Your Brain On Stress
What happens to your brain when you’re stressed and what to do about it
Stress is something everyone experiences at some time in their lives.
Therefore you probably know the signs of stress already: a pounding heart, an increased breathing rate, muscle tension and possibly an upset stomach.
The Biology of Stress
Stress begins in an area of the brain near the brain stem called the hypothalamus. When we get stressed, the hypothalamus tells the adrenal glands near our kidneys to release the hormones adrenaline and cortisol.
Adrenaline increases our heart rate and widens our airways to increase oxygen intake while cortisol releases sugar into the bloodstream. The effects of stress can be useful as they give us an energy boost. But relying on stress as a source of energy can lead to health problems and increase your chance of mental illnesses such as depression in the long term.
Stress Has a Purpose
The stress response is a very old way of dealing with threats. It evolved millions of years ago and isn’t too different in modern humans. The kinds of threats our distant ancestors faced were usually very short term. Imagine a hungry wolf in front of you, you have to react quickly in seconds to survive.
When our ancient hunter gatherer ancestors encountered threats they were typically short lived and usually resolved within minutes. Our stress response is designed in such a way that when stressed, our bodies sacrifice growth, digestion and other long term functions for short term survival.
Since our prehistoric ancestors faced mostly short term problems such as hunger for millions of years, our brains evolved to prioritize the short term over the long term.
Stress is Not As Useful in the Modern World
Our ancient ancestors dealt with short term problems like finding food and avoiding predators. Since stress is a short term solution, it was useful to them.
But most of our modern problems are not short term. Think about some of the main problems in your life. An unsatisfying job, financial problems, being too busy and problems with your health are some examples of common and important problems modern people face.
These kinds of problems usually require long term, complex solutions.
We use a relatively recently evolved area of the brain just behind our foreheads called the prefrontal cortex for complex problem solving. When you think consciously, rationally and long term, you are using your prefrontal cortex.
The prefrontal cortex is needed for a set of skills collectively called executive function. These are the skills such as attention, planning and prioritization that are needed to successfully achieve your long term goals. Unfortunately, stress can diminish your executive function leaving you confused unable to think creatively.
The Prefrontal Cortex vs Stress
When we get stressed our brains think we are in real physical danger, pump blood to our muscles and switch off the rational and thoughtful prefrontal cortex because its long term thinking is not needed in life threatening situations.
However, when faced with complex problems, the reflexive, unsophisticated stress response is not helpful.
Since modern complex problems are so recent and evolution is so slow, we are stuck with brains that still prioritize the short term over the long term even though it doesn’t make much sense to act that way today.
This would make sense if we were faced with a dangerous wild animal — there’s no time to think, you have to run away as fast as possible. However, in the modern world, stress is usually the result of heavy workloads, arguments or worrying about problems.
In these situations, we don’t want a flighty stress response. A rational plan to solve the problem would be much better.
To make sure we deal with problems rationally and productively, we have to find a way to switch off the stress response when it is inappropriate so that the prefrontal cortex can work properly.
Stopping Stress When It’s Not Helpful
How to Reduce Stress Quickly
Take deep breaths: Stress causes an increased breathing rate but the opposite is also true. Consciously slowing down your breathing rate will reduce stress. When you are stressed take deep, slow breaths and breath with your belly. This tells your body that there is no need to be stressed so it calms down.
Take Control: feeling in control enables your prefrontal cortex to turn off the stress response. Focus on the things you can control and accept the rest. To feel more in control, take conscious control of your body movement and be mindful that you are consciously controlling your body. Doing this fosters a more proactive rather than reactive mindset.
See the silver lining: instead of viewing problems negatively, see them as challenges to improve. For example, you might dread giving a speech. You can view the speech more positively by seeing it as an opportunity to improve your ability to perform under pressure. Instead of seeing your problems as stressful, see them as exciting.
“The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” — John Milton
Change Your Lifestyle to Make Stress Less Likely
Exercise: causes the release of endorphins which help to reduce stress.
Sleep: chronic sleep deprivation is associated with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Make sure you get enough sleep on a regular basis.
Smile and laugh more: smiling and laughter both reduce stress which makes sense. How can you be stressed when you are happy? Do things that make you smile and laugh more often to reduce stress.
Avoid loneliness: lonely people have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Make sure that you spend enough time fostering meaningful relationships.
Focus: worrying about your problems constantly is not a good way to live a stress-free lifestyle. When working, give your full attention to your work so that there is no room in your mind for negative thinking. You can also start working on something whenever your mind becomes overwhelmed with worry. Thomas Edison knew that focus was one of the best ways to clear your mind:
“I always found that, if I began to worry, the best thing I could do was focus upon doing something useful and then work very hard at it. Soon, I would forget what was troubling me.” — Thomas Edison
Strive For Mental Balance
Although stress is bad for mental performance, so is tiredness. The best mental state for optimal performance is a balance between the two extremes.
Our mental performance on challenging tasks that require concentration is best when our minds are calm, alert and unstressed.
This is called the Yerkes-Dodson Law. For optimal mental performance, it’s important to avoid tiredness or excessive stress. When we are stressed also known as a state of high arousal, our mental performance is lower as we are on the right part of the graph.
The prefrontal cortex doesn’t work well when it’s flooded with stress hormones. Instead, it works best when it is supported by a balance of neurotransmitters as the graph below shows.
When we are stressed we need to calm down and create a more balanced mindset to think more clearly and be more productive. If you are too tired, setting a deadline with consequences can increase alertness.
The Takeaway
In order to be rational, problem-solving people, we need a balanced mindset that is alert yet calm. In the real world, it’s not possible to always be this way. Therefore we need to have the ability to know when our mind is unbalanced and correct the imbalance.
