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Where Does Stress Come From
and Why Does It Even Exist?
Part I
by Robert Turner
Why does stress exist? What purpose does it serve? Where does it come from?
Have you ever wondered why stress exists? Not only does it offer no obvious benefit to us, but it’s damaging to our health, wellbeing and enjoyment of life. Why does it even exist?
To understand where stress comes from, why it exists, why we experience it and why it is so widespread, we need to go back in time to the lives of our ancient hunter gatherer ancestors, hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Our Ancient Fear Mechanism
To understand stress, first we need to understand fear.
Fear is part of our human survival instinct. Previously, it enabled us to live and thrive as a species. It’s our ancient, innate response to physical danger that helped our ancestors avoid being physically hurt or killed. Until relatively recently humans were wandering (nomadic) hunter gatherers facing threats from dangerous wild animals. This has been the case for most of human history.
This kind of Ancient or Primal Fear is a “Rational Fear” because it can save us from actual physical danger.
Imagine our hunter gatherer ancestors facing a pride of hungry lions. In that situation, they would have experienced extreme Momentary Fear. Their physical fear response to that threat would have lasted for minutes or, at the most, for hours, but not for a month, a year or 5 years. Modern fears are seldom if ever physical but can be ongoing, lasting months or years. Back then as now, our physical response to fear includes a rush of adrenaline and an increased heart rate to equip us for fight or flight. This same fear response is triggered when you are highly stressed, but is very destructive when fear and stress persist. Ongoing fear, fear that is not resolved, creates stress.
Stress and Fear
At its very core, stress results from fear.
We all experience fear.
Ongoing fear becomes stress.
Ultimately, all fear stems from the fear of loss – the loss of anything that you value.
Fear that persists leads to stress. Powerful and persistent fears lead to high levels of stress which creates an ongoing fight or flight response that’s damaging to your health and wellbeing.
Momentary and Ongoing Fear, Rational and Irrational Fear
Fear can be:
- Useful or destructive
- Momentary or ongoing
- Rational or irrational.
When confronted by a sabre-tooth tiger, the fear that our ancestors would have experienced was useful, momentary, rational fear.
Fear initiates a physical response in our bodies to instantly ready us for fight or flight.
This was very useful to our ancestors, but it’s not a useful response today when you are annoyed with or angry at someone or when the thing that angers you is ongoing, not resolved. This modern version is momentary irrational fear.
Ongoing Fear In Your Life
Momentary fear is one thing, but ongoing fear – fear that doesn’t quickly dissipate – is another thing altogether. Ongoing fear leads to stress. The greater the fear, the more severe the stress.
The real problem arises when you experience ongoing fear because this leads to stress and high levels of stress can leave you in a heightened fight or flight state for long periods of time, and that is damaging to your health and wellbeing.
In modern times we seldom if ever experience ancient fear as we no longer face physical dangers in our daily lives. Very occasionally you might get a fright or have a near miss when driving and you experience a brief rush of adrenaline and a pounding heart. It’s powerful!
Our ancient fear mechanism is as active as ever, it’s hard-wired into us, but with no wild animals attacking us, we apply it to modern life circumstances such as things that make us angry or that we don’t like and don’t want in our lives. It is therefore our beliefs and thoughts about things that cause us stress. These things are fears of the loss of something you value.
Irrational Modern Fear
We commonly feel irrational modern fear around things that matter a lot to us or that we fear losing, including money, health, relationships, love, career / work etc. Fear that causes stress is ongoing and almost always irrational because it’s about things that cannot harm us physically, but our body response is the same as if there was physical danger. Being in that heightened response state for an extended period of time (very stressed) is damaging to our health and wellbeing.
The things that stress you did not exist in the times of our hunter gatherer ancestors. They didn’t worry about mortgages, car payments, college fees, traffic, a job or career, education, social media, Tinder profiles, politics, cancer, weight gain, food choices, veganism, animal rights, the plight of the poor, dieting, fitness, retirement funds, fashion, hairstyles, the way the world is going, wars in foreign countries, the price of gas and electricity, the cost of living, the financial markets, climate change, etc.
