How The Brit + Co Editors Cope With Stress And Anxiety

Personality Types And How They Deal With Stress

The personality type framework, as measured by the Myers-Briggs(MBTI) assessment, looks at four aspects of personality:

• Extraversion-Introversion — People with an Extraversion personality preference are energized by and focus their attention on what’s happening around them, their external world. They are likely to find spending too much time alone without enough external stimulation quite stressful. People with an Introversion preference are energized by and focus their attention on their inner world of thoughts and feelings. They can become stressed if they are forced to spend too much time with others, or when they have to cope with too many external distractions.
• Sensing-Intuition — is all about how we take in information. People with a Sensing preference prefer information that is realistic, practical, built on past or present real-life experiences, and often detailed. They can be stressed when things are ambiguous and unclear, without any clear direction. People with an Intuition preference are interested in the big picture, in how things connect, and in ideas rather than facts. They will find having to follow exact instructions stressful, and working with people who demand lots of detail.
• Thinking-Feeling —People with a Thinking preference want to make decisions using objective logic and will be stressed when decisions seem to be subjective, or when they are forced to concentrate on people rather than the task at hand. People with a Feeling preference want to make decisions that line up with their values and they will be stressed if they feel that those values are not being respected, and when there is conflict.
• Judging-Perceiving — People with a Judging preference want to live in an organized, planned way and will find dealing with disorganized people stressful, or having to rush things at the last minute. People with a Judging preference want to live in a more spontaneous, emergent way and will become stressed when they have to deal with inflexible people, or when they are forced to make decisions before they feel they really need to.

Everyone will have a preference for Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I), for Sensing (S) or for Intuition (N), for Thinking (T) or for Feeling (F), and for Judging (J) or for Perceiving (P). These four preferences combine together dynamically to give one of 16 types. For example, if someone has preferences for Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking and Judging, then their overall type would be ESTJ. If you know your type, you can identify your likely stressors (and so avoid or mitigate them), your typical behavior under everyday stress (so that you can recognize when you are stressed) and what to do to cope with that reaction, stop the stress cycle and so build resilience. Here’s the detail for each type.

ESTP and ESFP

Stressors

• Lack of stimulation and excitement
• Theoretical, abstract tasks without any practical application right now
• Being physically confined, e.g. though illness or circumstance

Behavior under everyday stress

• Seeks out more and more external stimulation and excitement
• May behave in a thrill-seeking or dangerous way or over-indulge
• Lives solely in the present moment and will not make any decisions

How to stop the stress cycle

• Pause, stop what you are doing, or think through what you will do next before you do it

ESTJ and ENTJ

Stressors

• Inefficient people, systems, or organizations
• Lack of closure, not being able to make decisions, blockers
• Having to focus on people's feelings, rather than the task

Behavior under everyday stress

• Becomes overly directive, forceful, or even aggressive
• Makes snap decisions and imposes them on others
• Dismisses evidence/other opinions that don't fir your view

How to stop the stress cycle

• Stop making any decisions until you have taken some time out to explore all the available information.

ENTP and ENFP

Stressors

• People who say "it'll never work"
• Too much seemingly irrelevant detail
• Lack of variety; not being able to do anything new

Behavior under everyday stress

• Shares increasingly impractical ideas with more and more people
• Unable to take things seriously, becomes destructively 'playful'
• Will be tied down to decisions

How to stop the stress cycle

• Slow down. Take some time out to quietly decide on a course of action

ESFJ and ENFJ

Stressors

• Conflict with others and between others
• Lack of warmth, not having friendliness reciprocated
• Injustice in the world at large

Behavior under everyday stress

• Become effusive and over-friendly
• Becomes demanding in getting your own and others' needs met
• Interprets situations in terms of your values, ignoring any other evidence

How to stop the stress cycle

• Step back from the situation and the people involved and consider alternatives and the facts

INTP and ISTP

Stressors

• Having your carefully reasoned solutions dismissed or ignored
• Illogical decisions that have not been thought through
• Excessive displays of approval or emotion from others

Behavior under everyday stress

• Withdraws to solve problems by yourself
• Fixates on finding the one correct solution
• Ignores other people; makes decisions without informing them

How to stop the stress cycle

• Talk to others to explore information and ideas

ISTJ and ISFJ

Stressors

• Having to act without detailed, practical information or plans
• Having the lessons of your experience dismissed by others
• Changing things that already work

Behavior under everyday stress

• Obsessively searches for that one important piece of information
• Withdraws from the outer world
• Cannot make a decision until all the information has been found

