For Release February 4, 2003

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

Have you ever thought about why we do the things we do? What is our driving motivation in life? Why do we have the jobs or the hobbies that we do? Those are the sort of questions that have been running through my mind since last week.

I had the opportunity to participate in a program last week dealing with farm financial distress being caused by several years of drought. One of our speakers was very entertaining and very good. He discussed stress and distress. These two terms are often used interchangeably and yet, as one of our speakers pointed out, they really are different. We can probably discuss all day, to the point of distress, about the difference and similarities of these two words, but just stay with me here and let’s look at the two and what they mean to each of us.

Stress is a very normal part of our lives. In fact some feel that as a human species we tend to gravitate towards stress. What is the thrill of riding a roller coaster? It’s that feeling that we get as we hurtle towards the ground with the anticipation of not crashing. This is a form of stress. It makes our heart race, our blood pressure rise and the entire body tenses up a little bit. What drives an explorer to explore? What pushes a young child to climb that hill? What is the thrill of discovery or exploration? It’s that feeling of excitement that is essentially another form of stress.

With that thrill of discovery or exploration comes stress and there also comes risk. If the risk becomes too great then the stress turns into distress. Distress is that point when stress becomes physically or emotionally harmful. Many people walk the edge every day on their job. We saw the ultimate price paid by seven brave men and women this past weekend. Yet every one of their family, that I heard interviewed, talked about those astronauts knowing the risk of what they were doing.

Most of us, while in our every day job, usually aren’t quite that far out there, teetering between stress and distress. Yet our jobs and the circumstances surrounding them, can get out of our control. We end up with less and less that we can control and end up feeling out of control. That’s the situation that a lot of farmers and ranchers are starting to face, but any business owner or individual can be forced to deal with as well. The weather works against us and the crops don’t produce like they should. The cost of raising livestock goes higher and higher and the value of those animals doesn’t keep pace, or moves lower. Nothing seems to be in control.

Everyone reacts differently to stress and distress. Some show it very visibly, others keep it hidden under the surface. Some deal with distress well one time, and the next time it becomes very difficult. It took all day for our speakers to talk about dealing with distress, so I can’t begin to cover it with a few words here, and I won’t try.

But I will say this. We, as human beings, owe it to each other to keep an eye out for our friends, neighbors and coworkers. We don’t interfere, but we try to stay in touch. And when we see someone that starts to withdraw and drop out, or starts saying things out of the ordinary or act very different than they used to, then we take those as little warning signs and we start trying to see if something is wrong. If something is wrong, then we see what we can do to help, or we find that maybe someone else is better prepared to help. Our seven astronauts were in a situation of distress that was out of our, and their, control. But with a friend or a neighbor in distress, there is much that we may be able to do for them. And wouldn’t it also be a helpless feeling if we knew someone needed help, but didn’t act in time?

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