lifehack: "Ever since the 1980s, there has been an increasing amount of media coverage on stress-related topics. For decades, scientists, researchers, and doctors have been investigating how the human body responds to stress, and whether it is possible for some people to become addicted to stress.
While there are no hard figures to reveal how many Americans may be suffering from stress addiction, experts do agree that people suffering from this problem face varying degrees of danger to their health.
Are you addicted to stress? And if so, does that mean you will be facing serious health problems down the road? Or, will you be one of the few people who benefits from stress addiction?
15 comments:
I think I may be addicted to stress. Since not having shows, I have lost motivation. I have some big projects due in the future, but I am having trouble working on them because there is no intimidate pressure. I am sure as the deadlines near, I will be working better, harder, and faster.
I do agree with the article though, even though I thrive on stress, I still need some me time. Maybe not as much as some, but it is a requirement.
I never thought of stress as so harmful. I knew it speed up aging and things like that, but I never thought it could kill you. Though I am sure stress alone can not kill you. It is the combination of many things. Nothing is that black and white.
I don't think that I am a stress addict. But I do understand them. When I am at school I feel fine, just stressed enough but after going on break and not doing anything I feel like I need to do something or I am not being productive. I realize the effects of stress and I have read a ton of articles that stress (haha) that stress can have a powerful effect and cause you to get sick. I know it is much harder to get better when sick while stressed, and it causes a lot of illnesses. To deal with stress I make sure I have at least one thing in the day that is just for me, and also I make sure that I have a balanced diet because that is something that I know I have control over.
Stress is such an odd thing in my life. I know that if I'm not in a stressful environment, I'm more likely to not work or put things off until I absolutely have to. But I also love overloading myself to the point where I have too much to do. Something else I find is I'm constantly playing the game with my friends and classmates of who has more to do and who's more stressed. I find more at CMU that I play that game with myself than at my high school where it was with other people. I feel like if I'm not stressed, I'm not working hard enough.... and yet I still procrastinate.
I think that a little bit of stress can definitely be used as a way to up your motivation and productivity, but that too much just won't do anything good for you. I have found in my experience both in high school and at cmu that I got my best work done when I had more immediate deadlines and a bit of pressure (ex: I would have volleyball practice 2 hours everyday after school, so the time after that I would do my work and do it well because there simply was no other time to do it in). The same has been true here to some extent-now that I am on run crew I find I use what little work time I have more effectively, and that the stress has indeed been something of a motivator for me (although I have had to put sleep and meals first so I can do my best on crew, I do find I'm working a bit harder under the pressure).
Dealing with stress is curious problem because it is difficult to nail down for each person where the root issue lies. I'm surprised that this article doesn't go into the details of how being addicted to stress can be unproductive, and just make things more difficult for yourself which then feeds back into the addiction. What a vicious cycle.
in many ways i know i was addicted to stress through-out parts of my high-school career. i craved it. actually i feel that i am most dangerous to myself not when i am stressed but when i am bored when im bored i feel unmotivated and commonly get depressed and i find that alot worse than when i am stressed. i am a person who likes to be constantly moving . i crave it and i love life when its fast paced. i like long hours and late nights and this is one thing i can attribute to the idea that in many ways i may be addicted to stress. i also really crave productivity if im not feeling productive i feel kinda useless.
Is there a difference between being stressed and being busy? Type As can have something needing to be done at every minute of the day and check out of conversations thinking about that next task, and maybe they can feel anxiety from the amount of work they have to do, but if they have it under control is that the same thing as stress? I feel like stress is stress when you're feeling like your agenda has control over you instead you having control of it.
I believe that the busier you are the more you get done. in that someone with tons to do will be more likely to also get the laundry done than someone who had all week just to do the laundry.
Addiction is a strange thing.
I am with Cody in this issue. I feel like without stress I have a lot of difficulty motivating myself to get work done. When I can clearly see the consequences of when I need to get work done, I don't have much trouble getting it done on time and done well. I guess you could maybe look at this as being addicted to stress, but at the same time, I don't perform well under extreme pressure. There is a definite middle ground where most of us do our best work.
