Our guest speakers were Carrie Wieder and Nellie Brown, who were on hand to talk about Stress and Self Care and who were introduced by Becky Robbins. Wieder is a licensed master social worker who began her tenure at Erie County Medical Center in 2015. She worked on inpatient behavioral health floors before transitioning to the immunodeficiency services clinic. She's been pat of the Center of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic for the past six years. She studied at both St. Bonaventure University and the University at Buffalo where she received her master's degree in social work. Brown is a certified Industrial Hygienist and is the Workplace Health and Safety Program Director of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She provides expertise for the Cannabis Workforce Initiative. As a certified industrial hygienist provides virtual and on-site training and technical assistance on a wide range of occupational safety and health hazards.
Ms. Brown then spoke about stress and how to treat it. She said there is both good stress and bad stress and her presentation would focus on the latter and how we have the ability to respond to both short-term and long-term negative stress. Short term stress is dealt with through the "fight or flight" response. When a stressor begins to affect us, we start to respond very quickly. Our body secretes hormones like adrenaline and noradrenaline, and our heart rate increases, our breathing rate increases, and our blood vessels dilate out to the limbs so that we can fight or run. More sugar is also secreted in the blood stream so we have more energy, and both our vision and hearing becomes more focused.
For long-term stress, Ms. Brown noted that we also have evolved with a way to deal with it, known as the vigilance response. The vigilance response was developed through evolution when early man had to deal with stresses that went on for weeks or even months, like extremes in the weather, or how we can get through a long, cold winter with not a lot of food. If you're dealing with a stressor, and it's going to go on for a while, your body and mind shift over into the long term or chronic stress mode, which can have an intense toll on our bodies. This impact includes a reduced hormone production, lack of sleep, and weight gain - all of which are ways our bodies evolved over time to deal with long-term stress and which still occur in today's modern environment. But there are several ways we can deal with and reduce these long-term stresses. They include relying on humor, getting more exercise and spending time outdoors, working on getting more sleep, and developing and maintaining personal relationships. Each of these help to regrow the hippocampus areas of our brains, which is used to assist with memory, learning, and emotion - all of which are diminished during times of stress.
Both Brown and Weider also took time fielding several questions from members in the audience. Following the presentation and Q&A sessions, the meeting was adjourned.
