Paige's Perspective: Let's Talk About Stress

Paige's Perspective: Let's Talk About Stress

How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober and sane when life feels like one long stress response? Paige’s Perspective takes that question head-on by sorting stress into two camps: the kind that builds you and the kind that slowly burns you out.

Paige talks directly to anyone living in survival mode – especially those touched by addiction, emotional chaos, or long-term anxiety – and explains why your nervous system often reacts the same way to a toxic relationship as it does to a tough workout. As she puts it, “Unsafe stress depletes you. Eustress develops you.” The trick is learning which one you’re stuck in.

She breaks down **eustress** as “stress that’s productive… it pushes you, it doesn’t harm you”, using examples like exercise, job interviews, and setting boundaries. Your heart still races, your palms still sweat, but afterwards you feel growth, relief, or even pride. Then she contrasts it with **unsafe stress**: walking on eggshells, financial fear, gaslighting, constant criticism, and aggressive environments that keep your body on “constant high alert” and leave you “locked in this fight or flight survival mode”.

Rather than just saying “manage stress” and calling it a day, Paige offers practical questions: What’s the context? How long does it last? What happens after? Does this stress rebuild you or erode you?

She shares how even healthy workouts once triggered panic attacks, and how she had to retrain her brain by asking, “Is this positive productive stress or is this unsafe stress?” For anyone in recovery or trying to rebuild life after chaos, this conversation shows that stress isn’t always the enemy – but staying in unsafe stress is. It leaves you with a simple but powerful check-in: is this stress shaping you, or breaking you?