At first glance, stress might seem straightforward. Imagine suddenly facing a mountain of tasks with not enough time to tackle them. Your heart pounds, your breathing quickens, adrenaline courses through your veins, or you might feel a bit dizzy. These are symptoms of stress. Stress itself is defined as a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It’s a signal from our body that something is off balance.
When stress drags on for days, weeks, or even years, it can wear us down. Chronic long-term stress can make us feel exhausted, unable to think clearly, and can mess with our digestion and even impair micronutrient balances in our body.
In fact, there are three big sources of stress in our lives; our body’s functions (physiological), our thoughts and feelings (psychological), and the world around us (environmental). These make up the three dimensions of stress. We will experience stress anytime one or more of these areas is triggered.
Body: Physiological Causes
The first dimension of the three dimensions of stress involves our bodies physiology. Physiology refers to how our cells, tissues, and organs behave and work together to make our body function. When they’re all in sync, we’re in a stable state called homeostasis.
However, when something happens that shakes up this balance our body can get stressed out. Experiencing physical trauma, acute illness, or developing a severe wound are some extreme ways our bodies can be pushed out of homeostasis. Other ways our body can be disrupted includes big changes to our daily routines like changing day/night shifts at work or starting a new job or school. Even hormone changes such as during puberty, pregnancy, or menopause can shift our physiological state.
Though our bodies are good at getting back to a stable state, we may feel different in the meantime. For example, if our hormones are out of whack, we might feel moody or have trouble sleeping. If we’re sick, our body might have an increase in metabolism, develop a fever, or experience changes in blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate . All these changes can make our body work harder, which we feel as stress. These kinds of physical changes can also lead to feeling worried or upset. This can then become its own cause of stress referred to as a psychological cause of stress.
Mind: Psychological Causes
The second dimension of the three dimensions of stress involves our mind. Psychology is about studying how we think and feel, both on the surface and deep down inside where we might not be fully aware. When our thoughts and feelings start to change, it can lead to stress.
One way we get stressed is when we don’t feel emotionally safe. Just like how we need to feel physically safe before we can breathe fully, we also need to feel emotionally secure before we can truly feel at ease. When we are both physically and emotionally safe, our bodies are able to “rest and digest” or essentially perform our normal functions. When we no longer feel emotionally safe, we experience stress. Scenarios that can lead to us feeling emotionally unsafe can include being bullied or picked on, being stuck in a manipulative or abusive relationship, or being left out or feeling isolated from others.
Another psychological causes of stress can include changes in our brains ability to accurately interpret the world and our experiences. This can include changes in neurotransmitter levels such as in mood disorders. For example, Major Depressive Disorder can cause difficulties with concentrating, learning, memory, processing speed, and visual and auditory processing. These can in turn make it more challenging to accurately interpret or process what is happening around us, leading to stress or worsening of already present stress.
World: Environmental Causes
The third dimension of stress doesn’t come from our internal systems. Instead, it comes from what’s going on around us – our environment. Sometimes, it’s the actual events that cause stress, not just how we see them. For instance, a traumatic world event could cause stress. Events like a global pandemic or war can induce stress regardless of how we frame the event in our mind.
In general, changes in our environment and in our perception of our physical safety leads to stress. But it’s also true that what makes one person feel unsafe might not bother someone else at all. We all see safety differently. So, something that’s stressful for one person might not be for another. For example, if you’re scared of heights, being up high on a roller coaster is going to be a lot more stressful for you than for someone who loves that kind of thrill.
Conclusion
In conclusion, stress is a complicated reaction that comes from disruptions to our body’s systems, our mental state, and the world around us. Understanding the three dimensions of stress helps us see that stress can come from many sources and affect us in different ways. This insight is crucial for coming up with better ways to handle stress in our daily lives. Whether it’s due to changes inside our bodies, shifts in how secure and stable we feel, or big changes in our environment, the main point is the same: our bodies are telling us we need to get back to a state of balance as soon as possible.
I’ll discuss these more in depth at a later point where we can explore how these causes of stress can disrupt our mental and physical health as well as how to manage them, nutritional concerns with chronic stress, and how we can better support our bodies. In the meantime, read more about our brain health and how magnesium plays a role.
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