Is Residual Stress Impacting Your Well-Being?

Residual stress is a tension that continues to persist, affecting individuals mentally, emotionally, and physically, sometimes long after the stressful situation has passed. For example, after completing a presentation in front of your peers, stress may remain in your system for some time. 

Recognizing the signs, symptoms, and causes of residual stress may help you move forward. Symptoms may affect your life and potentially lead to longer-term health issues. Cognitive impairment, strained relationships, and chronic conditions are among some of the problems that may occur if you struggle to recognize symptoms or choose to ignore them. After acknowledging residual stress symptoms, you can take proactive steps toward your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Residual stress: A physics perspective

Often, residual stress is discussed in scientific environments based on physical materials and how they respond to certain transformations and changes. More research is required to assess the effects of residual stress on people and understand the types of residual stress that exist in the world. However, relating the residual stress of materials to that of people and how different external forces can affect individuals in various ways may be a way to understand this phenomenon. 

Tensile and compressive stress

In physics, tensile stress refers to a single material being pulled apart. Individuals can look at two separate areas when looking for the equivalent in terms of psychological stress. Firstly, a person might experience this type of residual stress if dealing with an internal conflict. An internal conflict refers to a psychological struggle in the mind. For example, a person's thoughts and feelings might oppose their religious beliefs and cause internal conflict. Alternatively, residual tensile stress may be caused when a person is torn between difficult decisions. This stress may be exemplified by the pressure of having to make decisions during one’s work or home responsibilities. 

You may ease the impact of tensile and compressive residual stress in a few ways. Reducing your demands, allowing yourself more time to complete work, and delegating responsibilities to colleagues and family members may mitigate stressors. Doing so may help you be less burdened with responsibilities, reducing compressive residual stresses in your life. In terms of tensile stresses, acknowledging conflicting feelings and reflecting on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can be beneficial. This way, you can enhance your self-awareness and approach future decisions more clearly, with insight and balance. 

Plastic deformation

In physics, plastic deformation refers to the permanent distortion of material after being impacted by tensile, compressive, or other stressors. From a psychological perspective, individuals may relate this process to the mental, emotional, and physical challenges we experience after a stressful or traumatic event. While it’s important to acknowledge that further research is needed to discover effective treatment methods for trauma, research shows that PTSD can be a lifelong problem. Adjacent plastically deformed material is usually irreversible. However, there are often effective ways to manage trauma, from eating nutritious meals to engaging in therapy sessions and connecting with loved ones.

Neutron diffraction

Neutron diffraction is a technique physicians use to measure residual stresses within a specific material in a non-destructive manner. While this concept may not relate to the mental, emotional, or psychological stress an individual may experience, it can relate to assessment and treatment methods like therapy. In a non-invasive manner, therapists help people undercover underlying stressors in a person’s life and provide practical strategies for self-transformation, enhancement, and growth. Neutron diffraction uses various measurement techniques to understand the components of a given material. Similarly, there are different therapy methods, from cognitive-behavioral therapy to psychodynamic therapy and behavioral therapy, which each employ different assessment and treatment methods to support clients.

Thermo-mechanical processing

Thermal or mechanical processing are other scientific terms where materials are affected by external factors such as temperature and pressure. These processes can metaphorically relate to people since high-pressure situations can induce stress responses. Thermo-mechanical processes are linked with plastic deformation since the applied stress from heat and pressure can lead to permanent changes in the material's structure. Humans can experience a similar phenomenon when intense experiences leave lasting effects on mental, psychological, and emotional processing.

What influences residual stress?

The development and persistence of residual stresses are often due to environmental factors. Like materials are affected by external loading forces and the support of surrounding material, humans are affected by the surrounding environment, from the community to the home and the workplace. Below are factors in the environment that influence daily life stress: 

• Social interactions: Social community can involve the community of friends, family, and co-workers you associate with daily and how they contribute to your health and well-being. 
• Work conditions: From workplace hygiene to the workload you are responsible for, every professional situation can impact the everyday stress you are exposed to. 
• Living situations: Because a lot of personal time is spent in the home environment, a warm, supportive, and safe space is conducive to overall health and well-being.
• Financial concerns: Financial stressors can be overwhelming and cause people to take on longer, more challenging shifts in their workplace.
• Mental health: Mental health conditions and stress are interrelated. Stress is a risk factor for developing anxiety and depression while also being a response to an anxious episode.

While positive environmental factors can be conducive to health and well-being, negative factors, such as having to work overtime, can exacerbate residual stress. Try to create a stress-relieved external atmosphere while working on your inner space with a therapist.

Work through chronic stress in therapy

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Support options 

In physics and materials science, addressing problems with materials early can be beneficial. The same is the case for early intervention in therapy, as a therapist may help you prevent the development of stress. After identifying stressors early on, therapists can offer guidance, support, knowledge, and treatment. 

If you face barriers to in-person therapy due to challenges like financial insecurity or inaccessibility, you may also find online therapy through a platform like BetterHelp beneficial. Similarly to how a physicist has expertise in materials, online therapists may provide clients with specialized care and attention, all from the comfort of their homes. Online therapy platforms also offer clients unique tools, such as journaling prompts, worksheets, and the option of weekly support groups. 

During an initial session with an online therapist, you may receive a mental, physical, and emotional assessment while getting to know your therapist on a more personal level. This assessment may be useful for residual stress measurement and building a supportive therapeutic relationship with your therapist. Research shows that internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy is an effective method of treatment for chronic stress. During online therapy sessions, you can develop personalized therapeutic plans for targeting stress to mitigate the impact of stress on your day-to-day life.