Psychological stress is always harmful

The impact of stress is never absolute. Whether it is a burden that drags you down or a fuel that pushes you forward essentially depends on the intensity and duration of the stress, and how the individual interprets the stress.

You must have an impression of the classic experiment conducted by the Canadian physiologist Sely in the last century: If mice are placed in an environment with intermittent noise and mild electric shock for a long time, the mice will enter an excited stress state at first, and their reaction speed and alertness will be significantly improved. However, if this stimulation continues for several weeks, the mice will gradually enter a stage of exhaustion, with organ damage, decreased immune function, and even death. The same thing applies to people. I received a call from an Internet operator who had been responsible for a KPI that was three times higher than the team average for 11 consecutive months. He stayed up until 2 or 3 o'clock every day to change the plan. At first, he could rely on coffee and the thought of "getting promoted as soon as he finished it." But later he couldn't even get up to the script killing that he had to do every week. The hair that fell out when washing his hair could block the floor drain. Going to the hospital for a screening was already moderately anxious and accompanied by endocrine disorders. This kind of chronic stress that exceeds an individual's tolerance threshold and lasts for months or even years is indeed harmful and does no good. In severe cases, it can induce physical diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease. This is not controversial in the field of clinical psychology or psychosomatic medicine.

But have you ever had a moment like this? I was a little panicked during finals week, but my endorsement efficiency was several times higher than usual when I was lying in the dormitory checking my phone. ； Before the game, my palms were a little sweaty, but after taking the field, my movements were smoother than usual during training, and my performance was extraordinary. I watched an interview with Su Yiming a while ago. He said that he would be a little nervous before every competition, but he would not be so sluggish that he could not find his state. The final movements were more complete than during training. The classic inverted U-shaped curve in psychology has long verified this: when the pressure value is in the middle range, people's attention, reaction speed, and performance capabilities are all at their peaks. If it is too loose or too tight, it will fall off. This kind of short-term, controllable pressure that can get positive feedback after the end is essentially a handhold to help you break through your comfort zone. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a "necessary for growth".

Interestingly, there are significant differences in attitudes toward stress among psychological researchers from different schools. Consultants with a traditional psychoanalytic orientation are more likely to regard stress as an external signal of subconscious conflict - if you repeatedly feel strong pressure on the same thing, it is likely that there is unprocessed trauma or conflict at play inside. For example, a child who was asked by his parents to "must be number one in exams" will become anxious to the point of insomnia every time he encounters a performance appraisal when he grows up. In essence, the trauma of being judged in childhood has been activated. At this time, stress is a signal to remind you that "you should see inner problems." Researchers with a positive psychology orientation pay more attention to the value of stress reconstruction. They have even developed "stress inoculation training": deliberately setting some controllable small stress scenarios for trainees, such as impromptu speeches and completing tasks within a time limit, so as to develop muscle memory for coping with stress, so that they will not collapse directly when encountering real major stress in the future. I have also had a very intuitive feeling in the past few years when I have been doing consulting: many people's anxiety about stress is more harmful than the stress itself - as soon as they feel a fast heartbeat and a little nervous, they feel "I'm going to have a mental problem." This kind of negative interpretation of stress is the culprit that turns good stress into negative emotions.

I once had a client who worked in brand design. She was so nervous that she cried when she first received requests from large clients. She always felt that "if she didn't do well, her reputation would be ruined." Later, we did a small exercise together: every time she felt stressed, she stopped and rated her own stress. A score of 10 meant "she couldn't bear it at all and would collapse." As a result, she found that every time she thought she was "stressed about to die," most of the scores were only 5 or 6, which was far from her tolerance threshold. Gradually, she figured out the pattern: as long as the stress value does not exceed 7 points, she will be more willing to dig into the details than usual, and the plan she comes up with will have a higher passing rate. Last year, she even won the industry's emerging award for a work that "it took a little pressure to get through". She even joked, "If I don't have stress every day, I might not even think about participating."

Of course, I’m not asking you to hold on under the pressure, nor am I saying that the greater the pressure, the better, so don’t overdo it. In fact, it is very simple to judge whether the current stress is good or bad for you: after this stressful event is over, do you feel "Wow, I have accomplished another thing, it feels so good", or do you feel "I am so tired, I don't want to do anything, I can't even eat." The former is a healthy pressure that can be absorbed, while the latter is a reminder that it is time to apply the brakes and adjust.

To put it bluntly, stress is like the salt in cooking. If you add too little, it will be bland and tasteless; if you add too much, it will be salty and inedible. There is no such thing as "salt is bad". Don't feel like you're facing a formidable enemy when you feel pressure, and don't hold on to excessive pressure. How to find the amount that suits you is the most critical thing.