When you’re a health geek like myself, getting knocked over by a nasty flu virus for 10 days can really tip you over.
I don’t just mean with fevers and flu symptoms, I mean mentally.
Priding myself on not getting sick while everyone at work and home succumbed to winter bugs, I mistakenly believed I was bullet proof. But pride comes before a fall and fall I did - hard.
I’m not sure how many times I deliriously contacted my doctor asking for cat scans and intensive testing as to what it must be that I was dying of, but she kept patiently reassuring me to wait it out, to accept I had the flu.
Not possible, I thought, looking accusingly at my many health supplements and lypospheric Vitamin C sachets.
But during my convalescence I read Dr Libby Weaver’s new book, ‘The Invisible Load – a guide to overcoming stress and overwhelm’. She reckons the stress we carry today is often an ‘invisible load’, the bits no one sees which drive our physical and emotional load. Stuff like expectations, the drive to be a good person, managing ourselves, our families, our jobs and even our social media profiles well, clearing our inboxes, responding to all the people who require things of us.
She talked about stress hacks like turning off notifications – fewer ‘pings’ in your life demanding your attention, more nature, less junk, more whole food, less screentime, more belly breathing. But she also addressed the generational differences in what stresses us out.
Dr Libby says when she asks women in their 20s what stresses them out, it’s their Instagram and their body, whereas women in their 40s are more likely to stress about an overflowing inbox or to-do list.
Both, she says, are the same thing: perceived failure. Worrying about how others see us.
What I think is heartening though is that the next generation is getting better at recognising all this.
A recent NZ Herald editorial titled ‘Generation Anxious reaches out for help,’ talked about how this generation is ‘set apart by its willingness to seek help’.
It cites a recent report which says: ‘One young adult in every five has sought mental health treatment in the past year.’
So surely that gives us hope that when it comes to the invisible load, and stress, younger people are getting better at sticking their hands up sooner.
It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re any less likely to get the flu, but it does mean they’re more willing to accept they’re not bullet proof. Which hopefully means they make smart changes for their bodies and minds, accordingly.
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