t get to the point of examining what we could be doing about it. In fact, there are many misconceptions as to what stress is. Stress can be referring to the thing that happens to us, or we may be referring to the response we have under threatening circumstances. Whichever you are talking about, stress has an impact on cancer and the healing process.
I like to refer to those things that impact us – that trigger a response in us - as “Stressors”, or stress triggers. These can be any external situation that we experience as threatening, dangerous, uncomfortable or that simply makes a demand on us to respond. It can be a work-related pressure or uncertainty, a family conflict, or a big bill that needs to be paid. In a sense it is how we assess the situation that determines how much of an impact it will have. These stressors can also originate from inside us, such as an illness, chronic pain or simply imagined concerns and worry.
The result of a stressor - its impact on us - is our stress response. Our stress response is –first and foremost - there to help us survive when there is a threat. Our body mobilizes for what is referred to as our “Fight or Flight” response. This response prepares us for either fighting the danger, the source of the stress, or to run away from it, thus fight or flight.
For our body to mobilize to do this, our nervous system becomes more activated, and specific hormones, such as adrenaline, are released to rally the body. This causes muscles to tense, heart rate and blood pressure to increase, and blood to be redistributed to our brain, lungs and heart. . Every system of our body responds to a stressor. We even release a substance into our blood that causes it to clot more readily: useful to hasten clotting after an injury (so we lose less blood), but not very helpful if our arteries have become narrowed, due to heart disease.
We become more alert to the danger, by dilating our pupils and other ways of heightening the sensitivity of our body. This has some utility when there are real dangers out there, but it also makes us more sensitive to pain. Stress can also cause us to be more rigid in our focus, which is not good if we need to problem solve or be creative.
The stress response is designed with its counterpart, the recuperation response. The activation of this other part of our nervous system is to balance out the stress response, to enhance maintenance and restoration of the body.
The more you turn on your stress response without the balanced effect of the second system, you create a strain on the body. When this happens you are more likely to have something break down in your body, or even emotionally.
Western society, industrial society has created an environment that is continually triggering the stress response. We live by the words, “The more the better”. This, of course requires producing more and more work, meeting more deadlines, and worrying about more problems. I refer to this aspect of stress as the frequency of turning on the stress response.
Another major problem in today’s modern world is that we have a stress response that is really out of style! It was designed to be effective in a very different environment. Our ancestors were Hunter/Gatherers, and their dangers really did require them to either fight or flee. Today however, most of our stressors do not require this. Thus we have many situations in which we become hot under the collar, a build up of energy to respond, with no place and no way to release it. I refer to this as the intensity of the stress response. The result is a body that is out of balance and less capable of taking care of itself.
It is easy to notice when someone is critical of you; when someone says something mean. It is much more difficult to notice when we do these things to ourselves. These comments come in under the radar. Our subtle little put downs about our mistakes: “Oh, you did it again”; or “That wasn’t too bright”. Or the slow pain, “They probably think it’s terrible”. These are all ways that we extend a stressful situation past its usefulness. Here we are talking about the duration of a stress response. Think of the stresses in a work setting: too much work, time pressure, conflicts with a boss or colleague. Your body gears up, which simply leads to tension and other inappropriate responses. In fact, your entire stress response is designed to respond in the moment – not the long term. This has been described (by Sipolsky of Stanford) as follows: when you are trying to avoid being lunch for a lion, you aren’t thinking about dinner for yourself. In other words, any body function that doesn’t have to do with escape or immediate defense will tend to shut down. If it is not needed in the moment, the body can’t waste energy on it. This includes the sexual response, the digestive response, and the immune system response. All maintenance functions of the body will take a back seat to emergency functions. Healing is a body maintenance function!
It is for this reason, that cancer patients need to be involved in mastering
the stress in their lives, and beyond this, to deeply relax. Of course, the
illness, in and of itself, is an added source of stress. To this may be added
pain and even the side effects of the treatment. Keep in mind that stress can
intensify the feeling of pain, while deeply relaxing can moderate the
sensations. Pain prolongs the experience through muscle tension as well as the
hyperactivation of the sympathetic nervous system. While our stress response is
a normal part of life and helps mobilize us to handle difficult situations,
stress becomes a problem when:
1) It occurs too frequently
2) We respond too intensely
3) The stress response lasts too long, and we have difficulty turning it off
Stress impairs the healing capability of the body. A number of studies have demonstrated that wounds heal much more slowly when a person is experiencing stress. Stress also has been shown to speed up the growth of tumors.
One last thing to mention about how we create stress: Simply thinking about a difficult situation can trigger our stress response. This is why people who anticipate problems, or expect a catastrophe have a non-stop stress response. I’d be surprised if they get much deep sleep at night.
The good news is that we don’t have to simply be a bystander, a passive observer as our body goes into automatic stress mode. We can actually do this differently – we DO have control over our stress response – if we choose to do something about it. If stressors were the only factor in whether we had a stress response we would be at the mercy of the environment. But situations only become stressful when we assess them as being somehow dangerous. Therefore by finding a way to think differently to make a situation less threatening, it will have less of an impact upon us. This is also the case if we have a strong belief in ourselves, in our ability to handle what comes up in our lives.
Below are five factors that can help you cope better with stress:
Learn a relaxation response Stress activates one component of your nervous system while relaxation turns on the opposite response. The more you practice a relaxation response, the more your body can moderate the stress response. This can be enhanced through training in biofeedback, which trains you to control the physiological functioning of your body, allowing you to lower tension.
Manage your time Time pressure is the most common cause of unnecessary stress. There are two aspects to this problem:
be realistic about what you can actually do in a given period of time. Don’t create a bigger agenda, expecting that you should get everything done simply because you said you would
if you are running late, accept it – nothing you do will make it any better, only more stressful.
Think more appropriately and positively Frequently we focus on the problem, the thing that might go wrong. This triggers the stress response. You can just as easily think of how well a situation might turn out. This has a completely different effect on your body which is more healthy.
Do not ignore or dismiss your feelings Feelings do not occur just in your head. Your entire body mobilizes to express sadness or anger. When the feeling isn’t expressed, there is a physical holding that takes place. This makes pain feel worse. It inhibits the optimal flow of energy through the body.
Be more accepting and loving to yourself Come from a more accepting place inside yourself. This means be more accepting of situations, of other people, but most important, more accepting of yourself. This does not mean making excuses for yourself or avoiding responsibility. It means not being hard on yourself, or hypercritical.