The Stress Protection Plan. Leon Chaitow
than one task at a time; he fidgets and is ambitious. The ‘Type B’ person, much less prone to heart disease, is in direct contrast. This type moves, talks and eats slowly, is able to relax, is unambitious and avoids pressure and deadlines. None of this is too surprising, but what is exciting is that, when motivated (often by an early coronary) the Type A can turn into a Type B by altering their behaviour and copying Type B behaviour until it becomes habitual. There is a consequent drop in the likelihood of coronary disease following such a modification. Type A will have then adopted more desirable and appropriate responses to the needs of life, and will have enhanced his chances of long-term survival.
Living in the present lessens the tendency to dwell on past events or to worry about anticipated future events, and a further aspect of this is that the nearer our concept of reality is to actual life the less stress will be created. Reality may not always be the same for all people, but in many daily situations the stress felt by people is the direct result of their ‘fantasy’ of how things should be, being at odds with reality. My ‘fantasy’, for example, is that when people make appointments they ought to keep them, and what is more, they ought to be on time. In reality, however, this is often not the case. The annoyance and stress which is generated every time an appointment is missed or someone is late, could be avoided if I could bring my fantasy closer to real life, i.e. anticipate that people will, by the nature of things, be late for or will actually forget to keep their appointments from time to time.
‘If Only …’
In terms of attitudes to life and events, such thoughts or utterances as ‘if only …’ or ‘it should have been like …’, or ‘wouldn’t it have been nice if …’ indicate a failure to accept reality, or an unwillingness to accept what has actually happened. This type of ‘fantasy’ may appear harmless, but it is as potentially stressful as dwelling in the past or future. It is, in fact, another facet of that same tendency. ‘Be there now’ is the best piece of advice for such a person to bear in mind. Life is in the ‘here and now’. In the past, the future and the ‘if only’ lie shadows, demons and stress.
Nowhere is this more evident than in personal relationships, whether this be at work or in the home environment. Much stress results from an inability to express feelings clearly, without becoming upset. If feelings are expressed inadequately, then hostility and anger will often develop. Once again, many such stresses relate to differences of opinion as to what is, and what is not reality. Interpersonal relationships require that we express our feelings clearly and in a non-hostile manner, and that we are then prepared to listen to a similar expression of the other person’s views, without feeling ‘got at’ or under attack.
This is the ideal, of course, and it may be difficult to achieve because of long-held attitudes and firmly-rooted personality traits, but it is, undoubtedly, the way to ensure non-stressful relationships. Seeing reality in the present, the ability to deliver unbiased, non-hostile expressions of opinion, and the ability to listen are, then, qualities to be cultivated.
In personal relationships much tension is generated as a result of unfulfilled expectations. If one party anticipates a gesture or form of recognition (such as a birthday card or telephone call) which does not materialize, a tense and resentful attitude may ensue. Again, an ability to communicate can defuse such a situation. Errors or sins of omission are just as potentially stressful as sins of commission; i.e. non-events as opposed to actual events. If bottled up and nursed, such feelings can produce stress out of all proportion to the importance of the actual incident.
Self-Esteem and Cynicism
Into the huge equation of stress factors and their interaction with the mind/body complex which makes up each of us, we need to add ‘self-image’. How do you see yourself in relation to others, society at large, your friends and family? How accurately (and how harshly) do you judge your own strengths and weaknesses? Above all, what is the degree of your self-esteem, and how important is that anyway?
An important leading article appeared in the Lancet (22 October 1988, pages 943–4) which addressed the question of self-esteem. This explained the complex way in which we come to a value judgement, in which we weigh ourselves, deriving our standards partly by comparing ourselves with others. Do we, however, compare ourselves with those who are better off or those who are worse off than ourselves?
Modern American adolescents compare themselves with their fellows, judging by such yardsticks as popularity, degree of influence over others, school and other results and their self-awareness of such concepts as honour and virtue. Out of those assessments comes a self-esteem judgement which can profoundly influence the person’s stress-coping abilities.
In adult life we use similar yardsticks, but we add to it factors such as how good we feel we have been at being parents, husbands or wives, as well as experiences of success and failure in many of life’s tasks and the world in general. One common tactic in maintaining self-esteem is the awarding to ourselves of the credit for all that goes well, and to others (or circumstances) the blame for all that goes wrong.
Additional reinforcement for feelings of self-esteem (and the opposite) derives from other people’s opinions of us, as we perceive them. To that we have to add the degree of respect, attention, approval, praise, affection and love (or the opposite of any of these) we receive. Our self-esteem, therefore, has a lot to do with how we see our value reflected in the eyes of those around us and of society, and this starts in childhood.
Freud summed it up by saying: ‘A man who has been the indisputable favourite of his mother keeps for life the feeling of a conqueror.’ Imagine also the opposite, the sense of rejection and failure which children derive and carry with them into adult life from a parental attitude of indifference, or worse. Of course, life is seldom as simple as any of these models suggest. Some children are much loved by their parents, but rejected by their peers (or the other way around); some people regard themselves as superior, having a high self-esteem, despite little evidence that anyone else agrees with them.
Is Self-Esteem Important Anyway?
It is known that poor self-esteem is linked to illness such as depression, anxiety states and a host of psychosomatic disorders. It has also been linked to delinquency, child abuse and prejudice. It is even suggested, with strong research evidence, that our measuring of self-esteem has echoes in biological evolution. Many animals have displayed what is called ‘resource holding potential’ (RHP). This relates to the animal’s sense of degree of ability to fight and defend itself when it compares itself with other animals. When a low RHP is assessed by an animal it actually alters its internal physiological state, characterized by excretion of higher levels of certain hormones, changes in skin colour and behaviour patterns which indicate submission rather than a desire to assert itself. This sort of behaviour is clear to anyone who has kept groups of animals in which some dominate and others seem willing to adopt submissive roles (the pecking order in a chicken run is a good example.)
In a human setting this means that hardiness, self-esteem, the ability to deal with life’s vicissitudes, could be linked to the primeval pattern noted in our animal example, and that we unconsciously take on the role of the weak and vulnerable based largely on our self-image, our degree or lack of self-esteem, and that this has profound implications in health terms. Unlike chickens, we are not legally permitted to assert ourselves by pecking and fighting, and we should look for other ways of raising self-esteem. This has to be one of the major challenges of stress-proofing. And, what is the ideal? To be healthy, it is suggested, you should be neither unmoved by success nor indifferent to it. You should also be using every means possible to increase awareness in yourself of these self-imposed limitations, so that you can blossom into the full potential which life offers, even with all its challenges and hardships.
But can self-esteem itself lead to excesses?
Cynicism
A danger inherent in excessively high self-esteem is seen in behaviour involving cynical mistrust. This is characterized by a collection of attitudes which involves suspicion and the denigration of the motives and behaviour of others, and this has been shown to be a risk factor in the development of coronary heart disease (A. Fontana