Living amid the coronavirus pandemic has reduced people's ability to deal with stress. Experts fear that many could soon " For example, in the United States alone, an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that reports of anxiety or depression increased from 36% to 42%..

And yet, many, one way or another, manage to endure stress well.. Do they feel less pressure This is certainly possible as not everyone has been affected by illness or lost their jobs during the pandemic..

But it is possible that such people have mastered the art of accepting stress as a normal, acceptable, and even positive part of life.. With that perspective, experts say, comes resilience. And emotional stability absorbs stress.

It's not always necessary to view stress as something harmful..

It was 1998, and a random sample of Americans were answering questions about stress during the National Health Survey, an annual report designed to monitor the health of the nation.. The 1998 poll showed interesting results. The organizers not only asked people how stressed they are and how they cope with it, but also whether they think that stress has affected their health.

More than 55% of nearly 29,000 people said they had experienced moderate to severe stress in the last 12 months. Nearly 34% reported that stress had some degree of impact on their health this year, and about a quarter of respondents said that stress significantly worsened their health.

Eight years later, researchers compared those responses to national mortality data to see who suffered the most from stress.. As expected, reports of high levels of stress increased the risk of death.

But in one aspect, the results of the study turned out to be really interesting - this risk concerned only people who believed that the stress they experienced was significantly harmful to their health.. In fact, the risk of premature death increased by 43% for people who viewed stress negatively..

What happened to people who didn't think stress was bad

They had the lowest risk of premature death of any study participant, even lower than people who reported very low levels of stress, psychologist Kelly McGonigal said..

“Researchers have concluded that it’s not stress that kills people.. It was a combination of stress and the belief that stress is bad.. Scientists estimate that in the eight years they conducted their study, 182,000 Americans could have died prematurely because they believed stress was bad for their health,” McGonigal said..

Is stress really not always bad

" He spent years studying why some people are more resilient to stress than others..

“The way people experience stress probably shows whether it is really harmful,” Siri noted, adding that this is also influenced by how we “psychologically relate to different things.”.

And that, he says, "

To understand how to find these ways, you should look at what happens to the body during stressful situations..

Heartbeat and breathing speed up, and the brain goes into a state of high alert. Senses are heightened, colors and sounds become clearer and more vivid. You gain energy and focus to deal with the threat and survive.

Sometimes “beneficial stress” can give you an advantage in fighting or fleeing a threat, or during sports competitions, public speaking, or even job interviews..

Then, once the immediate threat is behind you, your stress hormone levels bounce back without lasting effects..

“But instead of taking a positive response to stress, we interpret these physical changes as anxiety or signs that we are not coping well with pressure,” McGonigal said..

What happens if we look for the benefits of stress response - the way the body prepares a person for optimal performance?

“Our thoughts are very powerful, and the whole point is that we ourselves form our own thoughts.. And when you learn to control your thoughts, you can change the reaction to stress, fear or anxiety.. You will be in control of yourself and the stressful situation,” said psychologist Michelle Ann.

McGonigal spoke about a study in which students were taught to rethink their attitude to stress.

“The most fascinating discovery for me was how their physical response to stress changed,” says the psychologist..

In a typical response to stress, she says, heart rate rises and blood vessels constrict, making this one of the reasons why chronic stress is linked to cardiovascular disease and is bad for the body..

“But in the study, when participants began to look for benefits in their response to stress, their blood vessels remained “relaxed.”. In fact, it is very similar to the state of a person in moments of joy and courage,” McGonigal said..

Experiments with the response of the cardiovascular system to stress, conducted by Siri in the laboratory, showed similar results..

“When a person is faced with a challenge or threat, their heart beats faster and the heart muscle contracts more.. But during stressful situations, blood vessels tend to constrict and really make it harder to pump blood.. When challenged, this pattern is very similar to the response to exercise, where the arteries in the body tend to dilate and the heart pumps more blood,” says Siri..

“It’s this biological difference that could be the difference between having a stress-induced heart attack at age 50 and living until age 90.”. How you think about stress matters,” says McGonigal..

How you think about stress matters.

When viewed through rose-tinted glasses, the brain responds differently by changing the ratio of stress hormones, and this, experts say, determines whether stress becomes toxic..

With a more positive response to stress, the body produces less of the stress hormone cortisol, which can be harmful in chronic stress.. At the same time, the brain boosts production of another hormone, dehydroepiandrosterone or DHEA, often referred to as the “anti-aging hormone.”.

Having a higher ratio of DHEA to cortisol protects against the negative effects of stress on the body.

During times of stress, the body releases another hormone, oxytocin, the "

Experts believe that oxytocin may encourage people to seek out more social contact, which is another benefit..

" And most importantly, it gives you courage,” says McGonigal..

According to University of California biology professor Daniela Kaufer, it even improves brain health.. Kaufer runs his own lab dedicated to researching how stress affects 'brain plasticity'.

Research by Kaufer shows that moderate stress activates the growth of stem cells in the part of the brain that regulates emotional learning and helps with depression..

“There are more of these cells, and they are activated by the action of a new stressor, which helps to better cope with the next difficult situation.. Sometimes stress can be good for you,” Kaufer says..

There's another benefit of oxytocin, which is released during the stress response, according to McGonigal..

“Your heart has special receptors for oxytocin, which help heart cells recover from microdamage.. When your stress response includes oxytocin, it can literally strengthen your heart,” she notes..

However, chronic stress is bad..

Of course, there is no way to equate day-to-day temporary stress with the effects of chronic stress or ongoing multiple stressors such as divorce, job loss, financial insecurity, and chronic illness..

In fact, it has long been known that chronic stress causes great harm to the body..

“The more severe the negative life situations people face, the greater the risks for negative psychological and physical consequences,” Siri said..

But the study also found that if people experience certain life challenges, they "

“This is not just a straight line, where the more negative events happen, the worse. Even if serious adversity happened to someone, this is not a death sentence, this does not mean that such people are doomed to eternal suffering, ”says the psychologist.

“This suggests that the process of going through hardships, even if it is too hard at the moment, can actually open the doors to building resilience and strength to help people better deal with stress in the future,” he added..

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