It's the birthday of Hans Selye, credited with discovering "stress"...
Selye chose the word “stress” to describe the general bodily responses to noxious agents. He was eventually fluent in eight languages and proficient in several more. But at the time he chose the word “stress” he wasn’t quite fluent in English. He didn’t understand the use of the word “stress” in physics where “stress” is the force on an object per unit area, whereas “strain” is the measurement of how an object responds to stress. For years afterward Selye said that if only he had understood the complexities of English better he would have chosen the word “strain” instead of “stress.” But by that time it was too late and the word “stress” was adopted not just in English but in many other languages as well; because there was no appropriate translation, other languages just used the English word “stress.” Selye devoted the rest of his life to studying stress and its effects on the human body. He usually worked 10 to 14 hours a day, every day, including weekends and holidays. He wrote several books, including The Stress of Life (1956) and Stress without Distress (1974).
Selye said, “The element of chance in basic research is overrated. Chance is a lady who smiles only upon those few who know how to make her smile,” and:
“Find your own stress level — the speed at which you can run toward your own goal. Make sure that both the stress level and the goal are really your own, and not imposed upon you by society, for only you yourself can know what you want and how fast you can accomplish it. There is no point in forcing a turtle to run like a racehorse or in preventing a racehorse from running faster than a turtle because of some ‘moral obligation.’ The same is true of people.” WA
It is common to refer to the "stress and strain of life", so either word can work. I think I prefer stress however, because it points to the unseen pressures and challenges of life as well as the obvious signs of stress. I think of a suspension bridge, always subject to stress, holding together unless too much stress brings it down when a barge hits a support or strong winds set the bridge in motion in ways it was not designed to withstand.
ReplyDeleteI think stress is so dangerous because we fear things we can no longer see. When man walked the earth thousands of years ago every major "Stressor" was a real thing. When man would be hunted down from large cats or wild animals, if he escaped his fear and the stress of the experience would be justified in his mind because it was a tangible threat. Now we stress over things that we cannot touch, and seemingly no reason that our body should fear. Our lives are now so inextricably complex that we now fear the intangible. I personally Don't know what I would hate more, real and present danger with justified stress, or the illusive form of danger we now face in the modern world with a less concrete form of stress.
ReplyDeleteI've never considered the word "strain" as more representative of stress than the word "stress," but it makes perfect sense. I believe, like Selye, that finding our own stress level is crucial, especially in todays demanding society. Most college students are expected to keep a full course-load, maintain a job to pay bills, and have a social life. From this point of view it can be easy to see why students often times get overwhelmed. It is up to the students to find their own balance, rather than to tackle all of these tasks.
ReplyDeleteCall it what you will, it takes a huge health toll. We should be teaching children how to manage it, through appropriately-simplified instruction in "mindfulness" and relaxation and cognitive behavioral therapy and philosophy... The stoics were pretty smart about stress. I begin each day, lately, with Marcus Aurelius: "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love… Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting read! Truth be told, when feeling stressed out, I think a better representation of the feeling could be encompassed by the word "strain." This also reminds me of my psychology lecture from a few days.. we learned about operational definitions and how some things simply cannot be measured universally. How do you measure stress? I think that the measurements vary between individuals, depending on mental and physical state, work load, geographic location, family, income, etc. Is there a true way to measure stress other than a 1-10 self-report rating? And even then, is there accuracy in that?
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