Being a freshman in college, my life has been pure chaos. Between moving to a new city, making new friends, and experiencing new classes, I have been in a constant state of anxiety and excitement. I feel as though I am on the go nonstop and I have been pretty stressed out. An oasis of mine has been going to clubs with people who are interested in the same things as I am, such as Psi Chi. Recently, in honor of midterm season, the amazing Psi Chi e-board made a presentation on the psychology of stress. Having experienced extreme levels of stress lately, I found this lesson particularly helpful, and I’d like to share what I learned! 

No matter what your situation is, it is impossible to avoid stress. Throughout humanity’s evolution, we have needed stress to stay alive. Stressors, or something that causes a state of strain or tension, release adrenaline, allowing for us to punch harder and run faster. For example, stress allows for deer to run when they hear a gunshot or predator to ensure survival, showing how much of an asset stress can be. But along the way, the human brain began to release this stress response for non-life-threatening situations, leaving us anxious and significantly less healthy than other mammals. Stress can also be broken up into different categories, two main ones being distress and eustress. Distress is a negative form of stress, such as a midterm or familial tensions, whereas eustress is a positive form of stress, such as going on a roller coaster or getting married. Over time, this buildup of stress can result in many physiological health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease.

 But what can we do to minimize stress? How can we make ourselves healthier and live longer? Well good news, learning about how stress works and how it can make you perform better makes you more relaxed! In one study, participants were randomly assigned to groups where they were instructed to think about their physiological stress levels during a stressful task as functional and adaptive rather than detrimental, whereas the control groups were not instructed to think this way. Relative to controls, participants instructed to “reappraise their stress responses,” (Jamieson) exhibited a more “adaptive cardiovascular stress responses-increased cardiac efficiency and lower vascular resistance-and decreased attentional bias,” (Jamieson) meaning that reading this blog post is already lowering your chances of experiencing poor health because of stress. Other studies have shown that having pets, a close-knit group of supportive friends, and even heart-healthy foods such as beans can help reduce stress’s harmful effects on the body.

 While we can’t avoid the stress of midterms, relationships, and everything related to our futures, we can take preventative measures to ensure that our bodies will see the least amount of damage possible. Happy de-stressing! 

Jamieson, J. P., Nock, M. K., & Mendes, W. B. (2012). Mind over matter: reappraising arousal improves cardiovascular and cognitive responses to stress. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 141(3), 417–422. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025719