By Dr. Brad Fox, PhD
We have all felt “stressed” at times, whether at home, school, work, or just as a factor of living in and through economic and social challenges. Some ‘stress’ is ‘good’ (referred to as ‘eustress’ – as opposed to ‘distress’), or rather it comes from ‘good’ or positive events (like getting married, graduating, or landing that new job), but it still has an impact on our body’s systems. It’s like death and taxes, we can’t really avoid it. But most of us could learn to manage the stress in our lives in better ways and reduce the negative impact it can have on us in the long-term.
In fact, there is a relatively recent term, “toxic stress,” often heard in regard to the impact of severe or ongoing stress on babies and young children. For example, there is evidence that severe, intense, or ongoing stress can affect many aspects of a developing child’s brain. These effects may have short or even long-term impacts. It may make it more difficult for them to sleep, learn to manage their emotions and upset feelings, or even solve problems in school. But toxic stress is not limited to young ones.
Toxic stress is affecting greater numbers of professionals serving in healthcare, emergency response, and law enforcement, as well as other professions. An upcoming presentation at Community Counseling Services in Bucyrus will identify what toxic stress is and how it can affect us (personally and at work), its relationship to burnout, ethical practice issues related to providing service when the provider is dealing with such issues, the importance of self-monitoring, and how to balance self-care with job responsibilities. Relevant issues from the perspective of both a supervisee and a supervisor will be discussed, such as how to take concerns to one’s supervisor, how to monitor/address such concerns as a supervisor for the ongoing growth of the supervisee as well as continuing to provide quality care to the people we serve.
You probably know what it’s like to have a smoke detector suddenly go off: the loud piercing sound at first startles you, but then you quickly start to figure out if the detected threat is real or not. If you smell smoke and see flames, you may respond in various ways (get a fire extinguisher, evacuate, alert the fire department, etc.). If there is no actual threat, you probably work quickly to get the alarm turned off! The human body likewise has an amazing alert (or ‘alarm’) system that helps us adapt and survive situations we perceive as threatening. The trouble is, if no actual threat is present, or if our alarm stays ‘on’ long after the threat is passed, it can have detrimental effects on our brain, emotions, even our physical health.
A number of years ago, an impressive study at Harvard identified positive, tolerable, and toxic stress as three ways our body can react or adapt to challenges. Among their findings, they indicated that a key factor that can help us tolerate whatever comes our way is having supportive, healthy relationships. Hopefully these can be found and strengthened both at work and outside of work.
Learning how to care for our alert system, including preventive maintenance, is critical in protecting our health and well being, our relationships, and sometimes even our jobs/careers.
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