Intellectual stress
It is very seldom written about. Stress is usually associated with emotional stress , even though the word stress was used to denote physical or structural stress in construction . In 1955 the Canadian Hungarian Endocrinologist by the name of Hans Selye popularized the term STRESS to denote the effect on the body (through hormonal actions). Since then the word has become synonymous with any unpleasant situation: stress at work, stress at school, stressful life.
I wonder, did our ancestors lead stressful lives? Recent research shows that they spent less energy to get their necessary work done, in fact they were good at conserving their energies
Emotional stress is the quotidian understanding of stress in modern and western societies even though like many other aspects of life in the west, it has spread to the less developed societies as well. Like a great leader of the Caribbean once said: Dont expect equality from Globalization. Right now Globalization, either through surreptitious (the west) or aggressive (China) encroachment, allows the poor in Sahel to see how well the Other are living. It has increased despair and perhaps STRESS.
I would like to define another form of Stress: Intellectual stress. In the words of my good friend and Colleague, Dr Mark from Miami:
Last week, I was overcome by sudden fatigue that left me with no energy and there were many sorts of physical symptoms.
He wrote:
Perhaps your ailment is being available to so many people to help them. That includes a lot of screen time which is an additional visual stimuli to fatigue. I do feel that you are giving a bit too much energy taking care of others and not enough on yourself. And the screen time and all the consultations may be a bit too much. And he added you need Spiritual Healing from Cuba (mentioning a specific name)
Covid 19 has brought all sorts of stress to the millions of people, poor have become poorer, very rich have become richer , and every one is psychologically affected and the Intellectual stress is possibly felt by people who are “burned out”
I was not working in a hospital nor was I taking care of patients with Covid 19.
Then what was the reason of this Intellectual Stress and how does it manifest itself.
I have not been traveling, there was two periods of nine months when I was not traveling at all, domestically or internationally.
Of course the majority the people in the world were in similar situation. But the change from constant traveling to a state of immobility brought in a staleness to my mind that was not imaginable.
Over the course of my travels I had accrued many friends around the world and some of them whom became good friends. In the early days of the pandemic, all of us welcomed the chance to be reconnected to each other. But as the seriousness of the pandemic set in, I was compelled to read and study and sift through so much information which were being put forth by individuals who monger hate and fear rathe than based on the science that which was evolving. My knowledge began to expand at an astronomical rate, with it also came the responsibility of conveying this knowledge to others. As my anthropology professor used to say, for knowledge to be knowledge, you have to be able to transfer it. Conversations, consultations prolonged into the day and night and it was such a pleasure, spending most of the day and some of the night chatting with friends, usually in more than one language. One year into the isolation, even though I was staying in a house in Miami, most of the time occupied by a retired couple, and with no shortage of food, something began to change in my mind and began to be felt in the body. The brain felt as it was filling up, as if it was being overloaded and that I was annoyed when more than one person was seeking my attention, from a medical knowledge point of view I have had never a problem sleeping throughout the night and the sleep became interrupted, the total period of time of sleep becoming considerably shorter. Another new soporific phenomenon was the appearance of unpleasant dreams and unpleasant scenes appearing while still awake.
I knew something was amiss. Physically I was well and I was not feeling emotionally unwell, but the etiology became clear after an incident last week.
Once a week I go to my workplace, the other days connected on line. Towards the end of the day I was told of some tragic news that had happened in the community.
I felt as if someone had hit me in the head with a sledgehammer, so immense was the trauma of the event felt by me.
I left the workplace, drove the 35 miles to the place I was staying and fortunately the house was empty so that I could enjoy the silence and tranquility. But I did not recognize what the extent of how much my body would react to this acute on chronic reaction to the stress that I now call the Intellectual Stress.
I sat down on the sofa in the living room and for the next 16 hours, I was in a profound lethargic phase, where answering the phone became a chore so I put away the phone. Going to the kitchen was out of question. When I regained strength the next day, I could see that multiple messages and telephone calls had arrived from various countries. I am a good correspondent even though I am not a participant in social media, obviously my friends were worried why I had not answered them.
I did not wish to inform all my friends what was happening but chose to inform those carefully chosen: my Cuban sister who is a spiritual healer in Cuba, a close friend in Sao Paolo, Brasil, a colleague and good friend in Mexico-USA border, a Cuban colleague currently in Mexico City, two close friends, one in Miami and the other in Boynton Beach in Florida.
The colleague in Mexico, called a pharmacy near my house (the marvels of Internet) and ordered Pedialyte rehydrating solution and some simple medications for symptomatic relief. I also kept in touch with these people.
What happened to my body? By day 3, I was recuperating, and I had neither seen a doctor nor was I taking any medications other than the rehydrating liquid.
Here is where the diagnosis of my dear friend from Boynton Beach reverberates the truth:
(I copy it from above )
He wrote:
Perhaps your ailment is being available to so many people to help them. That includes a lot of screen time which is an additional visual stimuli to fatigue. I do feel that you are giving a bit too much energy taking care of others and not enough on yourself. And the screen time and all the consultations may be a bit too much. And he added you need Spiritual Healing from Cuba (mentioning a specific name)
I agree…
The spiritual help promptly arrived from Cuba. A spiritual MESA or table was set up in La Habana where the spiritual healer could “see” me and prescribe spiritual advice. She has prescribed 21 days of “treatment” in which she wants me to evaluate certain relationships, a change in the way of living from the immediate past.
I feel well, relieved, with diagnosis and treatment outside of the western biomedical concepts.
And content in my heart with the lesson that I have learned:
When you have INTELLECTUAL stress, you need a SPIRITUAL healer..
