The Moos Room™

Emily
welcome, everybody to The Moos Room. You do not need to adjust your headsets. You are hearing correctly. It's Emily. I've made it back for the second week in a row. And, of course, I'm here with Brad.

00;00;25;29 - 00;00;31;07
Brad
Two weeks in a row. Holy smokes. That's like, maybe a record this year so far.

00;00;31;14 - 00;00;59;08
Emily
Yes. Well, you know, after my. I'll call it my sabbatical from the podcast. Right. You know, we're back. We're firing on all cylinders. And of course, it is me. And if you have been around the podcast, for a year or two, you hopefully remember that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And so we always like to take at least a couple episodes each May and really dedicate those to mental health topics.

00;00;59;08 - 00;01;04;07
Emily
And, you know, I just force Brad to go along with be on it. Right? Brad.

00;01;04;09 - 00;01;25;24
Brad
That there is nothing wrong with that. It's always good to get a refresher and then have Emily, tell me to, chill out and relax more and reduce my stress. So it's always good to go through these again because Brad needs more reassurance all the time.

00;01;25;27 - 00;01;48;09
Emily
Well, I think we can all use the reminders, and I am included in that, right? I think sometimes people may think that I have it all figured out in terms of mental health and managing my mental health, but I want to be clear, I struggle sometimes, too. You know, I, I like to think that I do my best to take good care of myself.

00;01;48;12 - 00;02;11;24
Emily
Right? But, we all get in situations where we may be left taking care of ourselves, slip a little bit, or, you know, we let negative thoughts or other things kind of take over. And again, I am not immune to that as a person who works in in mental health education, I can also struggle. And I think it's important that we just keep talking about that.

00;02;11;24 - 00;02;41;22
Emily
Right. And I really wanted to talk today about, an aspect of mental health, a specific type of stress that I know I have struggled with. I know that I am perhaps struggling with it right now. I think a lot of people are, it is a type of stress that is often tied to uncertain or unpredictable situations, and that is anticipatory stress.

00;02;41;24 - 00;03;00;03
Emily
And, you know, we'll talk a little more about what it is and what it means. But I think just from the title of it, anticipatory stress, you can kind of get an idea for, for what it might mean. So Bradley, knowing nothing about it, do you think you've ever experienced anticipatory stress?

00;03;00;05 - 00;03;22;26
Brad
Of course, of course. No doubt about it. It's even in situations now, it's hard to tell what's going to happen in the future. So you're worry about it and lots of other things happening. And, yeah, there is no doubt I have experienced it or are experiencing it. And you really don't think about it, which is maybe good or bad, but yes, definitely.

00;03;22;29 - 00;03;53;23
Emily
Right. And we'll get more into this. Not all anticipatory stress is bad necessarily. And I've said it before on this podcast. Stress in general is not always necessarily a bad thing, right? A certain lower level of stress for many people can be motivating and anticipatory stress can fall into that category as well. But before we get too far into that, I want to start with what this thing actually is right?

00;03;53;26 - 00;04;24;02
Emily
Using the context clues from the words anticipatory stress is about experiencing an increased stress response in anticipation. In anticipation. Excuse me of something that is going to be difficult, or an unpredictable or uncertain situation. Right? So it's just all about our stress response increases because we are anticipating something. And it's typically we're anticipating something and we don't fully know what that something is.

00;04;24;02 - 00;04;32;19
Emily
And that's what can make it stressful. So now that you have the definition, Bradley, does it really sound like something you've experienced?

00;04;32;21 - 00;04;54;08
Brad
Oh, yes. Probably all the time. All the time, I think I think most of us probably experience this and we don't even know it. We don't even we, we just don't know or we don't think about it because we're such in the in the throngs of it. How do we figure that out? Which is what what is anticipatory stress?

00;04;54;08 - 00;04;59;19
Brad
What are what are some things that you see when you have that? How do we know that? That's what it is.

