The Best Part of Dealing With Stress

This is the continuation in a series on allostatic load.  In part 4, we discussed the stress set point in the emergency danger zone.

If you haven't seen Part 4, go there first.

In Part 5, we will be discussing the best part of dealing with stress.

The best part about the process of dropping the allostatic load is that you get your life back.  You become more acquainted with who you truly are.  As you find healing, you also find peace and joy that you most likely have never experienced to that point.  You find rest for your soul and a purpose more connected with the greater good of humanity.  You end up discovering that there are more ways to keep your mind and body healthy that you never knew existed.

Of course, it is all up to the individual in how far they are willing to go and how much they want to change their life.  I am reminded of the saying that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make the horse drink.  The same holds true for healing allostatic load.  If you don't wish to change your ways and if you continue to ignore the messages of your body, you will be like the horse led to the water that won't drink.  There's not much anyone can do for you, and you will end up jumping from one procedure or medication to another with little to show for it.

The one sad part about healing this way is that I know of very few people who are equipped to do this work, and who have done the necessary work on themselves to be there for others.  There are many that pride themselves having on these skills, but when the going gets beyond difficult it matters if you truly know what you're doing or not.  I'm sorry if that offends anyone, but I can think of no better line than "healer heal thyself".

True healing in someone is not about getting rid of the pain or difficulty.  Instead, it is transforming that pain and difficulty into something that will bring about awareness and a stronger connection into the body.

Focusing only on getting rid of the pain is a form of disconnection that takes you to the edge of the cliff.  It is through feeling the connection deep within that you begin to interact and experience the body in ways you could never imagine.  It is through those connections that you begin to see a life beyond what you think is possible.  That's healing, and that results from dumping the allostatic load.

Make sure you check out the first part in this 5 part series.  

 Part 1 is "Allostatic Load With Dr. Don Bosch"

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Disconnected From Allostatic Load & Stress

This is the continuation in a series on allostatic load.  In part 2, we discussed if you don't deal with stress, it will deal with you.

If you haven't seen Part 2, go there first.

In Part 3, we will be discussing being disconnected from allostatic load and stress.

At first, we find some over the counter meds to take that disconnect us a little more from what is going on.  Our body is trying to get our attention with the pain or physical issue we are experiencing, but we ignore it.  We've got no time for it.  There are work deadlines to meet, travel and meetings to take place, kids to take care of, bills to pay and so on and so forth.  There are a million reasons we come up with, and we say that tomorrow we will take a few hours and stop to rest.  Tomorrow comes and goes, but we keep pushing on so that we can get caught up.  Unfortunately we never catch up.

The body tires to hang on.  It tries hard not to adjust the set point of allostatic load, but it has no choice.  We keep pushing and pushing.  The body continues to degrade and wear down.  Our mind becomes more disconnected to what reality is and our perception becomes our new reality.

We then turn to doctors and their procedures, demanding they find the label for the condition we have.  We demand that the doctor cure us and we ignore and fail to listen to what the doctor is trying to tell us.  Often, doctors and other health practitioners don't have a good handle on how to deal with allostatic load, so in frustration and despair in between seeing many patients, they give us a prescription and a diagnosis.

We get our prescription filled and we exclaim to our friends, this label is what we have.  Our friends show sympathy and gasp at the difficulty we face.  We feel supported, and we temporarily feel like we've found help and we'll get better.  The prescription, of course, reinforces that it is best to disconnect from reality, and it reinforces what our perception is, even if it is misguided.

The body however has still not won.  It has tried to get our attention and tell us that our set point is way out of the range of normal.  It begs us to take a good hard look at our life, but we're too busy for that.  We've got too much to do.  There is just no time for self evaluation and besides, doing something like that is for those new age people, not for serious people.  That's what we tell ourselves and that's what we make ourselves believe, but there is no truth to it.

Our body continues to stay on alert because we've never allowed it to come to any other conclusion.  We've revved up the motor and kept it in neutral.  Our allostatic load continues to increase into further degradation of the mind and body, taking us dangerously close to the point of no return.  We continue to ignore it, knowing that we've got the diagnosis and prescription.  What else do we need, we ask ourselves amusingly.  There is nothing.  We've got this, we exclaim.

