Lifestyle Opinions

By: Alyssa Velasquez

For the past two years, the term “Crashing Out” has made way back to popularity thanks to multiple TikTok videos, relating to crashing out over something or someone. It’s the equivalent of “That’s the last straw!” or “I’m gonna lose it!” I think we have all crashed out at various times in our lives, but the question is, is it healthy?

Good Stress vs Bad Stress

It is safe to assume that crash-outs usually stem from some type of stress-related emotion. I know from personal experience that I’ve crashed out from overthinking multiple situations or trying to lock in on a difficult assignment. According to Stanford Medical Research, written by Firdaus Dhabhar, “acute or short-term stress can have protective and beneficial effects. We have shown that when short-term stress is coupled with immune activation-for example during surgery or vaccination-the immune response is enhanced. The beneficial effects of short-term stress make sense because the fight-or-flight stress response is nature’s fundamental survival mechanism (Dhabhar, 2012).” There is good stress that helps us activate our fight or flight system, which is beneficial for survival skills, but there is also chronic stress that can lead to negative aspects in the body.

Chronic stress can cause many medical diagnoses, such as a stroke, heart attack, cancer, mental health disorders, and much more. These symptoms can develop over time, with the human body consistently being under a heavy amount of stress. Your body can only take so much excessive weight of negative energies surrounding you.

What Is Worth Crashing Out Over?

Sometimes I think we as humans tend to overreact about things a little bit…

While some things are valid or serious enough to crash out over, there are some insignificant events that happen that we feel are determined as the end of the world. For instance, crashing out over a date or situationship is stressful, but not that serious. Crashing out over not having a medical device you need to live, valid.

In my opinion, we should all take a step back and analyze the situation before we determine the best way to respond. I’m the worst person to be giving this advice, because I react to things quickly, but at least I can acknowledge that and notice in real time and think to myself, if crashing out is really beneficial to my health.