Do You Suffer From 'Rushing Woman's Syndrome'?
Balancing a semester full of class, work, clubs, passion projects, and internships with socialization, time for solitude, and mental/physical health check-ins can put more on students' plates than the human mind is meant to handle. Designed with excellent brains used to dictate fight or flight reactions based on the adrenal release, we naturally take on stress, struggle, and decision with more evolved brain function.
Unfortunately, today's world asks us to react rapidly changing unnatural stimuli, outer pressures the evolution of our minds cannot account for. To combat this, across the board, humans wake with caffeine and relax with substances like alcohol. Processed sugar rushes and unnecessary adrenaline created by screen time don't aid our brain's natural functions either. These new aspects adapted by humanity make our brains tell our bodies to engage a fight-or-flight response. This causes adrenaline and cortisol levels to spike, only adding to our existing stress. If we don't have the proper nutrients to fuel these responses (many Americans' diets don't) then our body doesn't ‘run' correctly. The methods we use to de-stress are added stressors that drain our energy and our wallets (adding yet another stressor).
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In her studies, and resulting book "Rushing Woman's Syndrome", Dr. Libby Weaver focuses on the modern adult woman's battles with stress, to-do lists, and the feeling of being so tired yet so wired. Dr. Weaver also delves into the concept of human attachment to a lack of nutrients, addictions to caffeine and alcohol, and the obsession with internalizing beliefs that we are not enough. She argues that much of these IBS- and PMS-- inducing extrinsic forces come from a lack of proper breathwork, not enough time alone, and poor diet.
I'd argue that these symptoms are not only found in the "working mother's who attempt to do it all and find themselves always tired- but wired" (Weaver, Tedx), but also in the student bodies of colleges, high schools, and even middle schools. America's education system values success so much so that with modern schooling comes looming pressures. Theoretically, students should use time in the education system to focus on absorbing the information they are taught. Instead, that time is spent worrying about grades, applications, and balancing budgets. The very system students pay to ignite their minds is the same system contributing to the disorder that prevents them from doing so.
Weaver spreads awareness of not only this initial call to action but also highlights practical, FREE solutions on digital platforms. Her short Tedx Talk opens the door to a deep mental health check-in and her online questionnaire can help you decipher if you are overloaded, overstimulated, and overstressed.
I urge any young people who feel constantly loaded and find the time of solitude, unconnected from the digi-verse, anxiety-inducing to look into her free online resources and consider implementing deep breathing exercises into hectic days to find clarity, wisdom, and gratitude.
Strike Out,
Writer: Brittyn Dion Bonham
Editors: Giselle Parks and Savannah Tindall
Tallahassee