00;04;59;21 - 00;05;34;03
Emily
Yeah. So first of all start anticipatory stress has some stages to it so to speak. Right. And so the whole process starts with becoming aware of what this threat or this uncertainty or this challenge, whatever it is. But getting that awareness starts the process of experiencing anticipatory stress. And then what we start to do is natural human response is we evaluate right the situation, we evaluate the challenge.

00;05;34;03 - 00;05;57;29
Emily
Do we have what we need to it? Is there a potential that we can overcome this, or is it a potential that we will be overwhelmed by it? And then lastly, the last piece of this process of anticipatory stress is that physical and emotional experience of stress. So having the actual signs of stress. So to your question, Brad, what can this look like?

00;05;57;29 - 00;06;21;14
Emily
How do we know if we are experiencing this? And again, if you've tuned in to any of our past mental health episodes, you hopefully remember that stress can show up in a lot of different ways in people, so it may impact us physically, it may impact us mentally, it may impact our emotions, our behavior, lots of different things.

00;06;21;16 - 00;06;55;21
Emily
So some things that may indicate anticipatory stress, starting with some of those physical type of symptoms, an increased heart rate, increased perspiration. So being sweaty or feeling really hot and warm. So your nervous system reacting by making you warm. Also things like difficulty sleeping and having rapid breathing or uneven breathing. So again, some of those nervous system reactions where your body is feeling under threat.

00;06;55;23 - 00;07;26;25
Emily
And so it starts to put your body, into that reacting to a threat fight or flight type of reaction. So again increased heart rate, increased breathing, increased perspiration, perhaps difficulty with sleeping all of those things. In addition, there can be some mental and behavioral type symptoms as well. So feeling very tense or on edge could be an indication of anticipatory stress.

00;07;26;27 - 00;07;58;15
Emily
Racing thoughts feeling irritable, finding it difficult to concentrate. Also, you know, just having this sense of, of uncertainty or kind of the sense of dread about the future. So lots of different things. Right. And some of these can be symptoms of other types of stress, right, or other things that may be causing us stress, but specifically with anticipating stress, we're looking for our bodies feeling physically like they are under threat.

00;07;58;18 - 00;08;07;02
Emily
And again, a lot of thoughts and behaviors and emotions around feeling uncertain, feeling tense.

00;08;07;04 - 00;08;30;26
Brad
And I would say you probably don't have to experience all of those either. It could be just a few. It's not like this is the list. This is what you have. There's many different things because I can think about some of those and I don't experience some of them, but some I do. So it's it's kind of a not one size fits all right.

00;08;30;26 - 00;08;52;07
Emily
Yeah. Absolutely. It is not all or nothing. You may experience just 1 or 2 of these symptoms. You may experience a lot of them because again right. Stress manifests in different ways. Like I am somebody who typically when I'm stressed I feel a lot of physical symptoms, like I get a headache, I get a stomach ache, those types of things.

00;08;52;09 - 00;09;23;15
Emily
I will also get pretty irritable. I know other people who, when they are stressed, they physically feel totally fine, but their behaviors may be a little more erratic. Right? Or they're more on edge, or they have more of emotional ebbs and flows. It's harder for them to regulate. So yeah, you're absolutely right, Bradley. This is not a checklist of you need to experience every single one of these to qualify for anticipatory stress.

00;09;23;17 - 00;09;26;05
Emily
You may just feel 1 or 2 of these symptoms.

00;09;26;05 - 00;09;47;14
Brad
Yeah I would say for me it's probably most probably difficult sleeping. Your mind is racing and you can't sleep and it just compounds things. I'm not the physical type person were you were I? I get those physical aspects. It's more, mental type problems or issues or challenges.

00;09;47;16 - 00;10;24;20
Emily
Right? Yeah. We're we're all different. And so that's why you always see symptoms offered as a big list like that. Because everybody is different on their own individual level. But we certainly can find these common things that many people may report experiencing. So yeah, maybe you're only feeling 1 or 2 of these things and maybe somebody in the exact same situation would feel all of these symptoms, but even just having 1 or 2 should catch your attention and help you be aware that this is something to pay attention to and be aware of.

