Habituate to stress
“Habituation is defined as a decrement in response as a result of repeated stimulation…”
Habituation, R. Thompson, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001 (click image for DOI:)
Happy Lunar New Year, and we are just about a month away from the year mark for declaration of COVID-19 crisis as a “pandemic.” You are reading this and thus have habituated to many innumerable stresses to reach this point. Honor that and take pride in that.
Acclimatization is a term our lab uses daily. Acclimatization refers to adaptation process to a new environment. An athlete adapting over a week to a hot and humid environment after existing in a New England winter for months, or an individual adapting to a high altitude environment after living at sea-level are examples of acclimatization.
Habituation is a term that is used interchangeably with acclimatization in lay language, but there is a subtle difference that applies to the experience you have likely had, like I have, throughout your life and this past year, especially. Habituation is a decreased response to a repeated stress exposure. A good example might be you becoming habituated to a repeated loud noise.
The subtle difference between acclimatization and habituation is interesting. Sometimes a stress or change in circumstances is about acclimatization in so many ways of your being: psychological, emotional, or physical. You are adjusting in that case to a new environment. Sometimes, however, like we have all experienced this year, stress is about repeat experiences with ubiquitous stressors and our resilience is about habituating to the same type of thing over time. Real challenges at work in any field, but I find particularly in academia, often include negative interactions with people. The first encounter with a toxic person is earth-shattering in your life; you feel pain, lose sleep, and the experience affects your health and well-being for an extended time. The second, third, and umpteenth time, you find the hump that you go over to respond and recover, is just a blip in your day. I hope this is your experience, that you have habituated to the stresses that have come and will probably continue to come through your lifetime at work and in your personal life.
I have had an interesting couple weeks, to say the least, as a faculty and academician. What is so curious to me is that I feel I am watching myself from the outside at times this week (in a good way!), reflecting on the stresses I am encountering, and seeing that… yes, I’m actually able to see the different situations calmly, from the outside, be compassionate and kind, feel and embrace any hurt, but to come out making a change in myself for the better and leaving behind toxic situations without burning bridges. It is amazIng, but be sure it came with immense self-reflection, development, changes from my own self-evaluation, and true happiness in my life over many years of stress, response, recovery, reflection, stress, response, recovery, reflection, stress, habituated response, reflection…
