Reading time: 3 min
Stress, voted public health enemy number 1.
And yet, did you know that, in reality, it’s your perception of stress that has an impact on your health? Many studies show that stress is only really bad for you if you believe it is. Here’s an overview.
A positive perception of stress reduces your risk of dying prematurely
In 1998, in the United States, the National Health Interview Survey asked the American population the following two questions:
How much stress did you feel this year?
Do you think stress is bad for your health?
8 years later, in 2006, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison took the responses to this study from 29,000 people and cross-referenced them with the National Mortality Index. Their aim was to examine the relationship between the amount of stress felt, the way stress is perceived and the consequences for health and mortality.
They concluded that people who had experienced a lot of stress in the year preceding the study saw their risk of dying prematurely increase by 43%.
BUT, this was only true for people who believed that stress was harmful to their health. In fact, people who had experienced a great deal of stress but did not believe that stress was harmful to their health had the lowest risk of dying. This risk was even lower than that of people who said they had not experienced much stress in the previous year.
There’s no point in trying to see a situation as less stressful than it really is for you.
Another study highlighting the impact of perceived stress is by Harvard University researcher J.P. Jamieson. In 2011, Jamieson asked three groups of people to complete a social stress test (Le Trier Social Stress Tests, TSST; Kirschbaum et al., 1993). This test consisted of delivering a 5-minute oral presentation, filmed, and facing two assessors. Throughout the presentation, the assessors gave negative feedback (raised eyebrows, crossed arms, lack of understanding, etc.). Participants were then asked to perform an arithmetic task, which involved counting backwards from 7 to 7 from 996, while the assessors gave negative feedback.
Prior to this experiment, three groups were randomized:
- In the first group, the researchers taught them to perceive stress as non-hazardous, and that the body’s physiological responses to stress are necessary for better performance. They taught them to think of their response to stress as useful, to see a racing heart as preparation for action, and accelerated breathing as a greater supply of oxygen to the brain. These are signs that the body is preparing for a challenge.
- In the second group, they were taught to perceive the situation as less stressful than it really is for them. To achieve this, they were taught stress-reduction tricks. For example, participants were taught to imagine a large X next to the assessors and to visually fixate on this X to counteract the stress the assessors were causing.
- No intervention was made with the third group. This is what we call the control group.
The results were clear: people who had learned to perceive stress differently, i.e. as helping them to cope with the situation, performed better on assigned tasks, were less anxious and more confident. What’s more, their physical responses had also changed. A typical physiological response to stress is an increase in heart rate, leading to vasoconstriction. But when stress was seen as helping, blood vessels remained relaxed even though the heart was beating fast. This is more or less the same reaction we see in moments of joy or courage.
These large-scale studies teach us that when we change our perception of stress, we change our body’s response to it.
It’s not about minimizing the stressful situation or the actual effects of stress on our bodies. It’s about taking the situation as it is and perceiving what it makes us feel as positive and stimulating. When you perceive your physical responses to stress as “my body is helping me meet this challenge”, your body believes you and your response to stress becomes healthier.
The origin you attribute to your stress influences its impact on your health
In addition to your perception of the effects of stress, your perception of the origin of stress also has an impact.
In psychology, there’s a phenomenon known as Locus of Control, i.e. the tendency of individuals to consider that the events that affect them are the result of their actions (internal locus) or, on the contrary, that they are the result of external factors (external locus). Research has shown that those who take responsibility for their stress and its manifestations (internal locus) are more likely to be healthy and happy. Whereas those who attributed their stress entirely to external events (external locus) were more likely to develop anxiety and depressive disorders.
Our perceptions govern our emotional, physiological and behavioral responses. The good news is that perceptions can be changed. It’s built on beliefs, assumptions, values and conditioning. And becoming aware of our distorted beliefs and assumptions is the first step towards reducing stress.
Author: Anaïs Roux