00;10;24;20 - 00;10;30;17
Emily
And think about taking care of or taking steps to help address it.

00;10;30;19 - 00;10;47;04
Brad
So if we are having anticipatory stress, what can we do to manage it? Or how do we deal with that? Or maybe prevent it from occurring or getting out of control? What are what are some things that we do.

00;10;47;07 - 00;11;14;13
Emily
Yeah. So like we kind of talked about at the beginning, Bradley and I want to mention it again, anticipatory stress, not all of it is bad. There has been research that indicates that when some people do have increased anticipatory stress, they can actually recover more quickly after that stressful event has happened because they have prepared themselves and started to anticipate some of that stress.

00;11;14;13 - 00;11;33;20
Emily
So again, in the moment they've experienced it and they've already been experiencing it so they can recover more quickly. But again, that's not to say that oh, for everybody, it's good. And if it's affecting you negatively, that means there's something wrong with you. That is not what I'm saying. Some can be good. Too much can be bad, right?

00;11;33;20 - 00;12;00;12
Emily
Like any like most things in life, I shouldn't say. And so again, anticipatory stress is is a thing that we will experience. We will feel it. Right. And again some of it can be more intense. And we really need to worry about when it becomes chronic more long term. I've said it before, we talk about some people just have bad days, right?

00;12;00;12 - 00;12;23;09
Emily
And sometimes I just have a bad day. But then the next day is better. Feels back to normal. It was just a rough day and an anticipatory stress. It can be similar. Maybe we just have a day where it's really impacting us, but we find a way to build resilience or to cope with it in our day, and then maybe it's not affecting us as much as the next day.

00;12;23;11 - 00;12;46;00
Emily
But we do need to be mindful that if it's starting to really impact us every day, that can really start to have some negative consequences, right? If it starts to feel unmanageable, it's time to really think, to address it. So lots of things to do to reduce anticipatory stress. We have a web page that we will link to in the show notes.

00;12;46;00 - 00;13;12;24
Emily
So I'm not going to go through everything, but I want to mention a few key things that I think can be really helpful in dealing specifically with anticipatory stress. So one of them is reframing the situation and re appraising your place in that situation. So so really what that means is having a more positive appraisal of an oncoming stressful event.

00;13;12;27 - 00;13;36;09
Emily
So that helps the event be less negative than we think. And it just gives us confidence to meet that challenge. Right. So we're reframing it into something that is less scary or less negative. And it's easy for me to say that, right? You just do that. You just reframe it. That is something that does take work. I want to be clear.

00;13;36;09 - 00;13;56;11
Emily
That is something that we need to practice doing. It's something that I try to practice doing even with, you know, little things in my life. Right? For example, we say a lot this is a busy time at work. You know, it's a busy time in extension. And I do get some anticipatory stress for my busy periods of work.

00;13;56;13 - 00;14;21;10
Emily
Right. And so I try to really reframe it as, you know, it's not I'm so stressed because this is so overwhelming and I can't handle it. And whatever I think of it as well, I'm stressed because I'm really excited about doing all of this, and I'm doing a lot of stuff I'm passionate about and care about, right. And so that doesn't take the stress away.

00;14;21;10 - 00;14;44;25
Emily
That doesn't take away the fact that my schedule is busy and I'm on the road for two weeks straight. But it does help me remember that this is something I want to be doing. It can still be stressful and also be something that I'm passionate about and want to do. So reframing is one way that we can help manage that anticipatory stress.

00;14;44;25 - 00;15;06;24
Emily
One other strategy I want to talk about and again, there's several others. On the web, we will link the extension web page about anticipatory stress in the show notes. But I talked a lot about the physical symptoms of stress. And I mentioned that that's what I experience quite a bit of. When I am stressed, I get a lot of physical symptoms on my body.

