Can you get used to stress?

Imagine you have successfully dealt with stress and start to feel relaxed. Then the next stress comes, which is followed by yet another stress. How does the body cope with successive stress? The answer: getting used to it (habituation) or  get more sensitive to it (sensitization). Which of the two occurs depends on personality.

Getting used to a stressor

Going through a stressful experience, no matter how unpleasant it may be, can be considered as a learning experience. For example, you may have been confronted with a complicated task at work that stressed you out when you first started working on it. But if you have found a way to do this task successfully, you will be less stressed when a similar task presents itself. You will have learned what you should do.

Similarly, giving a speech in public may be a stressful thing to do. It could be that the stress never goes away completely even after having presented numerous times. Nevertheless, in most people the stress reactions will become smaller with repetitive stress. This is known as habituation.

In the body, habituation (or getting used to a stressor, a thing that causes stress) is reflected by smaller cortisol responses. The activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis will be less upon repetitive presentation of the same stressor.

Getting more sensitive to a stressor

Let’s take the example of speaking in public again. For some, it remains torture, no matter how many times they have done it, and no matter how well they have prepared their speeches. They stress out completely every time they have to speak in public.

In these people, the stress reactions in the body do not weaken with time, and habituation does not occur. At times, the stress reactions may even become stronger. This is known as sensitization. You will be stressed every time the stressor comes up. It has been estimated that sensitization occurs in 16% of the general population.

Type D personality

Psychologists have found that sensitization occurs mainly in people with a Type D personality. Individuals with a Type D personality are more likely to experience negative emotions than others. Also, they tend not to share these emotions with others, because of fear of negative reactions, such as disapproval or rejection. Thus, the Type D personality profile is characterized by negative feelings and emotions, introvertism, and social anxiety. It has been estimated that about 21% of individuals have a Type D personality. This percentage is close to the 16% that has been estimated for the percentage of individuals that show stress sensitization.

Because of their negative bias, people with Type D personality see problems as unsurmountable stressors. In the case of speaking in public, the stress comes from their fear that their presentation may be viewed upon negatively by the public.

Stress sensitization and fatigue

The inability to adapt to a stressor (habituation), so that stress sensitization occurs, is considered to be a risk factor for the development of disease. For example, there is some scientific evidence that stress sensitization is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases.

One important consequence of stress sensitization may be exhaustion. Exhaustion is characterized by unusual fatigue, loss of physical and mental energy, increased irritability, and loss of moral and motivation. These are all symptoms of chronic stress. And chronic stress can lead to disease, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, or anxiety (just to name a few).

An important goal of the stress reactions through the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis is to redistribute energy to the organs and cells that need more energy to deal with a stressor. It is therefore not surprising that stress sensitization can lead to extreme fatigue. The stress will take a large toll on the organs and cells that will receive less energy, and the way they work will be compromised with time. This is experienced as fatigue.

In stress-related terms: the stress responses are inadequate to deal successfully with the stressor. This will place a high energetic demand on the body. This demand is known as the allostatic load. It reflects the sum of all the processes in the body, guided by the stress reactions, that need to be changed to restore homeostasis, or establish an equilibrium in the body which ends the stress.

Stress caused by rapid succession of different stressors

When repetitive stress is caused by different stressors, habituation will not occur. This is because every stressor poses its own demands on the body. The allostatic load will be different when you have to speak in public or when you have to develop a computer algorithm quickly to solve a problem in the production chain of your company.

If different stressors follow each other in quick succession, then the body will get under chronic stress. Symptoms will largely be similar for repetitive stress, and chronic stress caused by a single stressor.

Let’s get back to our example. You may be stressed because you have to develop an algorithm quickly. The next day, you have to present your algorithm in a meeting with all the important people in the company. You are stressed again. At the end of the meeting, you are asked to implement an adapted version of the algorithm in the workflow of the company. You are stressed again. Then some colleagues object to implementing the new algorithm because they do not want to change the way they work. You are stressed again. Thus, even though you might be able to habituate to each of the stressors, the fact that the stressors that follow each other are so different will get you in a state of chronic stress.

Analyze your stressors AND yourself

We hope that you, after having read this article, will understand that it is important to analyze where your feelings of stress come from: you want to avoid developing symptoms of chronic stress. These symptoms may arise because of:

• stress sensitization (strong stress responses to the same stressor)
• repetitive stress (a chain of stress responses to different stressors)
• chronic stress (one stressor that you do not manage to deal with properly)

When you ask yourself why you feel stressed and exhausted, you will want to distinguish between these three conditions.

What also helps is to think of how you experience problems. Do you see them as challenges or stressful events? In other words, would you classify yourself as a Type D personality? Or at least as somebody who has a negative outlook on smaller and bigger problems? If so, do you tend to speak about your negative thoughts with others, or do you keep them to yourself? Are you worried about what others may say if you tell them about your negative thoughts?

We hope that you also see that analyzing the origin of stress alone may not be sufficient. The same is true for an analysis of your personality. It is best to do both! Personality influences whether you will see problems as stressful or not. Vice versa, stressors can influence personality. If you experience stress on a regular basis, you may develop negative thoughts, or start to worry and become anxious. This, in turn, will make you more susceptible to stress in the future, when new problems (stressors) arise.

Most stress reduction programs do not include such integration. They are usually built around the expertise of the person who has designed the program. This would either be psychology, or biology, or a particular stress management technique (yoga, mindfulness, positive thinking).

With Stressinsight, you will get to understand why you have to look at stress from different angles. This is necessary to reduce (chronic) stress and protect your health. For example, if you are socially inhibited or often have negative thoughts, we can help you to see turn this thoughts into something positive, as opportunities to work on to lower your stress! If you want to know how we do this, click here to learn about our community and course!