Thread by @stevemagness

57% of US soldiers reported that when they were stressed things happened that they were unable to account for later.

Stress distorts our perception, attention, and behavior. It throws us for a loop. How do we deal with it?

How does stress impact performance?

A THREAD 👇👇👇

1st- It impacts the information we pick up.

At low levels of arousal our attention is broad.

We pick up a little bit of information from a bunch of different sources.

As our arousal climbs, we start suppressing more extraneous information, narrowing our attention.

It's a balance between quantity and quality of information.

Narrowing allows for clarity. The contrast between items or sensations becomes clearer. We start seeing clear divisions instead of shades of grey.

But go too far and we get tunnel vision. We start missing vital cues.

High levels of arousal distort our perception.

We start overestimating how tall, near, or far items are.

Our accuracy in assessing the passage of time degrades. Time moves slower or faster.
dovepress.com/the-effects-of…

A lot of this is driven in the brain by norepinephrine.

A moderate level tends to bring clarity. As it continues to rise to exceedingly high levels, we lose the ability to focus and concentrate. It’s as if we are on our overload.

Our behavior also shifts with high levels of arousal.

We shift from being able to take into account future rewards/consequences to the here and now. What’s happening right in front of me, the future be damned.

The brain is balancing quality/quantity of information with rapidity of action. There’s a tradeoff between accuracy and action.

In the brain, this is largely seen in the interaction between two key brain areas: the Pre-frontal Cortex and the Amygdala.

The PFC is all about executive functioning and cognitive control. The amygdala is related to emotional processing.

The PFC’s job is to keep the amygdala in check. To make sure that the vital information and emotional experience is taken into account, but doesn’t overrun things.

As arousal increases, the PFC shuts down. The amygdala wins. We go for rapidity of action, forget everything else.

Our ability to inhibit inappropriate actions, to shift our attention, to see our errors, and to alter our decision making all are impaired. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

What's this mean?

For complex tasks involving cognition, too high arousal harms performance. For simple or deeply ingrained tasks we can sustain higher levels of arousal without it hurting our performance. We don't need our PFC "online" during habitual tasks.

You can also train to keep your PFC online during high levels of stress or arousal.

It's why elite special forces don't dissociate to the same degree as soldiers. They have trained to 'keep a cool head' (or their PFC online) during very high levels of arousal.

What impacts whether we go down the rabbit hole towards disassociation or can stay on the right side of clear thinking?
1. Expectations
2. Control
3. Familiarity

Expectations set the stage.

Whether we perceive something as a threat or challenge goes a long way to determining which way our stress response goes.

If we are in an environment that we perceive to be threatening, we’re more likely to be prime for a full blown stress response.

When we think that threats are around us, we’re more likely to be on our way to hyper aroused.

Our expectations bias us towards seeing the world as a threat.

For example, research consistently shows that the more tragic or distressing TV we watch, the more acute stress we experience.

apa.org/pubs/highlight…

Politicians take advantage of this. Intentionally trying to convince you that the world is an increasingly dangerous and threatening world.

See the world as a threat...and you're more likely to look for a quick solution: Whatever the politician is selling thegrowtheq.com/overriding-fea…

2. Control

Our stress response is predictive. Its job is to prepare and protect.

If we are capable of handling the demands of the stressor, no need to panic.

Our action capabilities vs. the event demands. Can we handle it?

Can you influence or change the outcome?

Our perception of control is like an ignition switch, turning on our ability to navigate difficult situations more deliberately.

When we lack control, research shows that our PFC is impaired.

3. Familiarity:

There’s a reason why the military spends billions of dollars creating realistic simulations for soldiers. They are utilizing stress inoculation techniques to prepare soldiers for navigating stressful situations.

From police to athletes, training for the demands of your event helps you navigate your inner stress and respond better.

Stress Inoculation works. It can help us shift from fearful to courage. thegrowtheq.com/fight-or-fligh…

Other modalities from mindfulness to breath work to cognitive behavioral therapy interventions can improve various parts of the stress, dissociation, threat situation we face.

Basically, anything that creates space, to not jump straight to a freakout. thegrowtheq.com/the-science-of…

But what if we’re in the middle of a freak out?

When pilots faced this freezing in WW2 they found they could unfreeze “by using a firm voice devoid of fear to issue simple orders that the men had already learned and that were automatic: ‘flaps,’ ‘raise the stick,’ ‘rudder.'

Recent research validates this approach, showing that talking to oneself in third person helps us deal with acute stress. psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-at…

Another tactic that works is to intentionally reverse the narrowing.

Go broad with your vision. Adopting an almost panoramic-like lens of the world, where you shift your focus from the details to taking in as much of the periphery as possible.

More on the science of stress and performance to come! I've got a big project to outline all of this in much more detail coming soon.

For now, if you are interested in all things performance, consider giving me a follow!