In 2015, a health practitioner told me I was addicted to stress. At first, I scoffed, but years later I’d come to realize that - whatever you want to call it - I did indeed have a big problem with constantly staying activated, seeking stimulation, running at 20 miles an hours, and being unable to enjoy any sense of calm and peace. Frankly, urgency and embracing the ‘challenge’ felt more rewarding.
Many trauma survivors know this story well, and pay the price in autoimmune flares, cycles of hyper-output and crash-outs, and feel not quite at home in their bodies. In fact, you don’t have to be a trauma survivor to internalize a culture that prioritizes infinite growth, productivity and hyper-stimulation at any cost.
But is ‘stress addiction’ a real thing? What’s the physiology and neuroscience behind the possibility of stress feeling like a ‘reward’ or something to chase after? Why is it more common for trauma survivors to experience this? And how can we combat what sociologist Max Weber…
