Are you ‘enhanced’ by your stress?

When George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, and protestors hit the streets worldwide, I felt catapulted back to the Civil Rights Movement and I was paralysed—heartbroken by the racism and the violence; overwhelmed by the fear and regret that my children (who are half black and half Asian) are growing up in a world where bafflingly, racism is still an issue; and debilitated by the hopeless and helpless feeling that this is something I can't fix.

In the June issue of the JPP's international quarterly journal, International Paramedic Practice, Wheeler and Dippenaar (2020) discuss both the physiological and psychological components of paramedic wellbeing. In it, they point out that stress has both positive and negative psychological effects, differentiating between a ‘stress is debilitating’ and a ‘stress-is-enhancing’ mindset. Whether stress is perceived as positive or negative, they explain, is connected with a person's ability to do something about the external stressor. This explains why my inability to change what is happening in the world I brought my own mixed-race children into made me feel negative and debilitated, rather than empowered to make a difference like so many of those around me. However, I realise that speaking out and teaching my children are small ways that I can make a difference, and while I am still upset (to put it lightly), I am beginning to feel less debilitated and more enhanced by the stress I feel.