Jordan Friedman interviewed by Anthony Qaiyum on October 6, 1995 "We should try to make stress a healthy fact of life..." Jordan Friedman has developed a physical stress management technique called "Quick Calm." Tripod: I've read that a very large percentage of all doctor visits are actually for stress-related reasons. Is this true? JF: Yes. There was a study done in '91 -- I believe it was by the Northwest Mutual Life Insurance Company -- that showed that about 72 percent of all doctors' visits were for stress-related reasons. Tripod: Can you give me a short definition of stress? JF: Sure. Stress is a reaction of the body every time we experience a threat or demand. Those threats and demands can be things that are very real, or things that are perceived. I make that distinction because it's very important. Real stressors could be things like getting in a traffic accident. But a perceived stressor could be worrying about an upcoming doctor's appointment, or worrying about how your colleagues are going to react to a project. Tripod: But perceived stressors can turn into real stressors, right? JF: They can turn into real stressors. But we look at them side-by-side because, whether a stressor is real or perceived, it often has the same effect on the body. The effect is this wear-and-tear, generally speaking. Tripod: What are some of the more immediate symptoms of exposure to stress? JF: Really, the short-term stress response is commonly known as the fight-or-flight response. It's characterized by an increased heart rate, increased respiratory rate. Often related to those things, as the result of an increased heart rate, you have increased muscle tension, sweating, pounding heart, sudden headaches, difficulty concentrating. Tripod: Now let's say you have some of those symptoms. Does that necessarily mean it is stress-related? I mean, I get headaches all the time, but I don't feel stressed out. Could that still be stress-related? JF: No, those symptoms that I addressed specifically are part of the fight-or-flight response. The core effects are an increased cardio-vascular output. So that might result in a headache for some people. But it might result in a stomachache. Or it might result in knots in the back. I think this points out something important, and that is that we all react differently to stress. Tripod: And what are the long-term effects of stress? JF: Well, it's really "What are the long-term of effects of ongoing stress?" We're not just talking about having one bad day a year. It's really the stress of life that most people experience -- work stress, trying to juggle professional obligations and personal obligations. The long-term effects that we really have to be concerned about are damage to the immune system and damage to our organ systems. Stress, over time, is just kind of like the wear-and-tear that a car experiences over years of driving ... Let's say that you experience a long period of stress, it's likely that over time your immune system will just not function up to par. You see examples of this in the wintertime, when people are under a lot of stress -- maybe they're not sleeping as well, and there're a lot of infections and bacteria in the environment -- the immune system is not as ready to fight off those infections. It's more wide-open to those infections entering and making us sick. Tripod: What about young people who are pushing themselves to get ahead in their careers, or in school? Is there a healthy balance between motivational self pressure and undue stress? JF: Definitely. I think what we should try to do is make stress a healthy fact of life -- and stress is a fact of life -- as opposed to an unhealthy way of life. It's important for a person to feel that they have stress, but they also need lots of time when they're relaxed and they feel pretty good, feel that their lives are in control -- as opposed to somebody who just feels like he or she can't get out from under all of the responsibilities, all of the stressors, in life, never feeling like they have a break. Tripod: What about the many people who say they do their best work when they're really under pressure? Is that still possible? JF: That can be healthy ... It's very much perception, self-perception, of how we operate. If you feel like what you're doing is worth it, if it's worth putting in the extra work to get the project done, if you enjoy doing it, if you enjoy the process and you feel pretty good about the product, then stress isn't a bad thing. If you constantly feel like you're working against the clock to get things done, and you're wiped out after they're done, and you're not so happy with the way it came out, then maybe you should look at other ways to go about both thinking about it and behaving. Tripod: Our society really celebrates people who are successful in high-stress environments. Do you think this is a major problem? JF: Yeah, I think that a lot of our stress comes from what we feel others expect from us. Others can be family members, friends, colleagues, or society as a whole. A lot of people stay late at the office because a lot of other people stay late at the office. They feel that by leaving early -- or leaving after a standard eight hour work day -- that somehow they will be seen as not as productive, as lazy, as not caring as much about what they're doing. Tripod: Can you give our readers some tips to help reduce stress, while still maintaining a desire for a serious challenge in their pursuits? JF: Sure. I mentioned the fight-or-flight response beforehand, and there's a great, very quick breathing technique to use. It's called Quick Calm. Or at least I call it Quick Calm. Other people call it other things. We've all heard about deep breathing, you know, "take a deep breath to relax," and often missing is why that works ... When we breathe diaphragmatically, the deep breathing stimulates a nerve, called the vegus nerve, that pretty much runs down the center of our neck, around our adam's apple, and down to the heart, and that nerve tells the heart to slow down. It's like getting the heart on the phone, and saying, "Calm down." That's the goal of Quick Calm, and what I train people to do is focus on their breathing, their regular breathing , for a couple of minutes, and then take a very deep inhalation, hold it for three to four seconds, and while they're holding it, while they're inhaling, think to themselves, "I am warm." Then exhale, and think "I am calm." And breathe normally for about three or four seconds. And then do the deep breathing again. And do the deep breathing three of four times -- three or four sets. The Quick Calm technique should be used immediately following stressors -- things like getting into an argument with someone, sitting down for an exam and not knowing the first ten answers to the questions, so you start to get all freaked out because you think "I'm gonna flunk this test," and you start to sweat and your heart starts to pound and then it's harder for you to concentrate -- all part of the fight-or-flight response. If you employ Quick Calm, most people find that it really works to reverse that fight-or-flight response and it calms you down quickly, and, therefore, you're able to concentrate a little better, you're able to move on, and do what you need to do.