1. Stress
What?
Types of stress
It is obvious that the IT world is a stressfull work environment.
But what is
stress
really?
Stress is a state of being under pressure by
physical, mental or emotional factors or "stressors". Physical
stress can be induced by heavy physical activity like work or
sports, by illness or cold. Mental stress occurs in situations
like high levels of concentration or fatigue. Emotional stress is
induced by negative emotions such as worry, fear of failure, or
anger.
Mental and emotional stress often go hand in hand. Also, and this
is an important point which we will return too, all stress has a
physiological effect on us.
In the IT world, the most common stress factors are mental and
emotional, but there are physical stressors as well. Of course,
many work environments can be highly stressful, but the IT world
does seem like the perfect storm when it comes to
stress-inducing factors.
The following list is by no means exhaustive:
physical stress
- working long hours
- prolonged sitting
- bad diet
- overconsumption of caffeine
- lack of sleep
mental stress
- intellectually challenging work
- fast-paced environment
- constant change
emotional stress
- demanding clients
- strict deadlines
- small margin for error
- high responsibility
git blame
Have you ever considered the semantics of the command git blame?
Personally, I have always been struck by how much, well, blame this implies! In a way, it is indicative of a kind of "blame culture" that still exists in many IT companies — often inadvertantly. With software, it is often very easy to blame someone for bugs or mistakes and such blaming is an important cause of emotional stress.
It is interesting to see, however, that some companies are now also advocating a no blame culture.
Stress reflex
It is important to understand that the human reaction to stress is
generic. This means that it is the same for all types
of stress. This is what we call the "stress reflex", which
involves a number of physiological phenomena, such
as:
- high levels of sympathetic nervous system activation
- release of adrenaline
- increased heart rate
- increased respiration rate
- cessation of digestive processes
- pupil dilation
- arteriole dilation
- constriction of veins
In short, all of these are physiological responses that activate
our bodies to undertake "action" — the so-called
"fight-or-flight"
response. That's why it is so difficult to relax when we are
stressed!
Why?
Why we need to handle stress
You'll sometimes hear people say that experiencing stress can be a
good thing, as it keeps you sharp and focused, and may even
stimulate our immune system.
However, research has shown that these benefits are only true for
short-term stress, like deliberate cold exposure
(cold showers) or intense weight-lifting and such. It is not true
for middle- or long-term stress, which is really bad
for you.
A good indication that stress is middle- or long-term is if it
affects your sleep. Such stress is directly related to
cardiovascular disease, cancer, and auto-immune diseases.
How?
What doesn't work
The fact that the stress reflex is a physiological reaction
already tells us a lot about how we should and should not handle
stress.
Cognitive techniques
What doesn't work, when dealing with a physical reaction, is cognitive techniques. Telling someone or yourself to "calm down" when they're feeling stressed or anxious, is not helpful at all. There is even research data that suggests this only exacerbates things. A similar version of this is trying to reason about stress with maxims like "this too shall pass".
Another cognitive technique is sharing our stressors
with friends and family. This might come as a surprise as you'll
often hear people say that it's good to share your problems. And
don't get me wrong: it is smart to look for outside help if you
find yourself in a situation you can't resolve yourself. But even
then you shouldn't burden your friends and family, but seek out
expert help.
What I'm talking about is people trying to cope with stress by
talking about it to their loved ones. This is almost never
constructive. It might feel good for a moment, but usually both
parties end up with a feeling of frustration. One because they
can't help the other person or get agitated themselves; the other
by recounting stressful situations without an adequate emotional
discharge.