We interject some happy memes and positive thoughts.  We say some extra prayers.  We project to the world around us that all is okay and we're managing this.  To be strong is what this life requires us to be, we are taught.  We can't show weakness.  We must show we're strong and in control.  Again, we are feeding ourselves a false perception in life, not the reality that actually exists.

At some point, our body will get our attention.  It may be pain that is so great we can not take it any longer.  It may be some physical ailment that demands emergency care.  It may be anxiety and depression that disorients our life to the point of not being sure which way is up or down.  If we continue to ignore it, our body and our mind will keep throwing up the flares in the hope that we listen.

Picture it like a spring getting wound up more and more, tighter and tighter.  At some point, there is no more winding left.  The only thing remaining is that the spring has to unwind.  It has so much kinetic energy locked in waiting to bombard its way out.

When you get to this point, the only hope is that you'll not be past the point of no return.  Unfortunately with the health issues we are facing today, it is more common for people to push allostatic load to the outer edge of possible limits.

Most doctor visits are related to stress and studies have been done to prove that.  Doctors know it, but patients demand they help feed the disconnect between reality and perception.

There is so much more that interconnects with allostatic load, and while I'm trying to simplify it into something that's easy to understand, I know that it is more complex than this.  Yet, I know it can be as simple as what I describe.  I've been there.  I've pushed my own body past its limits and you can read more about that in my book, Hope and Possibility Through Trauma.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 5 part series.  

 Part 4 is "Stress Setpoint In The Emergency Danger Zone"

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Allostatic Load with Dr Don Bosch

In this video, Dr. Don Bosch talks about Allostatic Load and Allostasis.  He is the Senior Advisor and Director of Risk Environment Psychology at the Headington, Institute.

For more information, visit their website at  www.headington-institute.org

This is part 1 of a 5 part series where we will be discussing Allostatic Load and what I've learned in my own life.  I have gone through work with Dr. Paul Canali called Unified Therapy that has helped me deal with Allostatic Load.

Notes From The Video

• Allostasis is achieving stability in the midst of change.
• Researchers helpful on Allostasis 
• Bruce McEwen - Rockefeller University
• Teresa Seeman - UCLA
•  Allostasis is closely related to Homeostasis
• Homeostasis keeps our body within very narrow limits that allows us to survive.
• Body Temperature Example:  If our body is too hot, we sweat to cool down.  If our body is too cold, blood gets pulled back into our vital organs to keep us functioning.  The set point of our body temperature does not change.  If it varies too much, we are in serious danger.
• Allostasis is similar to homeostasis
• It is our response to some challenge outside or inside ourselves.
• Our response is a way to get us ready to handle the challenge.
• With allostasis we can respond and the set point can change over time.
• When the set point changes, it becomes allostatic load.
• Dangerous for us in the long run.
• Flight or fight response initiated by the amygdala
•  Danger is sensed and the amygdala initiates a major response in the brain and body to prepare for the action.
• Things like blood pressure and heart rate increase to get blood into our muscles to be ready for action.
• Breathing increases to get more oxygen into our cells and body.
• The immune system goes into emergency mode to flood our body with proinflamatory substances which enable us to respond to infection or injury immediately.
• Blood sugar, insulin and cholesterol all go up in the bloodstream to provide us energy to respond
• Enables us to survive the flight or fight and even chronic stress
• Problem is when it does not turn off and we get stuck in this state of allostatic load.
• When we are stuck in allostatic load
• We are not aware of it.
• You may be cold and freezing to death but in allostatic load, you don't necessarily know you are there.
• This is where the risk lies.
•  It is very easy for us to get into allostatic load, no matter what your job is or where you are or what situations you may be experiencing life.
• We need to find a way to turn it off.
• We need to find a way to be aware of it.
• Resiliency is anything that helps us turn allostatic load off
• Things that help us manage allostatic load
• Social Support
• Physical Exercise
• Sense of meaning and purpose
• Allostatic load in the long run is dangerous

Make sure you check out the next part in this 5 part series.  

 Part 2 is "If You Don't Deal With Stress"

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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