Eustress: The ‘Good’ Stress

Eisha Sarkar

Posted on Hello Wellness on Aug 31 2010 2:15PM
 

You awaken in the middle of the night, hear a noise. You remember that your husband, who was away on a business trip, would be coming in late. You slip out of your bed and run to answer the door. You are anxious to see him and tell him some good news that you learned today. Your heart is pounding fast, and you feel excited and happy to see him. Not all stress is bad for you. What would life be without a little excitement? What would life be without eustress?

Heard of distress, but what's eustress?
Eustress is a term coined by Canadian endocrinologist Hans Selye which is defined as stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfilment or other positive feelings. According to Selye, a person actually determines, himself, whether his experience will be eustress (good stress) or distress (bad stress). And this is determined by your experience (actual, imagined or how you interpret an experience), your expectations, and how you cope with events.

Most of us will experience eustress in the following situations:

• Accomplishing goals
• Love relationships
• Getting a promotion
• Discovering a passion
• Riding a rollercoaster
• Experiencing a 'thrill'

The good stress
Eustress is actually important to your life. Without it, you would become depressed and perhaps feel a lack of meaning in life. Not striving for goals, not overcoming challenges, not having a reason to wake up in the morning would be damaging to you, so eustress is considered 'good' stress. It keeps you healthy and happy.

Eustress also reminds us that we can view many of the stressors in our lives as 'challenges' rather than 'threats', and have extra vital energy to handle these stressors, without a feeling of being overwhelmed or unhappy.

Keeping the fight in you
You also need small amounts of stress in your life to respond to the threats and dangers you occasionally encounter. In this case, stress is part of the fight-or-flight response - a holdover from our primitive ancestors. When you detect the presence of danger, your body kicks into high gear - the hormone cortisol is released which increases the level of sugar in the blood, your breathing rate increases and oxygen fills your muscles in preparation to either fight the threat or flee from it. Without this physiological response, your body would be much more susceptible to danger and attack.

While it is clear that too much stress can wreak havoc on your overall health, doctors and mental health specialists have also found that too little stress can also be harmful. Negative stress causes a wide range of emotional and physical problems that can inhibit your energy and drive. On the other hand, as long as it's reasonable and not excessive, a certain amount of stress plays a positive role in helping us to fulfill our dreams and by enabling us to protect ourselves in times of danger. Eustress helps you to manage the negative stresses in your life.

Moving forward
With eustress, the adrenaline is used to move your body and mind forward in response to the needs of a situation or relationship that you have identified. In setting goals or identifying needs in a relationship, you trigger the adrenaline reaction in order to be able to achieve and sustain a positive momentum in your life.

Can it hurt?
While eustress is controlled stress that results in top performance at high stress activities such as giving oral arguments, giving a speech, or sports, it still is stress. It doesn't generally carry the same type of damage as chronic stress, but too much of eustress can still tax your system. That's why it's important to have 'down time' and balance in one's life.