How to Overcome Stress & Regain Control

We are all constantly on the run; some of us are in the rush of completing a task assigned at work, while students are preoccupied with finishing assignments and balancing social life. Everyone is always trying to meet a deadline.

Many people—even saying everyone wouldn't be wrong—complain about the arrival of deadlines; students think the school is overloading them with too many tasks. In the business world, some of us believe that the task given by the boss doesn't align with the time provided, wondering how such work can be done in so little time. Naturally, all these complaints and uncertainties lead to the factor we call stress.

What Is Stress and Why Does It Occur?

Stress is your body's natural response to challenges or demands from your environment. When you face a difficult situation—like an exam, a big decision, or even danger—your brain sends signals to release chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol.

These chemicals help prepare your body to deal with the situation by making your heart beat faster, your muscles tense up, and your mind more alert.

Stress is an evolutionary gift handed down to us—a tool, a weapon we can use in difficult moments. However, by our nature, we are built to experience stress only in the short term; this is how it has been throughout the evolutionary process.

What do I mean? For instance, in ancient times, our ancestors would release these chemicals when they went hunting and faced a situation where they might become prey or encounter a predator.

Thanks to these stress hormones, they were better equipped to handle such situations: their reflexes became faster, they were more alert, stronger, and quicker. In short, the stress that triggered adrenaline back then increased our ancestors' chances of survival, which has been passed down through generations to us.

Types of Stress

There are 4 types of stress: Acute Stress, Episodic Acute Stress, Chronic Stress, Eustress. Let's start by explaining these first.

Acute Stress

Acute stress is a short-term response to an immediate threat or challenge. For example, you might feel it while preparing for an exam or narrowly avoiding a car accident. Its effects include a temporary spike in heart rate, heightened alertness, and a surge of energy to handle the situation. The type of stress we discussed in the previous example is acute stress, which is the kind our body has evolved to handle and endure.

Episodic Acute Stress

Episodic acute stress occurs when you experience frequent bursts of short-term stress due to a high-pressure lifestyle. A common example is constantly rushing to meet deadlines or managing multiple crises at once. Over time, this can lead to persistent tension, irritability, and physical health issues.

Chronic Stress

Chronic stress is a long-term stress resulting from ongoing pressures, like financial problems or a toxic work environment. Unlike acute stress, it doesn’t go away quickly and can lead to serious health risks such as heart disease, anxiety, and depression. People under chronic stress often feel trapped in their situation, unable to find relief.

Eustress

Eustress is a positive form of stress that motivates and enhances performance. For instance, preparing for a competition or starting a new job can trigger eustress. Its effects include boosted focus, energy, and resilience, helping individuals achieve their goals.

Today’s Agenda: Chronic & Episodic Acute Stress

The concepts of episodic acute stress and chronic stress are models that emerged—or truly gained significance—after the discovery of agriculture, the beginning of trade, labor, and craftsmanship, and have managed to establish a place in our lives.

In the rest of this article, we will examine these models because the other two models have always benefited us throughout the evolutionary process and possess positive aspects. So, there's no need to find solutions for them; on the contrary, we should be grateful for them.

How to Fix Chronic & Episodic Acute Stress

Surely, this article won’t continue with the promise that you’ll find a solution through some medical treatment. Instead, the mental models we’ll discuss will provide you with new perspectives, insights, and actionable steps. By integrating these into your life, you can either overcome or significantly reduce the impact of the two stress models mentioned. These two models will be addressed together because their underlying causes and the effects they produce on the body are quite similar.

Step 1: Recognize your stress and acknowledge the situation.

The first step we need to take will focus on stress awareness. Naturally, we must first recognize the presence of stress in our lives, but simply recognizing is not enough—we must not resist it.

Resisting the occurrence of an event or a problem can lead to cognitive dissonance, which in turn causes our mind to be in constant conflict with itself and reality. This state allows negative emotions and thoughts to take control of us.

Step 2: Identify the root causes of stress and conduct a deep dive analysis to address them.

Simply saying "deep dive analysis" is too abstract, so let's take the second step together. Open a text editor on your computer or grab a pen and paper.

Write down the problems currently present in your life. These could be a deadline you're trying to meet, an exam you need to prepare for, or a strained relationship you want to fix. List all your problems. You’ll likely write down 85-90% of them within the first two minutes. Give yourself few more minutes and try to identify any remaining issues. Keep going until you can confidently say, “That’s it, I’ve listed everything.”

Now, you should have your problems in front of you. For some of them, you probably already know how to tackle them. Even if you haven’t written down the exact steps, you likely have certain ideas about solutions. You might even have solved similar problems in the past, which is a positive sign.

Here’s the core reason stress arises: “Regardless of the issue, stress doesn’t come from the problem itself but from the ambiguity of the actions we need to take to resolve it.” Remember this and let it resonate in your mind. Stress doesn’t stem from the existence of problems but from our uncertainty about how to handle them.

If we knew the exact steps to take for each problem, along with their timelines and the order in which to execute them, we wouldn’t feel stressed at all.

Step 3: Write down at least 1 and at most 3 solutions for each of your problems.

