What are the consequences of psychological stress?

Judging from the practical experience of clinical psychological intervention, the most direct consequence of being in a state of uncontrollable high psychological stress for a long time is the impairment of both physical and mental functions. In severe cases, it may induce organic diseases and clinical psychological diseases. However, academic circles generally believe that short-term, controllable mild stress has a positive effect on improving individual abilities, and cannot be generalized.

The 28-year-old Internet operation girl I just picked up last week has been hitting the quarterly KPI for three consecutive months. She has more than a dozen to-do items every day when she opens her eyes. She sleeps less than 4 hours a day on average. First, she suffered from insomnia all night, and then she always felt chest tightness and migraines. She went to the cardiology department three times to get an electrocardiogram and myocardial enzymes were all normal. The doctor asked her to come to the psychology department for a check-up. When she came, her hands were shaking when she filled out the initial diagnosis information. In fact, this kind of unexplained physical discomfort is a signal sent to the body by long-term stress - the HPA axis is always in an excited state, and cortisol secretion exceeds the standard for a long time. First, it disrupts the autonomic nervous system, and as time goes on, the immune, digestion, and cardiovascular systems will be affected. I once had a visitor who was a ToB salesman. He visited customers under high pressure for half a year. His gastric ulcer recurred for three months, and he couldn't suppress it even with proton pump inhibitors. Later, he simply quit his job and rested at home for a month, and the ulcer healed on its own without taking gastric medicine.

Don’t think that stress only affects the body. Many people ignore the wear and tear on cognitive function. I have previously met a class teacher from a key middle school who has taught graduating classes for 20 years. Last year, she taught many top students in the class. The school's admissions indicators were high. Parents were asking about results from morning to night. How stressed was she? Standing on the podium before going to class, I suddenly forgot where to start with the knowledge points I had prepared all night. When I got home from get off work, I called my son for dinner, and he opened his mouth to call out the names of the students in the class. I couldn't help but get angry with my husband at home because of such a trivial matter as not putting my socks in place. After I got angry, I sat on the sofa and shed tears, saying that I knew it was unnecessary but I just couldn't control it. In fact, to put it bluntly, the cognitive bandwidth of the brain is completely occupied by the anxiety of "fear of making mistakes". Just like you secretly open a dozen high-power-consuming live streaming apps in the background of your mobile phone, and even if you just open a memo in the front desk, you will be stuck for a long time without being able to type. Even emotional control, a skillful function that is engraved in your bones, has no resources to run.

There are a lot of controversies about pressure on the Internet nowadays. Some people think that "pressure is motivation" and that if you just push through it, you will be completely transformed. Others think that pressure is harmful and will collapse if you just touch it. In fact, judging from the existing research data, the real score is that only controllable pressure that lasts no more than one month and you clearly know that you will get positive feedback after hard work will have an awakening effect and improve concentration and reaction speed. If the pressure lasts for more than three months and you have no possibility of relief, this kind of "uncontrollable long-term high pressure" is the real health killer. We have done a small-scale follow-up before, and found that people who endure such long-term high pressure are 3.2 times more likely to develop anxiety disorders and depression within one year than ordinary people. Of course, less than 20% of people have significantly enhanced mental toughness after high-pressure events, but this proportion is too low. There is really no need for ordinary people to gamble with their physical and mental health on such small-probability events.

The thing I usually tell my visitors the most is, don’t regard “being able to handle pressure” as a must-have workplace badge. Stop when you feel out of breath, and you really can’t adjust and talk to a professional. It’s much easier than holding on until something goes wrong and then fixing the leaks.