The Stress Test
How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
Why is it that some people react to seemingly trivial emotional upset – like failing an unimportant exam – with distress, while others power through life-changing tragedies showing barely any emotional upset whatsoever? How do some people shine brilliantly at public speaking when others stumble with their words and seem on the verge of an anxiety attack? Why do some people sink into all-consuming depression when life has dealt them a poor hand, while in others it merely increases their resilience?
The difference between too much pressure and too little can result in either debilitating stress or enduring demotivation in extreme situations. However, the right level of challenge and stress can help people to flourish and achieve more than they ever thought possible.
In The Stress Test, clinical psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Professor Ian Robertson, armed with over four decades of research, reveals how we can shape our brain's response to pressure and answers the question: can stress ever be a good thing? The Stress Test is a revelatory study of how and why we react to pressure in the way we do, with real practical benefit to how we live.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Clinical psychologist and neuroscientist Robertson (The Winner Effect) explores why stress energizes some people and has devastating effects on others in this fascinating treatise on the human mind something he describes as a malleable object, not hardwired. "If psychological stressors can physically change the brain... surely psychological therapies should be able to do the same," he writes. Why do some people become energized through anxiety and stress, while other people often those with a more fixed view of themselves see difficult situation as indications they aren't competent, and crumble? It's how the "software of the mind" combines with the "hardware of the brain," Robertson says. One key piece of that mix is noradrenaline, a chemical he calls a "natural alerting drug." It is also a neuromodulator, which strengthens the brain's ability to form connections and thereby its learning and memory functions. In fact, he believes noradrenaline can be a partial antidote to Alzheimer's disease, making brain cells less susceptible to damaging amyloid proteins. The author emphasizes, however, that it's necessary to find the balance between too little and too much stress. Robertson's enlightening theories on brain chemistry make fascinating food for thought and will help readers see the upside of stress.