While completing this step, don’t fully define your solutions. Instead, summarize them in one or two sentences, like creating a headline, since we’ll dive into the details later. Once this step is complete, I want you to choose the most logical solution—now that we’ve identified our options, we need to select one for each problem.

For example, let’s say your problem is an upcoming exam, and you’ve come up with two solutions. The first is to skip reviewing the topics, focus on quiz questions, and then solve past exam questions before taking the test. The second option is to review your notes, briefly look at the quizzes, and solve as many past exam questions as possible.

Now, test which of these options feels right to you. Evaluate how much time each would take. Likely, the option involving reviewing your notes will take longer, but it might yield a higher success rate compared to the first option. Analyze the trade-offs and choose the most feasible option that suits you. Circle it.

Repeat this process for all your problems.

Step 4: Define small actionable steps for each pathway/solution you have chosen.

To give an example from the software field, consider your next sprint. Let's assume you need to add a feature to existing software and present this addition. This is written down as one of your problems, and the solution option you've chosen is to first learn a new framework and then start implementing the project.

When defining your solutions, we summarized them in one or two sentences or keywords. Now, we need to delve into the details of these solutions. Write down everything in detail—from how you will learn the new framework to how and where you will implement the project.

For example, you might start learning the framework on day X. You could probably finish this within a week by working 2 hours daily. In the second week, you can begin the implementation by dedicating 3 hours each day, and you might be able to complete the project by the end of the second week.

Of course, writing down these steps isn't easy because you need to determine how long each step will take, where to find the information you need, what obstacles might arise, and how to solve those obstacles. We covered the details of how to do this when we discussed the "Learning How to Learn" concept; you can refer to that if you wish.

In conclusion, you need to break down your solution into small, actionable steps. To do this, you must decide what the steps are, which means you need to learn what these steps entail. Then, decide on the timeline for executing these small steps. During execution, note any obstacles that might arise and how you can solve them.

I can say that step 4 is the most challenging of all the steps. Afterward, add these actionables to your to-do list or calendar so you can easily access them from anywhere, such as your mobile phone.

Here, you first set weekly objectives and then break them down into daily objectives to decide what you'll do each day. This way, your next step will always be clear, and instead of focusing your energy on the big picture, you can concentrate on taking the next step. This will significantly reduce your mental load.

Why Does Our Stress Disappear After These Steps?

Remember, I mentioned earlier that the main reason stress arises is uncertainty. When we don't have clear steps in front of us on how to solve a problem, the brain conjures up the worst-case scenario to resolve the unknown; this is a defense mechanism. The brain continuously replays that particular worst case scenario because it wants to survive even in the worst situations.

However, in reality, there's nothing life-threatening, and it's highly unlikely that the worst-case scenario will occur, but it's nearly impossible to control this consciously. That's why the most meaningful thing to do is eliminate uncertainties—by which I mean determining the steps to take and how to solve the problem.

In psychology, this concept is known as the "need for certainty." When the brain encounters any state of indecision, alarms start ringing, and the person begins to feel stressed. But if you can convince your brain about how you will approach the problem, the alarms shut off, and you manage to cope with stress.

Additional Recommendations

By simply knowing this information and perspective, and being aware of the concept of "need for certainty" in psychology, you should have become capable of solving many problems. You should have written down all the issues in your life and determined the steps you will take to address them.

However, what you've done won't be sufficient because we don't live in a perfect world. No matter how much you've listed your problems and their solutions, life is constantly filled with unknowns.

Even when breaking down the solution, unforeseen obstacles will arise, in addition to those you can anticipate. To be prepared for them, you need to accept their existence. As I mentioned earlier, we discussed how to cope with an unknown obstacle in our "Learning How to Learn" blog.

Now, I want to talk about how you should proceed to maximize your chances of success in these steps:

1. Avoid distractions as much as possible until you solve your problems.

   Put your phone in another room or turn it off entirely while working. Don’t worry; no urgent or unavoidable situation will arise during your work session. This is just a trick your brain plays on you.

   Avoid environments where people are talking and choose a workspace where you can work alone. Alternatively, opt for quiet places like libraries or silent areas in your workplace if available.

2. Set a timer during your work session.

   Using a timer is a practice that frees people from the burden of tracking time. By relying on another device/app to monitor your session, you can focus more comfortably, knowing that something will alert you when necessary.

3. Have coffee and water nearby.

   Although coffee is commonly found on our desks, no one is prepared for a “caffeine crash”. Since caffeine is a diuretic, it also puts your body's water balance at risk. That’s why drinking water alongside your coffee is crucial for maintaining energy throughout your session.

No Day Without Problem-Solving

Finally, please understand that your problems will never completely disappear—there will never be a day when you won’t have any problems to solve. Every day, you’ll face a challenge to overcome. It could be as simple as preparing a meal, meeting a deadline, or doing shopping for your kids. Whatever it may be, problem-solving will be a part of your daily life, which is why we need to continuously improve our problem-solving mechanisms.

I hope these perspectives, insights, and actionable steps will help you tackle both your current and future challenges, allowing you to live a happier, more stress-free life.

We’re excited to see you grow, learn, and work towards your dreams! Thank you for being part of our community. We look forward to having you in our family as we shape the future together, one sip at a time. Take care, and let’s keep moving forward!