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What Stress Does to the Brain

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Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#71

Post by zzzeek »

trykondev wrote: post #35

I've been thinking lately about the line between feeling "stimulated" and feeling "stressed" by intellectual work. I certainly crave challenging problems but I feel sometimes like that inherently brushes up against stress -- thinking hard about a problem and hitting frustrating roadblocks along the way is more stressful than laying on the beach, but also to me feels much more meaningful. I worry if the type of person…

My advice would be to use your brain for this stimulating work as much as you like, and manage any stress response separately, that is, get plenty of exercise, sunlight , nutrition, and as a bonus look into some kind of mindfulness routine particularly where you practice being aware of where stressful physical responses can be perceived and mental patterns that can release them, after all anything you practice doing with your mind will affect its physical formation in one way or another. Plenty of brilliant 90 year olds out there who never stopped their minds from working.

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#73

Post by want2know »

coldcode wrote: post #55
want2know wrote: post #40

Some time ago I had a long period of intense stress. It is amazing how much it changes your mind and body. Muscles contract causing all kinds of insuline problems, your hormones become a mess, and all this is raising stress levels more because you don't know what is going on in your body. And then an anxiety disorder is right around the corner. And when everything is ok again your brain produces stress hormones when…

I am in such a period and have been for months. Stupid company demands we ship something no matter what, even though there is insufficient time to do all the work, and they keep adding more on top of it. I work 7 days a week, no vacations, hardly even a weekend day off much less a vacation. I even lost my temper at work and yelled a lot, something I never do. This is no way to do proper work either. At least what lit…

Your stress is the result of responsibilities or the feeling of responsibilities you can't control.

First step is to figure pout what you feel you are responsible for but are not. You can quit that part immediately because that responsibility only exists in your head.

Then there are responsibilities you have, but can't control.

Then there are multiple options. For example:

Stop having that responsibility. For example tell that you can't take it anymore (not always possible).

Ask for help so you can fullfil the responsibility with someone (not always possible).

Take responsibility. Change your life if your way of living is holding you back from taking responsibility (not always possible).

It helped me a lot to think about it because there are a lot of responsibilities in your head that don't exist. A demanding company with an unrealistic and unreasonable planning is not your responsibility. Your well being is.

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#74

Post by NeedMoreTea »

wodenokoto wrote: post #57
coldcode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in such a period and have been for months. Stupid company demands we ship something no matter what, even though there is insufficient time to do all the work, and they keep adding more on top of it. I work 7 days a week, no vacations, hardly even a weekend day off much less a vacation. I even lost my temper at work and yelled a lot, something I never do. This is no way to do proper work either. At least what lit…

Not to add another load on your mind, but the long-term issue here is that - assuming this is a crunch that ends - you will still be heavily affected for a long time during normal, non-stress periods. It takes a long pause from stress for you mind and body to stop over-producing stress hormones. I hope you situation changes for the better soon, and when it does, remember to be mindfull of yourself and accept that eve…

I find my stress reactions are still coloured by a long past sustained period of stress, about twenty years ago. That's despite a life fairly free of it in the intervening period, and no remaining symptoms of that time.

With hindsight I should have walked away long before I started questioning my situation.

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#75

Post by rdco »

grep_name wrote: post #67
want2know wrote: post #40

Some time ago I had a long period of intense stress. It is amazing how much it changes your mind and body. Muscles contract causing all kinds of insuline problems, your hormones become a mess, and all this is raising stress levels more because you don't know what is going on in your body. And then an anxiety disorder is right around the corner. And when everything is ok again your brain produces stress hormones when…

Could you share any resources that helped you get past this? This is basically what my life is like all the time

The meditation app Calm was helpful for me. Meditation has common misconceptions around it, but it's really a tool that helps a person observe their self. That has a calming effect (resets current stress level) and a preventive effect (helps me understand when I'm getting stressed).

There's lots of other meditation apps, so shop around as needed.

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#76

Post by mythrwy »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #74
wodenokoto wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to add another load on your mind, but the long-term issue here is that - assuming this is a crunch that ends - you will still be heavily affected for a long time during normal, non-stress periods. It takes a long pause from stress for you mind and body to stop over-producing stress hormones. I hope you situation changes for the better soon, and when it does, remember to be mindfull of yourself and accept that eve…

I find my stress reactions are still coloured by a long past sustained period of stress, about twenty years ago. That's despite a life fairly free of it in the intervening period, and no remaining symptoms of that time. With hindsight I should have walked away long before I started questioning my situation.

