RUNNING ON EMPTY
Do you ever feel like you can’t stop to take a break? It may be time to read this...
Have you ever felt that there just aren’t enough hours in the day? Between family commitments, career, household tasks and everything in between, there’s some definite truth behind the saying that a woman’s work is never done.
Biochemist Dr Libby Weaver coined the term Rushing Woman’s Syndrome a decade ago to describe the physical effects that take place in our bodies as a result of always being on the go.
“What’s unfolded for a lot of women is a frantic double shift of work day and night, with very little if any rest,” she explains. “When women do paid work, and household work and childcare, it’s really the equivalent of three jobs.”
WHAT IS RUSHING WOMAN’S SYNDROME?
Most of us are familiar with the surge of adrenaline that comes when we suddenly feel alarmed or stressed. When this happens we enter a state known as fight or flight mode, which is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system.
This effect is meant to be a temporary response that helps us to act fast when we’re under threat. But Dr Libby says many of us are now spending too much time in fight or flight mode, thanks to the constant kind of stress that comes with modern life. “The stress response is switched on pretty constantly,” she explains. “Our adrenaline is often driven by psychological stress and so for a lot of people, it never ends.”
THE SCIENCE OF STRESS HORMONES
While adrenaline can be good in small doses, Dr Libby says too much can affect everything from our sleep to our blood pressure to our sex hormones.
If we remain stressed for a long time, our bodies will eventually start to release large amounts of cortisol. “Cortisol is our long-term stress hormone,” she explains.
Like adrenaline, cortisol only becomes a problem if our body releases too much. Some of the main symptoms of excess cortisol include high blood pressure, mood swings, muscle weakness and weight gain. “We might be eating and moving the same as we always have, but our body fat levels start to go up,” says Dr Libby.
BURNOUT
When stress goes untreated for too long, Dr Libby says we can reach an extreme point of fatigue known as burnout. “It’s the body saying we really need to address either the way that you eat, drink, move, think, breathe, believe or perceive,” she explains.
If you reach the point of burnout, Dr Libby says it’s important to show yourself care and kindness, by making sure that you’re eating lots of nutritious food, avoiding too much alcohol and sticking to gentle exercises like walking.
She also recommends getting a blood test for thyroid dysfunction and nutritional deficiencies. “If someone’s iron deficient, it’s very difficult to recover from burnout because iron helps with the transportation of oxygen all around the body,” she says.
SELF-COMPASSION
If you’re feeling struggling to meet all of your commitments, Dr Libby says it’s important to go easy on yourself. For many of us, we also need to stop worrying about what other people think.
“A lot of our stress comes about when we perceive the disapproval of others,” she explains. “It might be what our parents think of us, or our inner circle of friends or our boss or particular colleagues.”
By developing a better understanding of ourselves, Dr Libby says we put ourselves in a better position to make ourselves well again. “We’ve often got to get to the heart of why we sacrificed our health in the first place,” she says.