2. Health & Families Why you shouldn't always stress about stress A new book claims pressure can make you stronger but, asks Kashmira -- Indy Lifestyle Online stress-istock.jpg Stress can raise the risk serious health problems, including obesity and heart disease. iStock Here’s an unsettling thought: stress is inescapable. Coming to a sudden halt on the side of a motorway en route to a career-changing interview, or fighting against the clock to clean Nutella off a toddler’s -- But life’s pressures are not always negative. While intense, prolonged, stress undeniably raises the risk of serious health problems, world-leading neuroscientist Professor Ian Robertson argues in his latest book, The Stress Test, that life’s pressures can in fact help us to flourish, with the help of the body’s complex chemical processes. Stress can help to motivate us, and even strengthen the brain. Peter Clough, professor of psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University, agrees, and says that we have become “stress-phobic” as a society, by inextricably connecting it to anxiety. In reality, most of us seek out more pressurised lives – chasing pay rises, promotions, and raising families – to reap the emotional benefits of satisfaction. ianrobertsoncreditmaxwellphotography.jpg Professor Ian Robertson argues that stress can help to boost the brain (Maxwell Photography) -- Nietzche – “that which does not kill us makes us stronger” – Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College Dublin, unpicks why some of us struggle to cope with stressful situations that others appear to withstand with relative ease. This is partly down to our physical, neurological and environmental differences, which change what pushes our buttons. Some find repetitive tasks too much to bear, while others balk at strict deadlines and large workloads. In the end, stress itself is not the issue, but how we deal with it. In The Stress Test, Professor Robertson extinguishes the idea that our brains are “hard wired” from birth, and instead suggests that our thoughts and emotional experiences reshape the organ by turning -- * People who believe in conspiracy theories more likely to be suffering from stress, study finds * ChildLine expresses concern over rise in number of students under exam stress * Thousands of parents to take children out of school in protest over 'stressful' exams “We have between our ears the most complex entity in the known universe -- release of noradrenaline, which is linked to the “fight or flight” response. Balancing the two creates the perfect cocktail of chemicals to transform stress from debilitating into brain-boosting, with those who are most in control of their emotions best equipped to exploit this. -- Professor Ian Roberston Research shows, for example, that the stress caused by plunging your hand into ice-cold water can help with remembering a list of words, thanks to the release of cortisol and noradrenaline. -- the second step. With perserverance, this can gradually extend for minutes, hours, days, and years. book-cover-the-stress-test.jpg (Bloomsbury) This all seems rather abstract. But Professor Robertson is emphatic that there are countless methods and techniques individuals can use to address their stress. Some, like cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), are relatively new, while others, such as meditation and mindfulness, have been practised for centuries. A recent study showed that, like CBT, -- Alessandra/Flickr Creative Commons * 10/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report The stresses of modern life are thought to have created "The Age of Anxiety". Getty -- It’s not just all in the mind, either. Adopting a ‘power stance’ – with your body outstretched – before a nerve-wracking situation, or squeezing a stress ball in the right hand can temporarily boost mood and confidence. But this attitude towards stress could easily be exploited at a time when it is easier than ever for our jobs to bleed into our personal lives. Should burnt-out employees quit complaining and just toughen up? -- “Any ideas can be abused by unscrupulous people and this one is no different. Moderate stress can be beneficial, severe stress not. Most people with mental illness suffer extreme stress and ‘just getting over it’ is not and should not be an option.” khadija-the-stress-test.jpg Khadija Abdelhamid struggled to cope with stress as a teenager (Abdelhamid) Khadija Abdelhamid, a public speaker and entrepreneur from Wembley, London, knows firsthand that “snapping out of it” is not possible. Now 25, stress debilitated her teen years, exacerbated her depression and cast her into a cycle of panic attacks. -- everyone, absolutely everyone, can learn to do this better.” The Stress Test by Professor Ian Robertson is out now. The Stress Test Do you See Stress as a Threat or a Challenge? Take Professor Robertson's quiz to find out. -- a. ..with pounding heart and churning stomach, worry about the effects the stress is having on you. b. ..plead your case on Facebook -- 16. You are in the middle of severe family crisis, turmoil and stress: Do you: a. Seek medication from your Doctor to calm your nerves. -- 2 points for every c) response Stress: Challenge or Threat? 0-12 Where you aren’t under pressure, you do just fine most of the time. But even small stresses can be daunting and perhaps you tend to try to avoid them more often than you than deal directly with them. And big stresses are even more daunting to you. At times you might not feel like your emotions are under your full control, which can itself be a little stressful and make dealing with other pressures more difficult. Perhaps you lack a little faith in your ability to shape your emotions by what you think and do. But the good news is that you can certainly -- 13-24 For you, stresses are a mix of challenge and threat and at times you “zone out” from the stress and immerse yourself in other things, which can be a very positive way to deal with pressure. Some stresses, however, have to be faced up to if you are going to deal with them, and sometimes you find this tough to do, particularly the very big stresses. Importantly, however, you do feel in control of your emotions some of the time and this opens you to more control by learning to harness the benefits of stress: these arise when you treat stress as a challenge more than a threat. 25-36 You tend to see stress as a challenge rather than a threat which puts you more in the driving seat when facing up to pressures in your life and work. You feel you have quite a lot of control over your emotions -- you tend to see setbacks as external problems to be solved rather than as failures inside yourself. This means that you can rise to the challenge of big stresses if and when they arrive. * More about: * Stress * Mental Health * Health