Secondhand stress is contagious stress. It is a function of our brains being wired to mirror the actions and emotions of others.
Has this ever happened to you? You meet one of your friends for a nice dinner. She talks about the all the stress, problems and challenges she has in her life. A non-stop story of hardship and misfortune. You listen and as a compassionate friend get more and more involved in the negativity and stress. You might even feel your heartbeat quicken and experiences other stress responses. When you say good bye to your friend, you feel worse than before meeting her. You just experienced secondhand stress.
Dangers of secondhand smoke? You know all about that. News stories have covered the shocking news that even being around someone else who smokes can damage your lungs. But second hand stress? Maybe you never heard the expression before but it is becoming a health problem, too.
Stress (especially the chronic kind), can wreak havoc on your body as the stress hormone cortisol floods through your body and impedes performance in many areas. Flight or fight? In everyday life sometimes you don’t even have the luxury of choice.
Consistent high levels of stress will result in negative health issues over time – there is no doubt about this. But what if someone you love is stressed? Or your coworkers are in high stress mode all the time? Could this have a major impact on you, too? Not to mention watching high stress level show on TV – wouldn’t they impact your mood and emotions?
ABC News recently reported that strangers have the ability to suffer such empathy for someone else, that a physical stress response is felt due to the other person’s situation.
Saint Louis University conducted a study that proved one person could watch someone else being accused of something falsely – and the observer, even though they had no connection to the person at all, would have increased cortisol levels and a higher heart rate during the episode.
What kind of stress is contagious? All of it – it just depends on how the person experiencing the stress reacts. Maybe their facial expression changes. Or their voice becomes different – higher pitched, faster talking, or more frantic. You will feel their stress based on these changes.
Of course stress from strangers is not as common as that of people you’re around and know and care about – such as friends, coworkers, children, parents, and partners.
Do you experience contagious stress in your life? Feeling overly stressed when you meet people close to you even though your life is okay and not overly stressful at that moment? Do you have a stress response and have no explanation for it? You might be suffering from secondhand stress!
Next week, we look into ways how to protect yourself from contagious stress.
In the meantime, drop in to our studio and enjoy a yoga class – it will definitely help you deal with stress!
Did you know? We offer a special Summer Sizzle promotion! In May purchase an unlimited yoga card for just $150 and enjoy yoga classes in our studio all summer long. Please note, these special class cards do expire August 10th, 2014. Purchase your summer yoga card through our online shopping cart, please.
Wow! This is a very interesting phenomenon especially since most people suffer from great amounts of stress. YOGA will definitely help in this department. Keep the flow!
This can be a serious problem with any one that works in a “helping” field such as a nurse, social worker, police officer, and so many more. It is well known in these careers as compassion fatigue. It is very important for a person in these helping fields to be able to manage stress appropriately for the person to not effective to the people they are serving but also to themselves.
I agree with Amber – people in fields directly related to helping people in need are the most exposed to this issue and maintaining a regular de-stressing routine is a great idea. Good story and insight.
So I guess I’ve noticed this, but reading this really adds an awareness I’ve never had. Even what you said, Amber, about people in the “helping” fields. I’m very curious to see how to combat this problem since I don’t want to suddenly quit my job and/or dump my friends.
A side note, I do like helping my friends with their problems. I think it brings us closer, but there’s a point when I’ve offered all of the solutions possible but they’re still dwelling on the issue. Sometimes enough is enough.
Thanks so much for the great post!