Stress is Good

 What an amazing week of learning! Honestly, there were quite a few things I had never thought about that totally made sense once they were said.

We talked about stress and anxiety which I think is very prevalent for today. Lots and lots of people suffer from anxiety and it can really hold them back from things in life. In class, I remember my professor talking a lot about the brain and the chemicals that go on in there. I personally don’t remember everything he was saying about the brain and the way it works and why it works that way but what I do remember him saying was that there is a lot that the brain does when it comes to anxiety.

Because of things that happen in real life, our brain will react, absorbing the information of the situation, and then the body naturally responds in the way it does depending on the real life situation and how the brain has absorbed it. Our body is built to naturally respond in certain ways. Like if we get scared, our heart rate automatically increases as does our breathing and blood pressure. Our body will go into the “fight or flight” mode that people typically go into.

That concept of the fight or flight mode the body goes into was common knowledge to me before talking about this whole chemical and physical reaction discussion but something else can happen too. Something my teacher said was people can also freeze in situations. Just like dear that get stuck in the headlights, people can react the same way. A person who stumbles upon a horrible accident could freeze at the sight of the scene and not move or be able to help anyone until they come out of their mental trap.

When it comes to anxiety, we talked about how it is simply a reaction of the body after certain situations. And depending on how the body reacts, the mind will realize that with the way the body is reacting given the outside situation, they will think that something is wrong with them. Being stuck on that thought and letting it fester and form into an issue, that is when people think that they have anxiety.

I know there can be some severe cases but anxiety is not a disease or a disorder. Put simply, and how I understand it, it is just overthinking how your body physically reacted to a situation.

Something that was said that I full heartedly think is true, is that anxiety is cultural. There are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that leave their homes to go and talk to other people in different places about Jesus Christ and how to grow closer to Him. Many come home due to the anxiety and stress they feel as a missionary. There are missionaries that are from South America that serve in South America. There are also missionaries from America and Canada that serve in South America. The only missionaries that go home for anxiety are those from America and/or Canada. No missionaries from South America suffer or struggle with anxiety. It is totally a privileged peoples problem. People in third world countries have way more things to worry about and deal with than to worry or even really know about anxiety.

Overall though, the message I got from the class is that stress really is good for us and anxiety can be overcome the more we understand it. When we experience hardships, we grow and learn from them. For families that experience stressful situations together, it can either really bring them together or tear them apart depending on the situation and how it is handled by each person. Many people you talk to who struggled a lot in the beginning, typically they look upon those times fondly.

We talked about astronauts and how because their body isn’t experiencing the typical stress and strain that people on earth experience, they get muscle deterioration which is not good for them at all. Granted, going through hard times is never exactly enjoyable, our minds and our bodies will be able to overcome the situation because of the stress we experience, making us stronger and more prepared for the next struggle that will come along. So, in conclusion, stress is good.