Can you really become immune to stress?

The short answer is yes. You can build your stress immunity to where you are capable of handling stress and life well. It’s not that you’ll never experience stress again, but that it will have less power over you. Even the healthiest person gets sick once in a while, but it’s usually not as bad and they rebound quickly. The key to having a strong stress immunity is getting to the root of stress and resolving the reactions before they’re triggered.

First of all, let’s make sure we’re on the same page. There is a difference between stress and a stressor. Stress is internal. It’s the body’s response to any demand placed upon it. A stressor is an event or condition that triggers the sequence that leads to the stress response.

The current approach is to manage stress. The strategies rely on three types of interventions: 1) Removing a person from the stressful situation; 2) Building sufficient skills or awareness to manage stress after it has been triggered; and 3) Rehabilitating the individual after a crisis.

Unfortunately, these approaches aren’t enough. First, we can’t always protect people from stressful situations. Life is stressful! Second, these coping strategies are valuable, but they’re not sufficient. Third, rehabilitation is a necessary resource and response to have access to, but it’s often expensive and traumatic. These stress management interventions don’t solve the bigger stress problem.

These can help support someone who already has strong stress immunity, but they don’t create stress immunity by themselves. Programs like the Stress Immunity Reboot help us accomplish this.

The question, then, is: Would you rather manage a problem or be immune to it? Of course, you’d rather be immune.

So, what does it mean to become immune to stress? It means addressing the internal wounds that cause susceptibility to stress. Our research continues to show that past trauma of all shapes and sizes is the primary catalyst for the stress response. It’s critical that we understand this point if we're really going to get to the root of stress. We can’t solve the problem of stress with a superficial approach. The subconscious holds our past traumas that cause this susceptibility, so the solution is deep inside of us.

We talk more about trauma at the root of stress HERE.