The three symptoms of stress

Once upon a time, the three brothers Stress Symptoms were going to an overworked business to make some lives miserable. On their way there, they had to cross the desk of a fierce bureaucrat. First, little Headache had to cross the desk.

"Who is aching on my desk?" asked the bureaucrat.
"It's the little Headache, and I'm on my way to make some overworked lives miserable."
"Ha! I chomp down Headaches with my extra strong coffee every ten minutes!"
"Oh no! Please, don't caffeinate me! After me comes my bigger brother, a much bigger Stress Symptom!"
"Fine! You may go."

And so, the little Headache went on to make some lives miserable in the office.
Next to cross the desk of the fierce bureaucrat was the average drowsy Sleeplessness.

"Who is drowsing on my desk?" asked the bureaucrat.
"It's the average drowsy Sleeplessness. I'm on my way to make some overworked lives miserable my making them sleepless at night and drowsy at day."
"Ha! I chomp down Sleeplessness with prescription drugs every night! Muahahahaha!"
"Oh no! Please, don't drug me! After me comes the greatest Stress Symptom of all!"
"Fine! You may go."

And so, the office got drowsy, nobody slept at night and productivity halted.
Finally came the great Heart Attack.

"Who is attacking my desk?" asked the bureaucrat.
"It's the great Heart Attack! I'm on my way to relieve some overworked lives from their misery."
And so the bureaucrat died.

Honour, stress and bullying

In the Art of Manliness blog, an interesting article series gives a good description of Honour, its function and in part 2, its decline. Of particular interest is the traditional immediate response to injuries to one's honour. While my first thoughts on honour practices is that this may increase stress, my latest studies of stress makes me now think otherwise.

Maintaining a strategy of immediate response allows the body to complete the full adrenalin-fight-rest-cycle. When the response is completed, the entire thing is over. This, however, is difficult to achieve in an honourless society. It is particularly difficult in situations where you have to battle a boss, who launches the insult friday night, and you can not respond until monday morning. Further, when you do make a response, it is not necessarily the end of the story, because it now has to go through lengths of red tape. The entire thing may last for months before it is resolved, which means that you're likely to generate adrenalin in your body continually for the entire period, wrecking your health.

Further, groups of people with horizontal honour increases social skills, which in turn also reduces stress and increases your support network. Honour is a guideline for personal integrity, which means you have to look inward to strengthen your inner core. It is this perspective that seems to be missing today. As I pointed out in an earlier article, looking outwards to support a fragile inner core is exactly what generates bullies and bully victims.

Which means that honour is another piece of the puzzle.