The Age of Stress as a Precedent

The cover story of Time Magazine on June 6th, 1983 declared America “In the Age of Stress”. It depicted us as a society consumed by demands for our resources and threats to our well-being.
Since that time in 1983 when the official diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was first categorized by the Board of Medicine and Psychology there has been little effort made to define the parameters of stress, thus leaving us (the lay-person) to define ANYTHING with an overwhelming effect…. as stress.
Because stress is a natural form of physical reaction to our environment, I feel it vital to understand the nervous system, its fundamental (base) response, and its contradictions.
The word “stress” has been so overly used and emphasized, as to describe everything from marital discord to juvenile delinquency, that I find it prudent to discuss the implications of typical (physical) stress vs. the “stress scapegoat”.

Stress has now become a way to blame our fears and psychological malaise on every unpropitious occurrence. These situations could easily be handled if we understood our personal reactions and childhood traumas, and knew the difference between a natural Fight/Flight response or an overly stimulated psyche.

Got yours?

The belief that perfection can be achieved affects the lives of countless numbers of people. Many people are obsessed with achieving perfection to the point that it affects their physical and psychological well being. These individuals are commonly referred to as “perfectionists.” They seek the perfect mate, the perfect job, the perfect body, and they are often unhappy in their quest.

Even the most mundane task can become an ordeal since the task must be performed to an exacting standard. These people experience disappointment and dissatisfaction and are often unable to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. They believe that perfection is attainable; they experience falling short of the goal as failure. These individuals spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make certain that they will avoid making mistakes.

Perfection is meant to be an abstract ideal toward which we strive in an attempt to gain proficiency and to excel. It is a concept designed to spur us on to greater heights. The meaning of the word perfection is illustrated by the phrase “striving toward perfection.” Few people who adopt seeking perfection as a value (as opposed to achieving perfection) expect to achieve it. Seeking perfection merely connotes that process of moving closer to an abstract ideal.

The British have a saying that encourages people to show their skills while mocking the universal “fear of failure”:  Do your worst.

If you can’t tolerate your worst, at least once in a while…… how true to yourself can you be?

In the modern world, we face a variety of social and technical problems requiring the concentration and consideration of a rational thought process. So, the question at hand is how you make a decision under stressful conditions by using rational thought processes when your natural instincts tend toward a quick and possibly irrational decisions or responses.

The biggest difference in decision making under stress vs. decision making without stress is – irrational vs. rational thinking. When you are able to make a decision under a non-stress filled condition, you are able to think and act more rationally. A decision made under stressful conditions is much more irrational.

The “stress response” is aimed at an immediate physical reaction. For example; activities, which are planning, or situations that require your focused attention such as meetings or training workshops, will loose their importance and priority.

The reason for this is simple, under stress; the quickest physical reaction dominates the most appropriate action. There are natural tendencies under these conditions for the brain to reduce the search for, and acceptance of, new information, and to return to “dominant responses” which will oversimplify the alternatives available, to reduce the perceived time to make a decision, and to perceive threat and hostility more strongly than during normal decision making without the stress response activation.