Stress is contagious. Here’s how not to catch it.

Current global turmoil has many of us stressed. Even if we are not directly affected by conflict, job losses or market changes hurting our retirement savings, we may know others who are.

Keeping stress at bay can be challenging. And at times when many people are stressed, avoiding stress contagion — the transmission of stress from one person or group of people to others — can be difficult. Particularly because of omnipresent social media, where stressors are often amplified.

“We tend to favor the negative aspects of news,” said Natalia Duque-Wilckens, an assistant professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, so that is what we share with others. “And that’s a huge stress contagion that happens because we’re social, and we care about what’s happening to other humans as well.”

But it isn’t impossible to avoid stress contagion. And taking on the stress of others isn’t always a bad thing.

Building strong social connections, taking a step back when you feel overwhelmed, focusing on things you enjoy and trying not to contribute to a problem are some ways to deal with stress contagion, researchers said.

How stress evolved

Stress and our responses to it — racing hearts, sweating palms, restlessness, lack of sleep — evolved to help humans, other animals and even microbes respond to threats in their environment.

“Stress is there to help us evade predators,” said Stephanie Dimitroff, an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Montana. But it didn’t evolve to help us with a work deadline, she said.

Although stress has “the ultimate goal of increasing survival, it can become harmful when prolonged,” Duque-Wilckens said.

Chronic stress leads to the persistent elevation of hormones, including stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which can promote fat storage, elevate blood pressure and alter immune function. “It also disrupts brain function, contributing to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety,” Duque-Wilckens said.

Stress can be contagious

In both humans and other animals, stress contagion is a common phenomenon where one person’s or animal’s stress is transferred to another.

Behavioral ecologist Hanja Brandl noticed that the birds she was studying would not move around as much and were less likely to interact with other animals when they were stressed. And it wasn’t just an individual bird that began acting stressed, but the whole group of birds.

“If you imagine, in humans, if you live in a shared apartment with five friends and two of them are chronically stressed,” there will be a behavioral change in everyone, said Brandl, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz and Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany.

How stress is transferred between individuals is not fully understood, Duque-Wilckens said, but it’s probably highly dependent on the species.

“In rodents, stress is often communicated through smells and high-pitched vocalizations that are too high for us to hear,” she explained.

Humans, by comparison, are more visual. “We tend to pick up on stress through things like facial expressions, posture or tone of voice. The way stress spreads depends a lot on how each species communicates,” she said.

How social interactions help

But on the flip side of the social contagion coin is the benefit of social buffering, Duque-Wilckens said. When a person or animal that has been exposed to a stressor has the opportunity to interact with another individual, it reduces their stress.

“Social interaction really has a positive impact on us, because it just helps downregulate the stress response faster,” Brandl said. Poor social connections are also associated with a host of illnesses, including cancer.

A stressed person may, in the short term, negatively affect the people doing the consoling, Duque-Wilckens said. “But, at the same time, this reciprocal mechanism helps to maintain the stability of the group in the long term,” she said. In the future, she said, the roles may be reversed.

Stress is rooted in unpredictability and uncontrollability, Dimitroff said. “If you have quality social relationships in your life, you will, by definition, feel like life is more controllable and more predictable, because you know you’ll get that support when you need it,” she said. “If something bad happens, you’ll have a hand to hold.”

Take a moment to step back

Researchers still don’t know all of the variables that make some individuals more prone to stress contagion, but it is clear that empathy plays a role. A person with empathy deeply feels the emotions of others. That could be stress, but also emotions of happiness, anger or fear.

“And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That helps you better connect to other people,” Dimitroff said.

But, she said, once you feel overwhelmed, it may be wise to take a step back and reevaluate how much time you’re spending with certain people. If you’re having trouble breaking free from stress, Dimitroff said, try to find places in your life where you can improve controllability and predictability.

Do something you love

Withdrawing for a bit and doing something you love, such as going out in nature, can help you avoid negativity that brings stress, Duque-Wilckens said. “That’s my go-to,” she said. “Be in nature, paint, hang out with my cats or my dog.”

Be mindful

And be mindful not to contribute to the problem, she added.

“There’s a very fine line between sharing information you think is important to raise awareness and overdoing it by constantly, and too quickly, sharing stressful news without taking time to reflect,” Duque-Wilckens said.