We are many who have gotten “it’s just stress” as a reply to any of our conditions and symptoms. I believe, that it’s rather that stress aggrevates our symptoms and conditions, especially if we aren’t getting our needs met. All stress implies an underlying real threat to our survival. Read that again. Not just perceived, but real and actual.

What I have come to realize, is that our stress reactions are the exact same as our reactions when we become threatened, for example by a wild animal. This evoked fight or flight-response isn’t taken seriously in today’s society. We sweep it under the rug, and pretend that in our sophisticated lifestyles, no threats exist. This is of course wrong. There is always a valid, factual, threat when we respond with fight or flight, when we become stressed. The threat can be for example not being able to buy food or pay rent. Or be on the way away from a threat, or being afraid of not getting to a meeting on time, that could result in not being able to buy food and pay rent. If you’re late for work, would you then not possibly loose your income? Is this not a threat to your survival? These things are not just to be discussed, evaluated, judged and investigated for months on end, and perhaps even meanwhile assuming that the fight or flight response would be a mental health issue. As if the threat wouldn’t be real. It’s to be dealt with, by ensuring that we get our needs met. That we get the undisturbed sleep we need, that we feel safe, that we have clean clothes, and eat food that is healthy for us. Not what you believe it should be, perhaps to feel better than, but what the individual actually needs.

By understanding, and above all, respecting, that the perceived threat is real, it becomes easy to lessen it, and hopefully to remove its cause. For example, like I’ve experienced myself, if I get upset and angry for not receiving social security when I literally have little to no income, it’s a matter of defence. We all need to eat and pay our rent. The cause of my anger doesn’t disappear with a mental illness diagnosis or a pill. I still have to eat and pay rent. This development in western society, is by far worse than any wokeism.

To deal with the stress, is where our strength and wellness practices like mindfulness, being out in nature, etc are helpful. The problem though is, if I for example don’t become angry and just sit calmly and dress nice, my need is not perceived as imminent. What if, we all, especially authorities, instead would assume that any angry person, really just is defending him/herself against an actual threat to his or her survival?