Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

As a person who gets stressed somewhat easily I wanted to take a deep dive into the topic and see if I can find some ways to manage those tendencies better. Sapolsky was my professor for a biology class I took my senior year, and his knack for making technical content enjoyable in lectures extended to his writing style - it’s highly technical, yet most parts are accessible, and often laced with his witty yet dry humor. The book goes into detail on how stress affects individual parts and systems of the body on the biological level, then explores more on its effects on the psychological and physiological. It’s a long read especially on the heavy biology of the first part, but what I found most interesting was the latter half where there’s more emphasis on psychological stress for humans and the core levers that induce stress (and, the very useful corollaries on how to manage that stress).

In managing stress, there were some more interesting and provocative ways other than the more obvious ones like exercising regularly and meditating. One of the best ways to reduce stress is to not feel low-status, with emphasis on “feel” rather than “be” low-status, as subjective measures of being poor/low-status is actually a better predictor of stress-related health problems than absolute levels of status or wealth (even though poverty objectively brings its slew of health problems, the poor who subjectively feel well-off may suffer less stress-related problems than a rich but unsatisfied person). Sapolsky also explores how a strong internal locus of control can fend off stress-induced learned helplessness, as someone who feels they have power to change their bad situation may be less depressed and succumb to a mildly stressful situation. Yet, when there is something overwhelming, it’s better to have the cognitive flexibility and have something or someone else to take the fall - an outlet, scapegoat - which acts to displace the anger or frustration instead of feeling overly guilty or regretful and taking on undue amounts of responsibility for something outside of one’s own control.