In past posts, I have discussed many factors which influence your levels of stress. These have included your thoughts, diet, exercise, your brain, workplace issues, failures to set goals, lack of focus, and poor time management.
Yet another important factor is social support, namely the degree and quality of our connections with others. In the mental health field, it has long been known that even the presence of one confidante buffers to some extent the onset/degree of clinical depression. The confidante is defined as someone with whom we can share our most closely held inner thoughts. In the field of geriatrics, there have been many studies of the extent to which elder adults going into retirement with highly limited social networks are at increased risk for adverse health outcomes and earlier mortality. Social support also moderates the effects of some of the other stress factors.
For example, as I mentioned in another post, exercise contributes to neurogenesis while stress lessens that process. However, social support likely has a role. In research, when rats living together in stable social hierarchies were given a running wheel, exercise stimulated neurogenesis. However, when they were living alone and in isolation, exercise did not stimulate neurogenesis as much, if at all. The two were very synergistic.
Our autonomic function and parasympathetic balance is also influenced by social connections. There is a balance between the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is calming and influenced by warm social contact and practices like meditation and progressive muscle relaxation. The sympathetic nervous system increases inflammation and increases heart rate and blood pressure. You want to have the proper balance.
Not all social contact is beneficial. There is a toxic and unhealthy level of stress that comes from being at the low end of a social hierarchy. In a study of baboons, the subordinate has to watch continually for attack while the dominant baboon only has to watch for a few predators. For humans, there is a more subjective perception of where we stand which affects health outcomes as well. The lower we are or perceive ourselves to be, the more resentment there is. It’s that perception that drives our sense of autonomy and other factors that can determine our response to stress. To a large extent, it is our perceptions and thoughts about our situation, as discussed in another post, which determine our response to stress.
However, social support and contact can help mitigate and buffer negative effects. For example, a person may be a custodian but is a deacon in his church, has a loving family, and various close friends (confidantes). Those factors buffer the potentially negative effect of the socioeconomic and employment stressors.
So, when would be a good time to examine your social network and degree of social connectedness, both at work and in your personal life? They affect your degree of well being and health more than you might think. Consider if your possibly untrue and unhelpful thoughts about social connection might be getting in the way of improving this area of your life, e.g. "I'm not a people person". As always, change your thoughts, change your results. For additional information on stress, please see my website at www.successandmindset.com for past posts on this topic.