They might have got stressed when it was suggested that instead of being nomadic and following the food, they stay in one place forever, grow a crop and rely on that, because everyone back then “knew” that hunting and gathering was the only way.
Modern Fear And Stress
Ongoing Irrational Modern Fear creates stress, and stress could be described as an ongoing or permanent sense of fear. Fear and the fear response that don’t go away after a short time, that linger, can create years or even a lifetime of stress.
Our fear response mechanism wasn’t built for modern fears and when it is constantly triggered, it becomes damaging rather than beneficial. In the absence of actual physical danger and with an abundance of unhelpful fears and limiting beliefs, we apply the fear response to things that mostly exist only as thoughts and worries (and worries are just thoughts anyway). The things that trigger most Modern Fear cannot physically harm or kill us although the resulting, long-term stress could.
Our Fight or Flight Response
The ancient fight or flight response is triggered when you experience fear and stress. Your body responds as if a wild animal is about to attack you:
- Release of adrenaline (epinephrine)
- Increased heart rate
- Rapid breathing
- Dilation of pupils
- Muscle tension
- Sweating
- Heightened alertness
- Narrowed focus.
In this state you are experiencing extreme readiness for an event that never happens. You are “foot to the floor, revving your engine flat out” but going nowhere. Instead you deplete your resources and exhaust your energy.
Your focus narrows and your energy, happiness and creativity dwindle. Stress keeps you in this state long-term.
When we don’t need this physical response to help us to fight or flee an immediate physical danger, and when it is ongoing for weeks, months or years, it is physically and emotionally draining and damaging. It’s exhausting. It leaves us with nothing in the tank for any further challenges that arise.
This is why a stressed person is so easily tipped over the edge, they are already at their limit with nothing in the tank, no reserves available, no give and take, a narrow focus and no ability to another point of view.
Constantly elevated stress is like sprinting everywhere or driving a car at maximum revs all the time – you can’t focus on anything else, accidents happen and things wear out fast.
Read About Our Hunter Gatherer Past
We humans were hunter gatherers for most of our existence. Our fear mechanism was key to our survival in a dangerous world. Life for our hunter gatherer ancestors was dangerous. Dangerous wild animals that they encountered and could kill them included:
- Lions
- Leopards
- Hyenas
- Wolves
- Wild dogs
- Mammoths
- Mastodons
- Saber-toothed tigers
- Giant bears
For some of these animals, humans were prey, i.e. a meal. There were even lions and other dangerous animals in Europe back then – including in what is today known as France. Can you imagine?
Our early ancestors were hunter-gatherers for the majority of their existence, spanning hundreds of thousands of years. They lived in various regions across the globe, primarily in Africa, but also in Europe, Asia, and eventually other continents as well.
The transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural societies which were based in one location rather than being nomadic, marked the beginning of the agricultural revolution (horticulture e.g. growing vegetables and grains, and raising animals for food, labour and textiles). This occurred recently in human history, around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. The agricultural revolution allowed the establishment of villages, towns and more complex societies and “Modern Fears.”
The vast majority of human history, for hundreds of thousands of years up until around 10,000 years ago, was characterised by hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Our fear instinct helped to keep people safe and alive. These days it is no longer needed to perform that function.
Fear, Stress and Limiting Beliefs: Ten Things
- Your stress arises from ongoing, constant fears and limiting beliefs
- Most of your fears are irrational as they are about things that cannot physically harm you
- Our fear mechanism evolved to help our ancestors avoid physical harm or death
- Our ancient fear mechanism is now triggered in modern life situations that pose no physical danger to us. This is an overreaction to a perceived but non-existent threat
- Your fears and limiting beliefs may seem to you to be rational and reasonable, but they aren’t. It may take a bit of work to reveal this insight
- Fear is an emotion. Our emotions are triggered by our thoughts and our thoughts are triggered by our beliefs. Since you can amend or choose your beliefs, ultimately, you can choose whether or not to feel fear or stress. For this to be apparent may require some work on your fears and limiting beliefs
- You can overcome fears and limiting beliefs with the right strategies
- Ultimately, stress is a choice. It can take a bit of work to learn to make a different choice but it is possible
- Long-term stress is damaging to your health and wellbeing
- Everything you want is on the other side of your fear.