00;15;06;26 - 00;15;35;05
Emily
And so I love the idea of using biofeedback. So biofeedback is a really helpful tool for managing our stress. And you've maybe heard of biofeedback, right. So that is again our nervous system, our body's reaction telling us telling our brain what it's feeling, what it thinks we should do. You know, it's experience danger or peace or anything in between.

00;15;35;08 - 00;15;56;05
Emily
Right. And you don't need a fancy device for, for biofeedback like I'm somebody I do wear a smartwatch. So if I am feeling stressed, I do like to look at my heart rate. I'll look it up quick, to see oh, wow, I yeah, my heart rate is elevated right now, but you don't need a device to do that for you, right?

00;15;56;07 - 00;16;29;17
Emily
You hopefully know how to check your pulse so you can tell if your body is giving you biofeedback. Right. So pay attention to what your body is telling you. Take a pause. Notice your breathing. That's a big thing in biofeedback. And also helps us with what's called self-regulation. So basically when we are at an elevated state of feeling excited or scared or nervous, using our biofeedback and paying attention to it will help it reregulate.

00;16;29;19 - 00;16;51;13
Emily
So a great way to do that is with deep breathing. I am such a fan of deep breathing and using breathing to Reregulate yourself, because breathing is something we have to do anyways. So that's what I like about it, is it doesn't take a ton of practice to figure out how to do it, because it's something we already know how to do.

00;16;51;15 - 00;17;16;22
Emily
It's really just practicing being intentional and paying attention to your breathing. So there are all sorts of breathing exercises you can do. I'm a fan of box breathing, so that is where you will breathe in over the course of four seconds. And then you hold that breath for four seconds, and then you exhale it over four seconds, and then you take a four second rest, and then you will repeat that cycle.

00;17;16;24 - 00;17;47;27
Emily
So there are other types of breathing as well. Right. With different amounts of seconds where you are inhaling through your nose, holding your breath, exhaling through your mouth. You can look up all sorts of things online. Or again, just pay attention to your breathing. Take a second to feel the air going in and out of your lungs, and doing that again helps your body use that biofeedback of all right, I am in control, I am okay, I am in control of my breathing.

00;17;47;28 - 00;18;12;24
Emily
That is again one of my favorite strategies because it really helps. Again, if you are experiencing physical symptoms of stress. But even if you are not experiencing physical symptoms, but you feel like your mind is racing, breathing can also help. Put that racing mind on pause for a minute can help slow it down, help you regroup and reground and come back to the present.

00;18;12;27 - 00;18;39;22
Brad
I think it's important, and one thing that I've learned through all of this, and even with Emily trying to explain this, is really just taking care of yourself. I think that's probably the most important aspect. Whatever you're stressing about, it can wait. It's not important. You need to cope with yourself and relax and it'll it will all work itself out.

00;18;39;22 - 00;18;57;13
Brad
At least. This is one things that I've learned, but you really just need to take care of yourself. And I think that's one thing that most of us might not realize or think about, is just taking care of ourself is very important in probably relieving stress.

00;18;57;16 - 00;19;25;12
Emily
Yeah. And I think Bradley also from observing you, you know, as, as we've known each other many, many years, I think that you will probably agree in that you've come to find right, that doing those things for yourself. Right. Taking those breaks. It's not about ignoring the problem. It's not about burying your head in the sand. It is truly about taking a break from it.

00;19;25;15 - 00;19;47;05
Emily
You know, I have said this before. This is something I have said in my life for a lot of different things. You know, you can step off the path because the path is not going anywhere, right? Paths stay where they are. So stepping off the path does not make the path go away. It just gives you a break from it.

00;19;47;07 - 00;20;10;23
Emily
And I would say again that something I know I have learned over time, I think I've seen you learn that as well, Bradley, that we get really hard on ourselves sometimes about taking a break or giving ourselves a rest because we've told ourselves it means, again, we're ignoring the problem and it is not ignoring it. Again, it's taking a break from it.

