National Stress Awareness Month
Understanding Stress, Resilience, and the Role of Behavioral Health Supports
Key Takeaways
National Stress Awareness Month highlights the importance of recognizing the effects of stress on overall health and well-being. Understanding the different types of stress, building effective coping strategies, and ensuring access to appropriate behavioral health and community-based supports can help individuals better manage stress and improve quality of life.
Stress Defined
The Cleveland Clinic defines stress as our body’s natural reaction to situational changes or challenges (stressors). It happens to everyone, and our bodies are actually designed for it. When we encounter a stressor, we experience a range of reactions…this is stress.
The stress response is adaptive and helps the body adjust to new experiences. There are different kinds of stress, as well as varied mental, physical, and behavioral responses. Sometimes, stress can be positive, fueling the right responses and motivations to meet new challenges, such as starting a new job or avoiding danger. Stress becomes a problem when it is unrelenting. When stressors continue unabated, it does not allow the individual – and the stress responses – to return to a more normal state.
Types of Stress
Acute Stress
Sudden stress that resolves quickly and can be good (a rollercoaster) or bad (a fight with a loved one.)
Episodic Acute Stress
Acute stress that occurs regularly but does not subside and allow for a return to baseline. A doctor in the ER might experience this kind of stress.
Chronic Stress
Stress that continues unabated over the long term, such as job troubles or a marriage crisis.
Broadly, there are three kinds of stress: acute, episodic acute, and chronic. The Cleveland Clinic defines them this way:
We’ve all heard the phrase “fight or flight,” which describes how the body’s autonomic nervous system sets us up to do one of these things by, among other things, increasing respiration and heart rate. And chronic stress, which provides no relief from the fight-or-flight response, can take a toll, both mentally and physically.
The Spoon Theory
This article on spoon theory provides helpful perspective on understanding stress and the reservoir of coping we all have at our disposal. According to spoon theory, we all have so many spoons, or units of energy, to spend on managing daily life, and we spend our spoons in the ways we deem important or necessary. But the number of spoons we have is limited, and we don’t all start with the same number of spoons.
Let’s say the norm is 10 spoons. People with all 10 spoons seem able to navigate challenges and daily life fairly easily. However, those who are dealing with disabilities, mental illness, or a chronic health condition may use half of their spoons dealing with that, leaving only five spoons to deal with the daily stressors of life…job issues, kids’ squabbles, errands, messy house, and so on. This means some people begin with a deficit in coping and stress management. Even just thinking about stressful things that are outside of our control or sphere of influence can reduce our spoons inventory – our ability to manage stress.
But stress is manageable, and coping is possible. Myers and Stauffer works every day with state agencies on the forefront of supporting those in their local communities who need help. See what is being done and how we’re helping with behavioral health , clinics , home and community-based services , and waivers and federal authorities.