Approaching age 50, there are a lot more "I should have walked away sooners" than "I should have stuck with thats" in the rear view mirror.

But I can't say it's generally good advice to walk away frequently because I'm not sure what the outcome of so much walking away would have been.

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#77

Post by mistermann »

wodenokoto wrote: post #57
coldcode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in such a period and have been for months. Stupid company demands we ship something no matter what, even though there is insufficient time to do all the work, and they keep adding more on top of it. I work 7 days a week, no vacations, hardly even a weekend day off much less a vacation. I even lost my temper at work and yelled a lot, something I never do. This is no way to do proper work either. At least what lit…

Not to add another load on your mind, but the long-term issue here is that - assuming this is a crunch that ends - you will still be heavily affected for a long time during normal, non-stress periods. It takes a long pause from stress for you mind and body to stop over-producing stress hormones. I hope you situation changes for the better soon, and when it does, remember to be mindfull of yourself and accept that eve…

> It takes a long pause from stress for you mind and body to stop over-producing stress hormones.

I can vouch for this, I feel like I have been permanently damaged from a multi-year stressful job.

Speaking of stress hormones, does anyone in this thread know if there's some quantitative way to measure stress hormone levels, even if it's only somewhat accurate?

The best real relief I've managed to find is microdosing psilocybin combined with meditation, this seems to allow me to see right through my negative beliefs & perceptions, but also largely eliminate the ongoing ~unavoidable mental/emotional (eventually manifesting in physical) reactions to them. It feels like it allows me to mostly not give a fuck about things like normal people. Perhaps something the grandparent should look into.

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#78

Post by dkersten »

mettamage wrote: post #46
dkersten wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When crave something I always wonder how it is different vs a cocaine addict craving cocaine. Lately, I've been trying to give myself plenty of boredom time. I still fail at it a lot, but I try to do most things with purpose now: I don't listen to music just because, for example, instead I decide I want to listen to music and then sit down to do just that. I feel I enjoy it a lot more this way! I also don't idly li…

I feel like I'm almost reading my own writing here. I have very similar experiences. > Its an aspect of startups people rarely talk about or warn you about. I agree, and it should be talked about more. The same is true for other high performance jobs (e.g. investment banking or consulting), where high performance means working a lot of hours. I also think Ycombinator could improve on this as I remember Sam Altman say…

Its not just mental health that stress affects, but physical health too. I had stomach problems for a long time that seem to have been caused by stress and went away when I eliminated much of the stress. It was never concretely confirmed that it was stress related, but my doctors didn’t object to the idea either.

I absolutely agree that taking other peoples personal strategies without making sure they will work for you is unhealthy.

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#79

Post by souterrain »

wodenokoto wrote: post #57
coldcode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in such a period and have been for months. Stupid company demands we ship something no matter what, even though there is insufficient time to do all the work, and they keep adding more on top of it. I work 7 days a week, no vacations, hardly even a weekend day off much less a vacation. I even lost my temper at work and yelled a lot, something I never do. This is no way to do proper work either. At least what lit…

Not to add another load on your mind, but the long-term issue here is that - assuming this is a crunch that ends - you will still be heavily affected for a long time during normal, non-stress periods. It takes a long pause from stress for you mind and body to stop over-producing stress hormones. I hope you situation changes for the better soon, and when it does, remember to be mindfull of yourself and accept that eve…

To this point, does anyone have links to studies or even anecdotal “I did this after a stressful period and my results were positive” write ups?

Re: What Stress Does to the Brain

#80

Post by JustSomeNobody »

xwdv wrote: post #62
coldcode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in such a period and have been for months. Stupid company demands we ship something no matter what, even though there is insufficient time to do all the work, and they keep adding more on top of it. I work 7 days a week, no vacations, hardly even a weekend day off much less a vacation. I even lost my temper at work and yelled a lot, something I never do. This is no way to do proper work either. At least what lit…

But why do it man? Would it be worth it if you were found dead at your desk with some unfinished code on your screen? The project would still go on and eventually be finished.

When you're in that stress, adding the stress of finding a new job seems ... overwhelming. Especially how stupid hiring practices are these days. I'm not sure many people would be successful in interviewing with all that stress.
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