Stress

A few years ago I saw a great documentary on BBC2 by Stephen Fry on depression. It was largely about his own difficulties with depression and how it impacted his personal and professional life.

As usual with Fry, it is has total honesty that endears one to him (I read his autobiography last year and was astounded by this). Anyway, he also interviewed other people who had depression, the most notable of which for me was Richard Dreyfuss.

He described how he has regular serious depression - the kind where he took lithium on a regular basis. He said that the most productive time in his life was in the late 70s and early 80s when he had very few bouts of depression - and then his career took a nosedive as he relapsed and working became so very difficult. What was most interesting to me though was how Dreyfuss described stress (which came from the depression in his case, but his comment was general). 

He said that when you are stressed you literally cannot function like you normally do. It is exactly that lack of stress which allows you to function, be productive and have normal healthy relationships. Now this may sound like common sense but we all find it difficult to cope with normal life when we are stressed due to children, work and other commitments (like taking too much on).

This is something I have become even more conscious of since I have been sick. I am not saying I am never stressed (well, I'm rarely as stresses as I used to be) but I regularly notice the lack of stress now - I recognise it when I am "fully present", which happens more often than it ever did. This has helped me make some decisions recently about helping to remove sources of stress (and potential sources). I stop when I am tired now and don't try to do everything or be all things to all people. I think I'll always have to work on this though as it does not come naturally to me. But as you might expect, I am a strong believer in a link between stress and cancer so this is my motivating factor.