Why stress is contagious and how to avoid it
Stress is often referred to as an epidemic of
modern life, but we now know that’s a far more accurate analogy than
first thought. In fact, it can be as easy to catch as the flu.
So, how do you boost your emotional immunity against it? All emotions are catching because humans are designed to mimic each other.
There’s a basic evolutionary reason for this: If something is causing stress in a person nearby, you need to be aware of it in case you need to escape.
It’s also beneficial for you to show your stress or anxiety so that others know to help. Because of this, your body gives off signals when you’re anxious — your posture changes, your pupils dilate and your speech patterns alter, all of which can be picked up by those around you.
In one trial at St Louis University in the US, for example, participants who were asked to watch people give a speech showed signs of stress if the speaker got agitated.
Stress mimicry is so innate it even happens to babies, who have been shown to ‘catch’ anxiety from their mum.
The problem is that when you copy someone’s emotions, your brain interprets this as actually feeling the emotion yourself. It then triggers a cascade of the appropriate responses in your body. In the case of stress, your muscles might tense up, you might hold your breath and your brain may release stress hormones.
In a trial at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, 26 per cent of people who saw someone else showing signs of stress also experienced a rise in the stress hormone cortisol in their bodies.
These changes can cause the same negative impact on health as if you were experiencing the stress directly.
ARE YOU AT RISK?
WHILE everyone mimics the emotions of others to some extent, how intensely you pick up on someone else’s stress depends on a lot of factors.
A study at the University of Pittsburgh in the US showed that the situation in which stress occurs also plays a role.
Contagious stress is more evident if there’s a clear threat, and it’s more likely to spread in a shared situation — for example, if you’re at work and you know that a contract depends on you completing a job on time, and then there’s a setback.
You’re also more likely to be influenced by a loved one or a superior than someone you don’t care about, respect, fear or have to answer to.
Lastly, Orloff says that “certain personality types are more prone to contagion. If you’re a very empathic person (see our quiz, opposite) then you’ll be more likely to absorb how others are feeling. The mirror neurons — the specific brain cells that allow us to mimic others’ emotions — have been proven to be more active in empathic people than those with other personalities.”
When it comes to stress, though, there’s also another element of contagion involved:
Competition.
BUILD YOUR SKILLS
THE good news is that just as you can strengthen your immune system to protect you against viral infection, you can also create barriers to second-hand stress.
The first step is to find your key influencers by measuring how your mood changes when you’re around specific people.
Then try to limit your proximity to those who transmit negative vibes.
When you start to feel stressed, check that your response to the situation is appropriate, suggests Christakis.
One of the best ways to achieve this involves measuring the relevance to your situation, your life and the level of threat you’re facing. It’s also important to try to avoid reacting to stress merely to compete with others.
Language is particularly important here. When you start conversations or automatically answer questions on your wellbeing with phrases such as ‘I’m so busy’, or participate in conversations about how stressed someone else is and add your own tales of frazzled woe, you foster a damaging competitive stress environment.
If you’re getting caught up in a communal stress fest, take yourself out of the situation.
Lastly, remember that the whole reason you ‘catch’ stress is to spur yourself into getting out of danger or helping others to do the same. If however you react in times of stress always aims to achieve one of those two things, you’ll rapidly contain it.
Contagion over … Now, relax and let the good vibes take over.
The most obvious example of this is when someone smiles at you on a train and you smile back, says psychiatrist Dr Judith Orloff.
But negative emotions such as stress, anxiety and depression are particularly contagious.
There’s a basic evolutionary reason for this: If something is causing stress in a person nearby, you need to be aware of it in case you need to escape.
It’s also beneficial for you to show your stress or anxiety so that others know to help. Because of this, your body gives off signals when you’re anxious — your posture changes, your pupils dilate and your speech patterns alter, all of which can be picked up by those around you.
The really interesting thing about emotional contagion is that not only do you pick up on [stress in others], you actually then start to copy them,” says sociologist Professor Nicholas Christakis.
In one trial at St Louis University in the US, for example, participants who were asked to watch people give a speech showed signs of stress if the speaker got agitated.
Stress mimicry is so innate it even happens to babies, who have been shown to ‘catch’ anxiety from their mum.
The problem is that when you copy someone’s emotions, your brain interprets this as actually feeling the emotion yourself. It then triggers a cascade of the appropriate responses in your body. In the case of stress, your muscles might tense up, you might hold your breath and your brain may release stress hormones.
In a trial at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, 26 per cent of people who saw someone else showing signs of stress also experienced a rise in the stress hormone cortisol in their bodies.
These changes can cause the same negative impact on health as if you were experiencing the stress directly.
Catching the stress of others can lead to exhaustion, anxiety and depression if you don’t tackle it, says Orloff.
ARE YOU AT RISK?
WHILE everyone mimics the emotions of others to some extent, how intensely you pick up on someone else’s stress depends on a lot of factors.
It’s more likely if your defences are down generally, or if you’re tired or unhappy, so it’s important to stay balanced, says Orloff, who covers the problem extensively in her book The Empath’s Survival Guide.
A study at the University of Pittsburgh in the US showed that the situation in which stress occurs also plays a role.
Contagious stress is more evident if there’s a clear threat, and it’s more likely to spread in a shared situation — for example, if you’re at work and you know that a contract depends on you completing a job on time, and then there’s a setback.
You’re also more likely to be influenced by a loved one or a superior than someone you don’t care about, respect, fear or have to answer to.
Lastly, Orloff says that “certain personality types are more prone to contagion. If you’re a very empathic person (see our quiz, opposite) then you’ll be more likely to absorb how others are feeling. The mirror neurons — the specific brain cells that allow us to mimic others’ emotions — have been proven to be more active in empathic people than those with other personalities.”
When it comes to stress, though, there’s also another element of contagion involved:
Competition.
We’ve created a society in which it’s almost prized to feel stressed out, and if you work in that kind of environment you might actually feel that you need to create sensations of stress to fit in, says Orloff.
BUILD YOUR SKILLS
THE good news is that just as you can strengthen your immune system to protect you against viral infection, you can also create barriers to second-hand stress.
The first step is to find your key influencers by measuring how your mood changes when you’re around specific people.
Then try to limit your proximity to those who transmit negative vibes.
The closer someone is to you, the more they’ll impact upon you, says Orloff.
So simply moving away from these negative influencers or at least ensuring they’re out of your eyeline — could stop you from picking up on some of their cues.
When you start to feel stressed, check that your response to the situation is appropriate, suggests Christakis.
One of the best ways to achieve this involves measuring the relevance to your situation, your life and the level of threat you’re facing. It’s also important to try to avoid reacting to stress merely to compete with others.
Language is particularly important here. When you start conversations or automatically answer questions on your wellbeing with phrases such as ‘I’m so busy’, or participate in conversations about how stressed someone else is and add your own tales of frazzled woe, you foster a damaging competitive stress environment.
If you’re getting caught up in a communal stress fest, take yourself out of the situation.
Bathroom breaks are a great excuse to get away to re-centre, says Orloff.
Breathe slowly and remind yourself to live in your situation rather than responding to that of others. I even tell some of my clients to visualise a shield around themselves to create a barrier to protect them from how others are feeling.
Lastly, remember that the whole reason you ‘catch’ stress is to spur yourself into getting out of danger or helping others to do the same. If however you react in times of stress always aims to achieve one of those two things, you’ll rapidly contain it.
Contagion over … Now, relax and let the good vibes take over.
Originally published as Why stress is contagious and how to avoid it
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