According to experts, gender plays a vital role in how a person handles stress. Let’s give an example: dental anxiety. Go and read the details at https://dentalstudio.com.au/dental-sedation-double-bay to know how dentists help patients in managing stress. But why do men and women handle stress differently? One of the top reasons is hormones. Three components are involved: epinephrine, cortisol, and oxytocin. For instance, women are reportedly more stressed when visiting dentists, which could be due to the gender of the dentist or the physical pain inflicted by procedures.
Stress Hormones of Men and Women
The thing is, when we get stressed, cortisol and epinephrine hormones cause our blood pressure and sugar levels to rise. Cortisol can even alter a person’s immune system and lower it down.
Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., a professor of neurobiology, states that most people think that the amounts of cortisol released by women affect how they manage stress. But this is false. He also mentions that many people believed that this is why women are more emotional than men, which is another false belief.
He then proceeds to explain that cortisol production alone in men and women does not significantly impact stress management. But instead, it depends on the production of the hormone oxytocin.
When women get in a stressful situation, cortisol and epinephrine race through the bloodstream, and this is when oxytocin plays its role. Produced by the brain, oxytocin prevents the rapid production of cortisol and epinephrine and promotes relaxing and positive emotions.
On the other hand, men produce oxytocin as well. But the amounts are much lower than womens’. This leaves them on the edge when it comes to hormones and stress response.
Fight or Flight, Tend and Befriend
In facing stress, men and women are given the option to fight or flight. The term represents your choice as a person to either fight stress and win, or “fly” away from it. Recently, a new stress-related response was designed mainly for women, the tending and befriending method.
Recent studies show that women are more likely to manage stress by the “tend and befriend” technique. How? By simply reaching out to family and friends and nurturing. To tend means to provide a nurturing environment specifically designed to prioritize safety and stress-free surroundings. Meanwhile, to befriend means to maintain a healthy social network that might help in “tending.”
Women prefer tending and befriending than fight or flight because their hormone oxytocin combines with their reproductive hormones. Hence, giving them a higher chance to manage stress in different situations.
Men, on the other hand, react to stress differently because they produce smaller amounts of oxytocin. Thus, causing them to respond through the fight or flight method. Men handle stress in very different ways. They either cope by running away from it or fight back, in most instances, through physical fights.
Differences Between Men and Women
A lot of reports conclude that women tend to respond better to stressors than men. In addition, women also show fewer symptoms of stress in general. Also, married women experience stress in different ways than single women.
To determine why women react differently to stress, the American Psychological Association has conducted a study. In conclusion, it states that:
While men and women tend to deal with stress in their ways, females can deal with it without showing symptoms. Additionally, they also experience more stress every five years. Often, the root cause of stress in females is money and the rapid changes in the economy, and males are usually stressed because of work pressure.
Married women also show higher levels of stress compared to single women. Subsequently, due to marriage, a lot of women also experience more enormous stressors every five years. For obvious reasons, women tend to show physical and emotional signs to cope with stress. They either cry, have a headache, or an upset stomach. They are also far more irritable compared to men.
Signs that You are Stressed
For you to manage stress successfully, you will first have to know the characters. Stressed people often exhibit the following:
Physical Signs
- stomach ache and indigestion
- chest pain or racing heartbeats
- difficulty sleeping
- feeling tired
- weak immunity (gets sick quickly)
- problems having sex
- dizziness, headaches, trembling
- jaw muscle pain due to clenching
- pains and aches anywhere in the body
Mental Signs
- feeling irritated all the time
- panic attacks
- signs of depression
- sadness
Unhealthy Ways to Deal with Stress
Sadly, some people compromise their health to conceal the negative emotions that come with stress. Instead of finding support from their loved ones, they block their feelings by:
- drinking frequently and excessively
- gambling (to the point where they lose their savings)
- drug use
- overeating, loss of appetite, or eating disorder development
- smoking
- engaging in aggressive sex, over shopping, and internet
Stress Management Tips
We all deal with different scenarios in our lives in our ways. But to ensure that we do things correctly, we have to stop from time to time, step back a little, and check how we deal with everyday stress.
For your reference, here are some of the practical stress management tips that you may try:
Exercising regularly will help keep you energized and happy. Simple activities such as walking and jogging can boost your mood instantly.
Eat healthy meals. A healthy body is equivalent to a healthy mind. Be sure to get enough nutrients to get you through the day. Check out this page to learn why it’s important to take care of your dental health.
Talk to a therapist. In case your stress becomes too hard to handle, you may opt to speak to a professional. They can help you determine the root cause and find great solutions. A chiropractor can also help relieve muscle tension.
Think positively. We all know that life can be very challenging, and we can do nothing about that. All we can control is how we react to every situation. Try to be positive and live happily.
References:
Stress (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/11874-stress)
Gender and Stress (https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2010/gender-stress)
