Let's Talk About Stress, Guided by a Psychiatrist!
- Healtheneo
- Aug 9, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 9, 2020
Photo from Unsplash
Is there anyone you know who hasn't been stressed? We do not think there is a person on this Earth who has not experienced facing a situation that made them say, "Nasi-stress na ako!"
Art by Alyssa Babasa from Deteriorating
At this point, the word is so used that it almost feels like an expression more than a physiological and mental response that our bodies experience. We may be familiar with the feeling that is brought about by stress, but haven't you gotten curious about how our bodies take stress or how differently it manifests per person?
We at Healtheneo did, and that is why our second article with Dr. Ronald G. Elepaño III, MD, Adult Psychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and Occupational Medicine is focused on how we can all manage stress in our daily lives, how we can tell what kind of stress we are currently experiencing, and what practices are best to help us cope with it.
We also have another article with Dr. Ronald called How Are You Really? A Talk with a Psychiatrist that you might not have read yet, so check it out after reading this article!
To start, we asked what are some of the signs that we are dealing with stress.
You can always Google stress. It’s a matter of filtering the information, of which applies to your needs. Stress experience varies from person to person, and this is why there is no proper definition of stress.
We are assuming that we are in a state of balance, and stress is anything that changes our sense of equilibrium.
Writer's note: We thought of transcribing his whole introduction about what stress is, but we thought that it is better for our readers to experience what we did while interviewing him. He talked so eloquently about stress and discusses it in a way that the media does not. We did not want to misquote him or rephrase anything that he says to shorten the concepts that he has brought up. We urge you to listen as you may learn a thing or two, like we did!
Stress has a value in our lives. There's aways that assumption that we want to live a stress free life, but we are now changing the paradigm.
It is no longer about living with no stress. It’s about living a stress-managed life.
We must remember that we will always be assaulted with so much stress, but it also has a purpose.
One of the things he talked about is this curve, The Yerkes-Dodson Law curve, and his bottomline was that we have to find the sweet spot wherein we expect a certain level of moderate stress, to ensure low illness and maximum performance.
Again, it's mainly about finding our equilibrium during times of stress.
R.M. Yerkes and J. Dodson (1908)
2. Are there exercises that can help relieve stress?
Yes, the information cannot be stressed enough in terms of how important physical activity is to one’s ability to heal themselves. It is not only healing but its also preventing. Physical activity in a person has been found to be an effective way to treat / prevent mental disorders, and also physical conditions such as lifestyle associated diseases, but I remember one thing that you discussed earlier is talking about wellness.
More than physical activities, I think wellness should be approached holistically. It is not something that is static. It has to be an active process.
The Six Dimensions of Wellness by the National Wellness Institute
Right now, psychiatrists are trying to ensure that all these dimensions are addressed, to ensure that our patients are well-adapted despite whatever illness they have.
3. Would you say meditating is essential in taking care of our mental health?
In terms of mental health, there is a lot of information out there to help protect our mental wellness.
Physical activity helps our bodies release happy hormones such as endorphins and serotonin.
Something that increases one’s heart rate, and pushing yourself to a level of fitness that challenges you can be as effective as though you are taking an anti depressant, but that does not come without a warning, because if you are clinically depressed, chances are you would not have the ability to exercise, so it is better to not assume that physical activity is the end all, hence many psychiatrists encourage a having a healthy diet.
Photo from Unsplash
A diet that is balanced is also an effective way of taking care of your mental health.
Of course when talking about how to properly care for our mental health, one of the most studied practices right now would be meditation.
There are variety of meditation practices out there, but it is important for you to practice it diligently and religiously.
You cannot expect yourself to change after practicing it once. You really have to incorporate that in your day to day routine.
4. How frequent should one meditate?
Photo grabbed from Unsplash
That would depend on the meditation practice that you will be employing. The idea here is you use whatever discipline that you ascribe to. Of course, the more relevant and most studied meditation technique would be mindfulness meditation. It requires to live a mindful living everyday, although sometimes it can be very overwhelming, parang "I have to do this, I have to be strict about it", so you can become overwhelmed by the idea of doing that.
Now, there is a new practice called mindful self compassion which just tells you that whatever you need for the day, just do it, and we simplified the practice, so it's something as simple as gratitude; being thankful on a daily basis.
Photo from Unsplash
Gratitude as a practice is a form of meditation, and they have found in studies that practicing gratitude decreases the stress level and upward release of happy hormones.
5. How do you cope with stress?
I like to stay connected; talking to my friends is also a way for me to cope with stress, but truthfully, I just like to be lazy, I like to chill. I think one thing that really changed me when I started practicing is having learned the practice of positive psychology and the practice of gratitude;
looking at every day, every opportunity, and even challenges as a gift.
To end this article, we at Healtheneo hope that we can all live our lives grateful, starting from the moment we wake up and up to the moment we close our eyes. Our wish is that we can all come out from this article with a few takeaways like we did while we were interviewing Dr. Ronald.
Special thanks to Dr. Ronald for being so open and ready to share his knowledge with us in a way that can only be defined as mastery.
Stay tuned because our articles next week will be about something we have all experienced, and know all too well -- anxiety!
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