00;20;11;00 - 00;20;31;24
Brad
And I agree, it's it's always easy for you and me to sit here and tell you that, yes, this is what you need to do. You need to take take a break, do some breathing exercises. All of that. That is all well and good, but sometimes it's just not manageable. So what? What if we feel like we can't control the stress?

00;20;31;29 - 00;20;40;18
Brad
What do we do? How do we get, help for dealing with some of our stress that we're thinking about if we don't think we can manage it ourselves?

00;20;40;19 - 00;21;09;21
Emily
That's such a good question, Bradley. And I'm glad you brought that up, because, yes, you know, we always, when we have these mental health conversations we typically lead with, here are the things you can do. And I want to be clear, sometimes certain problems are beyond what we can do for ourselves. And that is okay. Again, if you have been around the podcast for a while, you know that in my past I have had some really deep struggles with mental health.

00;21;09;24 - 00;21;30;09
Emily
I found myself in a position that I was beyond what I could do for myself. And it's okay if you are there. I know it doesn't feel okay, but I want you to know you are not the only person feeling that way, and you are not the first person to feel that way. And that is why there is additional help available.

00;21;30;11 - 00;21;52;19
Emily
We don't create these things because they sit there and nobody uses them. We have these resources in place because people use them and they need them and it's okay if you are one of those people who need them too. So there are a variety of resources available to folks who may need help, right? And I will just say help.

00;21;52;19 - 00;22;21;02
Emily
In general. There's a lot of different things we may need help with as it relates to our wellbeing. And of course, if you are in Minnesota, you are hopefully aware of the variety of resources available from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. You can find those at many farm stress.com. They include the Minnesota Farm and Rural Helpline, which is a free, confidential, 24/7 hotline that you can call and talk to somebody.

00;22;21;05 - 00;22;56;01
Emily
We do also have our to rural mental health specialists in the state. So if you are a farmer and you would like free counseling that has no paperwork, the only person you talk to directly is a counselor themselves. You can also find that information on farm stress.com. I would also say if you are struggling and you do have, a doctor that you, work with regularly as a primary care physician, they are also a great resource to help you find additional help.

00;22;56;03 - 00;23;20;24
Emily
So that is a place you can go as well. And we will put these and all of the resources that we are aware of in the show notes for this episode, including resources that are regional and national level as well. In case you're not Minnesota based, but please know that there is a ton of help available for a variety of issues that you may be struggling with.

00;23;20;27 - 00;23;48;24
Brad
I think we have learned a lot today about anticipatory stress, maybe how to deal with it, where you can find help. We should know that it is normal to feel this way. There is nothing wrong with feeling and having these anticipatory stress in our life. It is normal. We all deal with it. But it is always good to recognize it, know where we can go for help and how to relieve our stress.

00;23;48;24 - 00;23;53;05
Brad
So it's been great thinking about this today. Any final comments? Emily.

00;23;53;08 - 00;24;18;27
Emily
I would just echo what you said. It is okay to feel this, and hopefully you heard loud and clear that this is something both Bradley and I deal with have experienced. So again, you're not alone. And as always, I'm just so grateful to our listeners for listening to these episodes. I know that they get listened to. Right?

00;24;18;27 - 00;24;40;20
Emily
We can see the numbers. So we're so glad that you feel like you can approach these topics and get this information. And this is why we do this. Again, this is for May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month. So it's very important to us to to share these messages. And of course this is a part of my work, as an extension educator for farm safety and health.

00;24;40;20 - 00;25;09;13
Emily
So it's important to us to have these conversations. And we are so grateful that you are all willing to listen to them. But with that, I think that we will wrap it there again. We will have a variety of resources that we put in the show notes. But if you are interested in learning more about stress and various resources from extension, you can find those on the web at extension n.edu.

00;25;09;20 - 00;25;24;26
Emily
And if you are looking for Minnesota based farm and rural mental health resources, you can find those at Maine Farm stress.com and we will wrap up there. Take care of yourselves, stay safe and we will talk to you again soon.

00;25;24;29 - 00;25;30;00
Brad
Bye bye.