Social techniques
Sharing your worries with others is also a social reaction to stress, and there are various other manifestations of this. A common example is people going out to relieve stress. You know the saying: "Work hard, play hard". This can be helpful, for instance, when there is laughing (a proven stress reliever) and dancing involved (we will talk more about movement later on), but there are also dangers involved. Going out with people can, again, induce complaining, and for some people, there is also the danger of alcohol or substance abuse, or meaningless sexual encounters.Anti-social techniques
The opposite reaction of dealing with stress socially also exists. In fact, it seems to be getting more and more prominent. Some people try to deal with stress by withdrawal from the outside world and immersing themselves in watching a movie, playing video games, reading or scrolling through their phones. However, you should know that engaging in a lot of these so-called "dopaminergic" activities will actually cause a drop in your dopamine baseline. Ironically, this then has the opposite effect of what's intended: lack of enjoyment, decreased motivation and, eventually, burnout.
In a way, the anti-social reaction is again a cognitive technique,
as the goal seems to be to deliberately ignore stress and make
yourself "forget" about your worries. However, the body does not
forget so easily. In order to get the body to come along, some
resort to more extreme, antisocial behaviour, in the form of
addiction. Nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and opioids
all have stress-relieving effects, but to what cost? And the same
can be said about other addictions, like online gambling or
pornography.
What does work
When we were discussing the "stress reflex" we already mentioned
that it involves the activation of the so-called
sympathetic nervous system. This is the network of
nerves that helps our body be active and turn on its
"fight-or-flight" response. So this system's activity increases
when we are in danger, physically active, or, indeed, stressed.
The counterpart of the sympathetic system is the
parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for stimulation of "rest-and-digest" or
"feed and breed" activities. This causes:
- constriction of pupils
- decreased heart rate
- decreased blood pressure
- constriction of broncial muscles
- increase in digestion
Movement
One of the easiest ways to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system is movement — especially the kind of movement that physically stimulates the areas of the parasympathetic system. This start at the brain stem, goes over some facial nerves and the mouth, to the heart, lunges, stomach and intestines, all the way down to the pelvis and sacrum.
Tai chi, which is very wide-spread in China, is a very good example of
such movement, as are other variants like
Qi Gong, or
yoga.
However, simple activities like walking or dancing have much of
the same effect. It might sound like a cliché to tell someone to
go for a nice walk when dealing with stress, but have you tried it
yet? More brisk activities like running, swimming or martial arts
also work on the parasympathetic nerves, but these also involve a
stimulus of the sympathetic nervous system.
Another excellent movement technique for stress-relief is
bouncing. This is simply the act of standing up in a straight but relaxed
fashion, closing your eyes (optional), and bouncing your shoulders
up and down in a shrugging movement, while lightly shaking your
body. This has a proven relaxing effect on your body and
stimulates the parasympathetic system. Try it! Even bouncing for a
minute or so can make a real difference for your stress level.
Breathing
One of the key elements of yoga, tai chi or, indeed, walking, is breathing. In fact, every breathing pattern that is exhale-dominant has a proven effect of stress relief. Exhale-dominant means that we are exhaling more and longer than we are inhaling, at least to a degree and for a certain time (otherwise you'd hyperventilate). Its effect on stress is easily understood.
When we exhale, our diafragm goes up, therefore
slightly pushing on the heart. This push constricts the heart,
which means the heart's size is slightly smaller than before, but
it still holds the same amount of blood as before. This makes it
seem to the heart as if there is more blood available than before.
This immediately triggers a signal from the heart to the brain
that it needs less blood, therefore slowing down our heart rate.
Hence, the stress reflex diminishes.
There is a special technique to trigger this effect, popularized
by Andrew Huberman, which is called the
physiological sigh and which has been studied
specifically for its beneficial effects on stress. It is something
that we do instinctively in sleep or when crying, but you can also
do it on purpose. It involves two sharp, short inhales through the
nose, followed by a long exhale through the mouth. This also rids
our bodies of any excess CO², which also has a calming effect.
The physiological sigh is an excellent, quick technique for stress
release, which you can use in all sorts of settings, including
situations like meetings, in the office or during your commute
where other options of movement are limited.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness and other forms of meditation have been steadily gaining in popularity when it comes to handling stress. They have a proven effect on stress-relief, even if recent research concedes that earlier studies were overly optimistic about its effect.