How to stop the stress cycle

• Talk to others to help you prioritize and make a decision

ISFP and INFP

Stressors

• People who ignore, dismiss, or contravene your values
• Working in a job that is at odds with those values
• Inflexible and unthinking people or organizations

Behavior under everyday stress

• Withdraws into an inner dialogue
• Obsessively works through decisions that fir your values
• Ignores facts that do not fit with the picture you have painted

How to stop the stress cycle

• Talk to others to get their reassurance and help in considering the facts and alternatives

INTJ and INFJ

Stressors

• Not having time to think through possibilities before answering
• Having your well-considered ideas dismissed or ignored
• Disorganized, opinionated people

Behavior under everyday stress

• Withdraws to build increasingly complex ideas in your head
• These models may become divorced from reality
• Unable to act under every possibility has been explored

How to stop the stress cycle

• Talk to others to help decide which of your many ideas should be pursued

Sleep Anxiety Signs To Look Out For Right Now

1. Difficulty Falling Asleep Despite Feeling Tired

Dr. Holliday-Bell shared that one sign that your body is anxious when you’re trying to go to sleep is that you find it difficult to fall asleep despite feeling tired. Combat these feelings by incorporating movement into your day via a workout at the gym or from the comfort of your own home.

2. Increase In Heart Rate, Respiratory Rate, Or Blood Pressure When In Bed

An anxiety-inducing factor could be using your phone and/or exposure to other screens before bedtime. “Light is the strongest factor influencing your circadian rhythm in a way that tells you to be awake and alert, so it’s important to limit light exposure before bed as it can interfere with your natural melatonin release,” says Dr. Holliday-Bell. “Red light, on the other hand, has been shown to more effectively promote natural melatonin release making it easier to fall asleep;” our go-to red light device is the Helight Sleep.

3. Racing Thoughts That Make It Difficult To Fall Asleep

If your to-do list for the next day is taking up mental real estate and inducing anxiety night after night, it could be beneficial to create a morning routine that you look forward to each day. The repetition will set your mind at ease, and you won’t have any surprises thrown your way when you wake up.

4. Fear Of Not Being Able To Fall Asleep

This could also manifest as a fear of waking up in the middle of the night, but both make it hard for you to sleep at all. “Changes in volume or tone of sounds can lead to disrupted sleep, so listening to a soothing sound like white noise as you drift off to sleep can help prevent those disruptions and make it easier to fall and stay asleep,” says Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell. If you have white noise playing throughout the night, it will likely soothe you back to sleep even if you wake up before your alarm has gone off.

5. Muscle Tension

Muscle tension, especially in the neck, shoulders, and jaw when in bed is an uncomfortable side effect of anxiety. To combat this sensation, try a natural muscle relaxer like Magnesium. According to Forbes Health, “magnesium is an essential mineral involved in almost all major metabolic and biochemical processes, including protein and nucleic acid synthesis, regulation of metabolic pathways, neurotransmission, neuromuscular function and regulation of cardiac rhythm.” Taking this supplement before bed can ease tension and send you off to a restful sleep.

6. Sweating

Sweating before bed is a tell-tale sign of anxiety around sleep. If you experience these hot flashes, try Buffy’s Cooling Eucalyptus Sheets or silk pajamas from Petite Plume which use natural fibers that are naturally moisture-wicking.

7. Feeling Restless Or An Inability To Get Comfortable

If you suffer from anxiety, you may find it difficult to get comfortable in bed. Step one to achieving a more cushy rest is sleeping on the mattress of your dreams (no pun intended). I recently switched to an Emma mattress and have been sleeping through the night – which is rare for me – almost daily.

8. Frequent Awakenings

If you wake up often during the night and find it difficult to fall back asleep once you do, keeping a journal by your bedside could help to alleviate feelings of anxiety. If a blank notebook feels daunting, this journal with guided prompts from No Particular Order feels like a warm hug on nights when your mind is swirling.

9. It's Easier To Sleep Anywhere That's Not Your Bed

Prefer the couch to your bed? If you can sleep comfortably everywhere except for your own bed, you could benefit from a repetitive nighttime routine. Dr. Holliday-Bell shared that “ideally your bedtime routine should start about 45 minutes to an hour before your [actual] bedtime.” During this time, suggested activities include putting your screens away, taking a hot bath or shower, reading a book, or listening to a sleep-focused meditation.

10. Dreading Going To Sleep At Night

Instead of dreading going to bed, incorporate a treat that you look forward to every night into your pre-bed rituals. Our favorite way to unwind is by sipping on a sleepytime tea; creating a routine that involves curling up on the couch with a warm mug before crawling into bed is sure to leave you feeling blissed out.

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!