Perceptions Create Realities
By Charles Atkinson, MA, MSW, LCSW
Friday, November 27th, 2009 | Originally published in the MeadowLark Fall/Winter 2009 Newsletter
Throughout the centuries, people have searched for healthier ways to manage stress. Let's explore the historical perspective of one universal stress-management technique; it requires critical evaluation and assessment of thinking or cognitive appraisals. This intervention is as ancient as the beginning of mankind and is still being employed today as a means to help alleviate stress and dis-ease.
According to Aristotle, the definition for stress is "wear and tear on the body." Hans Seyle, the father of stress management, coined the terms "eustress" and "distress." Eustress means positive stress, and distress is negative stress. Any thought or behavior that generates stress is labeled a "stressor." The stressor, whether assessed as positive or negative, will determine your feelings. This claim of cognitive appraisal originated during the first century from a stoic philosopher named Epictitus. He said, "Man is not disturbed by things, but by his view of them." Twenty centuries later, we are still trying to integrate his
basic concept.
A positive cognitive appraisal of most stressors is essential to developing a healthy outlook on life. As an example, marriage can conjure up thoughts of happiness or despair, depending on your frame of mind. Consequently, your perception will create your reality. If your perception is generally negative, it will impede personal growth and result in long-term distress reactions, including emotional, physical, and psychological problems.
Stress, anxiety, and fear have been programmed into our genetic make-up as a survival mechanism. If we did not feel stress, anxiety, and fear, we would not activate our sympathetic nervous system to respond to danger. Our species would fail to thrive and eventually would perish. Unfortunately, sometimes our sympathetic nervous system is constantly operating, wreaking havoc with our body's internal homeostasis. It is similar to revving a car engine to the highest rpm and keeping it in park. Maybe people who constantly assess the external environment as hostile and threatening are more prone to be hypervigilant and susceptible to stress-related disorders.
The cognitions of primitive people helped them cope with stress on their own terms. When a tribesperson was ill-at-ease, he visited the witch doctor of the tribe, who administered magical potions and poultices and occasionally practiced trephining, which is the act of cutting a hole in a person's head to let the evil spirits escape. At a recent visit to the Smithsonian Institution, I saw a display of primitive human skulls with various holes in them. The holes are somewhat round and, surprisingly, some skulls have more than one. Research explains that, if a tribesperson complained of pain in his head, the witch doctor probably
prescribed his best incantations.
If this did not alleviate the pain, the witch doctor would take the next step and perform the trephining procedure. First he would sedate the individual with local plants and herbs, and then proceed with his primitive tools to make incisions, hoping this would abate the stress and allow the evil spirit to escape. I think this was probably the origin of the adage, "The cure is worse than the disease." An amazing point is that some holes in the skulls had started to mend, which is evidence that some unfortunate individuals survived the procedure of trephining.
During the Middle Ages, flogging was perceived as an acceptable practice to cast out evil spirits, as was throwing a person into freezing cold water to shock his internal systems back into balance. In later centuries, doctors employed the more invasive technique of frontal lobotomies, which were performed to calm and subdue the individual's torments. Another modality was electric shock therapy, which is still used today as a strategy to break the cycle of extreme dis-ease.
Although we now use more civilized methods to treat our physical and psychological disorders, our society continues to be plagued by the same stress and dis-ease that has existed for centuries. However, our contemporary doctors are still medicating our symptoms, anesthetizing our problems, and correcting our dysfunctional behaviors.
It has been calculated that the average person has approximately 50,000 thoughts per day, most of which are almost identical to those of the previous day. To have a true sense of your attitude regarding yourself and the world, it is important to evaluate your thoughts on a percentage basis. Do you have more positive or negative thoughts per day? Imagine, of the 50,000 thoughts you have per day, what would happen if a majority of those thoughts were negative.
Maybe the answer lies not only in our cognitive appraisals, but what we are appraising. The word "hermeneutics" means the science of interpretation or explanation of the Bible. Perhaps if we allow ourselves to cognitively be more spiritual and connect with our higher power, it would ease the pain, and we would develop a healthier acceptance of ourselves and the world. Now imagine, of the 50,000 thoughts you have per day, what would happen if those thoughts were centered on joy, forgiveness, and compassion for yourself and others.
On a closing note, do you know what stressed spelled backwards means? ∞
About the Author
Charles Atkinson, MA, MSW, LCSW, is a retired professor, counselor, and coach from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona, where he is a psychotherapist with a private practice for individuals and couples. He specializes in the treatment of anxiety and stress disorders.
