Is secondhand stress real?
Like a common cold or a fit of the giggles, research has confirmed that stress is contagious. Here's why, and how to make yourself immune.
Meetings with your wound-up boss. Talking to your high-strung partner. Helping your anxious child get through homework. You start these interactions calm, cool, and collected but end them tense and troubled. That’s because other people’s stress can turn into your stress.
Research has found that through a process calledemotional contagionwe can catch other people’s emotions, says Pelin Kesebir, PhD, an Assistant Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Healthy Minds.
“We are really susceptible to other people’s emotions,” says Kesebir. “And especially negative emotions are easier to catch than positive emotions.”
Protect yourself from secondhand stress
There are things you can do before, during, and after interacting with stressed out people that can help immunise you against secondhand stress, says psychiatrist Patricia Normand, MD, Director of Wellness and Integrative Health in the Department of Psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
If someone else’s home or work related stress becomes a chronic problem for you, both Kesebir and Dr. Normand recommend that you evaluate getting out of that situation or relationship. Again, be sure to step back before making a decision. “You want to think about these things when you’re not in the middle of them,” says Normand.