The signs for stress addiction are pretty much the signs of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which does not mean you are addicted to stress. There is a fine line between stress and anxiety and I think it is important for this article to acknowledge that. I don't believe there is anything such as "stress addiction." I would more so say people love risk and high stakes. For some people that does not always mean stress nor should it be completed labeled as stress. For some people those are stressful and relate to stress but not everyone. There is just something negative about the word stress which leads me to believe it is not an appropriate description for every situation or every person's experience. I tend to always feel stressed when making decisions or following through with decisions that affect my whole team. However, it's not that the work stresses me out, it is my GAD that I constantly work through makes those situations stressful. There is just more to this argument than is given.
However, all the medical statements on what stress can do, negative or positive, is really interesting. I knew stress could affect pregnancy but I was unaware the overall damages to the baby's future developments. Although, I'm not sure I believe in the test that proves stress during pregnancy can lower a child's IQ. I was also surprised that more some people stress can prevent certain illnesses while for most people it cause their immunity to weaken and allows you to get sick.
I was very surprised about the questions determining if some is addicted to stress. I was surprised to see that I answered yes to all three questions yet I do not think that I am addicted to stres. I do feel that as a grad student, stress has become so commom in my life that I miss it when there is none. Yet I do not seek out stressful situations. I know people that love stress so much that when here is none, they will seek it out or manufacture it. These our the true stress addicts.
I think that this article is really interesting, and am very thankful that it brings up that not all stress is bad. I mean, being overly stressed all the time isn't a good thing, but stress in moderation and at key times can be a great thing! It's definitely a motivator and often-times can be what is needed to provide some excitement in work.
I think reading about the negative effects of stress should definitely alert us if we begin to experience them, and I'm glad that this article was posted.
I do not think that i am addicted to stress, but this article makes me wonder a bit. this program might be instilling that addiction into me. I notice my capacity for dealing with stress, and my ability to work quickly increasing, but this is only in order that i can complete the work to a level of which i am proud, and i can still be a person. i think that the tipping point for me would be if i found myself in a position where i was not having time to do non work related things, and the speed at which i worked had still increased. I try to stay in control of stress, because i feel that it only detracts from my ability to work, but we shall see over the next 3 years how this stress avoidance treats me
When I first began reading this article, it almost seemed incredulous. However, thinking about my own life, it raises a valid point. Personally, I'm performing my best when I'm under a lot of stress (and when I keep a very busy schedule). It keeps me on track, and makes sure I get everything accomplished. In addition, it makes me seem like a happier person often, which is almost counter intuitive. I suppose this probably means that i'm addicted stress...oops.
Although I understand that I am going to make a very broad and generalized statistic, I feel that most people can relate: people who work in theatre are addicted to stress. Why would we continue to exert ourselves and join in our the collaborative processes time after time even though we knew that we may never be fully pleased with the result of hours of work and that we will at some point fight with other collaborators? We crave the "stress arch" of theatre in which there is an initial high of inspiration stress. "I have so many ideas!" "I just got inspired and it's changed my whole concept, but it's great!" This is then followed by the collaborative stress in which tensions or productive communication can come in play. Then of course, we all suffer from the stress of the actual production of the show. But what are we really stressing about? Life will go on if the show doesn't. But we create it, we strive off of it. Stress is the core of working in theatre and the craving of many people working in theatre, at least in my opinion.
I understand that some people can be addicted to stress, and I have met some of them but I don't like the questions they posed for identifying it. I know that I am not addicted to stress. I love to complete projects. I love to do a good job. It's the best feeling when I'm done, I.E. when the stress is over, but I like others who commented answered yes to several of those questions. Oh course I feel rushed to get things done, I'm in college, half the time I feel like I am barely keeping up. Some people need that deadline to keep motivated, but I find the less time I have to do the task the less I enjoy it. I feel proud when I'm done because I finished on time, but the fun part is doing it well not how much pressure I am under.
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