Fiddlers on the Roof: Balancing & Managing Stress in our Lives

Stephen Lassen, PhD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics,

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

University of Kansas Medical Center

“You might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy.”

Objectives

• Understand the role of perception in managing stress

• Recognize the benefits of stress

• Review ways of building resilience

What is stress?

• “A condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.”

Assessment of coping

• Instrumental• Use of problem-solving strategies• How to manage a stressful situation

• Emotion-focused• Focus on nurturing one’s emotional health during stressful times

• Active• Seeking out information• Attempts to reduce stress

• Avoidant• Ignoring the stress• Denying the impact of a stressful situation

Negative effects of stress• Chronic stress more

impairing

• Effects are heightened by other risk factors (low social support, pre-existing health conditions, etc.)

• Stress tends to target the weakest part of our physiology

“Difficulties lie in our habits of thought, rather than in the nature of things.”

-Andre Tardieu

The Beuchet Chair Illusion

…Seen from another perspective

“A condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.”

Thoughts – Feelings – Behavior

Thoughts

Feelings Behavior

Example: Learning a new skill

“I’ll never learn to do this”

Frustrated Give up

Example: Learning a new skill

“This is harder than I thought. I’ll get it with time”

Calm; confident Keep trying

Your mind as a stage

Optimists vs. Pessimists

Optimists

• Less accurate

• More successful

Pessimists

• More accurate

• Less successful

A parent yells at you and does not want you to take care of their baby any longer

Pessimist

• “What a jerk! I never wanted to take care of that baby, anyway.”

• “I’m such a failure. I can’t even do my job.”

• “I hope no one finds out about this. They’ll think I couldn’t handle it.”

Optimist

• “It’s sad they are so angry. They must really be struggling.”

• “Too bad they will miss out working with me. I have a lot to offer them.”

You have an argument with a friend and have not heard from him/her in 2 weeks

Pessimist

• “Well, there goes that friendship…”

• “They must think I’m a horrible person.”

• “This is all their fault.”

Optimist

• “This time has sure helped me process what happened.”

• “I could have handled that better. I will call and apologize.”

• “They probably don’t know what to say to me after what happened.”

Benefits of stress

• Motivates action

• Builds resilience

• Boosts cognitive function

Using stress in our lives

• Opportunity to grow

• Way to optimize performance

• Normal part of life

What resilient people do

• See challenges as positive growth opportunities

• Take care of themselves

• Connect with others

• Have a high level of self-awareness

Self-care pathways

• Sensory

• Pleasure

• Mental/cognitive

• Emotional

• Physical

• Social

So…

• Don’t worry about the presence of stress in your life

• Appreciate other perspectives and the benefits of stress

• Talk with those who seem to manage stress well – learn from them

• Develop your own list of things that add value to your life

• Take care of yourself

Selected references

• Kirby, ED et al. (2013). Acute stress enhances adult rat hippocampal neurogenesis and activation of newborn neurons via secreted astrocytic FGF2. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00362

• Sapolsky, RM (2015). Stress and the brain: individual variability and the inverted-U. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 1344-1346.