Mindfulness is a form of "quiet" meditation, as
opposed to "dynamic" meditation which we will talk about in the
next chapter. It involves self-observation, for instance, by
watching one's breath, or turning your attention inwards.
A good example of a mindfulness technique that has a noticeably
positive impact on stress is what is known as
body scan meditation, whereby you direct your attention to various areas of the body
and note the bodily sensations that happen in the present moment.
Classic meditation practices (meditation as focussing one's
attention) can also help with stress reduction, provided you
choose the right kind of meditation for the person you are or the
mood you're in. If you are
interoceptively
biased (i.e. aware of what is happening inside of you), you will
find focussing on something in the outside world (e.g. a flower or
the palm of your hand) more relaxing than focussing on your
(already overactive) thoughts and inner world. If, on the other
hand, you are more
exteroceptively
biased (i.e. aware of the outside world-, a more traditional
meditative practice, like a third-eye meditation (focussing on the
spot just behind your forehead), will help you shut out external
stimuli and calm down.
Relax first, engage later
To summarize, we can state that succesful stress management is a question of prioritizing body over mind, which, for most people, is a complete reversal of what they are used to doing. However, if you take care to first relax your body , you can then safely engage in some of the cognitive, social and other activities we mentioned earlier.
For instance, if you first deal with your stress physiologically,
chances are you'll have a much more constructive and enjoyable
conversation about your day with friends or family. Or, if you
succeed in relaxing physically, you'll enjoy a movie or a video
game much more. You'll be able to have a drink without perhaps
lapsing into overindulgence.
Even then you should be aware that things like conversations,
social gatherings, or watching a movie can also be
triggers that can very quickly bring back a previous
stress response. If that is the case, be aware of what is
happening and use one of the techniques we discussed to return to
a state of calm before going to bed, for instance.
Exercise
Stress journal
This chapter's assignment is designed to help you become aware of
stress and build better stress-relief habits.
For awareness, I want you to keep some sort of
stress journal for a week. Don't worry, this won't
take too much of your time. Even a simple "X" for every time you
feel stressed during the day can tell you a lot about how much
stress you experience. Ideally, you should make entries like this:
- 08:34: kids take too long getting ready for school
- 09:01: realize I put out the wrong trash can yesterday
- 09:11: ticket with a bug for a new module I deployed last release
- 09:45: discuss bug at today's standup
- ...
Techniques
Keep the journal for a whole week, but on Wednesday start pairing
every (or every other) journal entry with a
stress-relief exercise. The physiological sigh is a
good, quick technique, but so is getting up from your desk and
stretching, stepping outside for just a few moments or playing
some air guitar to your favorite song! When you've finished the
technique, ask yourself "Where was my stress level before and
after this exercise?". Add a note to the entry in the stress
journal like this:
- 07:04: annoyed that the shower head is broken; physiological sigh; 6 → 4
- 08:45: IDE update causes OS to reboot; stretching exercises for lower back; 5 → 2
- ...
Activities
From Wednesday onwards I would also like you to fill your spare
time and/or evenings with relaxing activities that
have a positive effect on your stress levels. Bear in mind the
things we have discussed about what does and what does not work.
If you still lack inspiration, here's a list of things you may
find enjoyable and help you relax:
- swimming
- taking a hot bath
- visiting a spa or sauna
- getting a massage
- getting a haircut or nail job
- going for a long evening walk
- taking dance lessons
- playing a musical instrument
- jumping on a trampoline
- gardening
- going to a comedy show
- playing with a pet
- cuddling with your partner and/or kids
Inspiration
If you are looking for some additional inspiration or information
about stress management, you can check out the following excellent
resources:
Tools for managing stress and anxiety
Greater Good in Action. Science-based Practices for a
Meaningful Life. Resilience to Stress
