Stress affects stress and can’t be compartmentalised
Stress can be classified into several types depending on the duration and nature of the exposure. These include acute stress, daily hassles, life events, and chronic stressors (Crosswell & Lockwood, 2020). Each of these stress types interacts with our physical and emotional systems in different ways – with acute stress potentially being more manageable (depending on the intensity and how well we believe we can cope!)
Acute stress is short-lived and tied to immediate challenges, like missing a train, giving a work presentation, or dealing with a rude customer/member of the public.
Daily hassles include more routine stressors such as workload, pressure to meet a daily target/deadline, traffic congestion, or caring for a relative. Each of these may seem small on their own but they build up over time to create a significant stress burden.
Life events are larger in scale and often require substantial adjustment, like moving house, experiencing loss/bereavement, being made redundant or unemployed and even positive events like having a baby or getting married.
Chronic stressors are the most concerning types of stressor — they are ongoing daily hassles, and life events such as toxic work environments, financial insecurity, or long-term caregiving responsibilities. The literature varies with regards to how long someone must experience chronic stress in the form of daily hassles or life events before they are classified as being ‘chronically stressed’ with some believing 1 month is sufficient and others stating chronic stress occurs when stress has been ongoing for 6 months or more.
Understanding the stress process and that there are in fact different types of stressors can help us to preempt and prevent chronic stress. It is empowering and allows us to reduce stigma around experiencing a ‘stressful’ day. You see, our bodies are well-equipped to manage acute stress, and there are even ways we can ‘handle’ acute stress more effectively thereby expediting the stress response. The problem only really arises if we don’t have sufficient coping strategies for daily stress (thus they don’t get processed and linger) AND these stressors become prolonged.
Chronic exposure leads to what we know as chronic stress symptoms (McEwen, 2000; van Dam et al., 2021) — including but not limited to:
- Persistent fatigue
- Sleep disturbances
- Mood swings
- Poor focus/concentration
- Allergic reactions
- Weight changes
- Impaired fertility
- Gut health problems
The Spillover Effect
One of the most common misconceptions about stress is the idea that we can neatly separate it into different domains— work stress stays at work, life stress stays at home. But the reality is that when we turn up at our workplace, we are bringing with us the remnants of stress that was activated in us that day, week or even month. We don’t leave it at the lobby, or set it down by the scanner when we swipe ourselves in! Far from it.
And vice versa, when we return home we carry with us the remnants of stress processes activated throughout our working day. As research shows, stress is cumulative and interconnected, and its impact doesn’t respect the artificial boundaries we try to create between different parts of our lives.
This is because all stressors regardless of where they come from or how well we may ‘cope’ with them (which, more often than not is by blocking out, avoiding or burying our head in the sand) initiate a physiological stress response involving multiple systems in the body. This stress response comes with us and exists within us regardless of whether we move from one location, social set up or community. This is called ‘the spillover effect’. It is not a sign of weakness—it’s how the nervous system functions. It doesn’t categorise stressors (unfortunately we don’t have a special section of our nervous system for ‘work’ stress and another for ‘relationship stress’); it simply responds to cumulative load. And, stress isn’t just psychological—it’s physiological too with stressors initiating a physical stress response which affects hormonal balance, immune function, digestion, and more.
Over time, stressors of all types—whether they’re from a demanding boss or a sick child—can lead to a state of chronic stress if there’s no opportunity for recovery. The degree to which stress this happens depends on how well we cope, how intense or long lasting the stressor was and how well we ‘recover’. Unresolved chronic stress can eventually lead to full-blown burnout.
What does this mean in practice?
1. We need to stop compartmentalising stress and start looking at the whole picture. Personal lives and lifestyles will impact professional productivity and performance AND occupational demands will impact our personal lives and our health.
2. Organisations must acknowledge life stressors, not just workload, when supporting employee wellbeing. This can be achieved by taking interest in the lives of the people who work for us NOT just how they work when they log in/scan in for their shift! People are not ROBOTS!
3. Individuals need knowledge and strategies to empower them to support their nervous system, not just productivity hacks. It’s not enough to simply get more out of people – this approach is short-sighted and whilst it may look like someone is ‘achieving’ or ‘thriving’ they will almost certainly be suffering elsewhere for their success.
Having experienced my own personal burnout and coached burnt out individuals for almost a decade, I really believe that managing stress isn’t about helping people thrive in one area to the sacrifice of health or performance in another. It’s about educating and empowering people to have greater awareness of how the stress response works, so that they can embed recovery into their daily lives, thus reducing the chance of chronic stress building up! It’s time that we remove the stigma attached to stress and work towards whole-person wellbeing so that they feel satisfied at home and work.
References:
Crosswell, A.D., & Lockwood, K.G. (2020). Best practices for stress measurement: How to measure psychological stress in health research. Health Psychology, 1–12.
McEwen, B.S. (2000). Allostasis and allostatic load: implications for neuropsychopharmacology. Neuropsychopharmacology. Feb; 22(2):108-24. doi: 10.1016/S0893-133X(99)00129-3. PMID: 10649824.
