Stressed for success

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This article was published 04/01/2016 (3840 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sarah Dentry-Travis is climbing mountains to find out what makes some people thrive under extreme stress while others buckle.

The University of Manitoba psychology researcher will head to Antarctica Tuesday to study injured Canadian soldiers as they scale Vinson Massif, the continent’s highest peak. The ice-covered mountain — part of the Ellsworth range — is 4,898 metres (16,077 feet) high.

It’s the first research in the world to examine the positive effects of physical and mental stress, says Dentry-Travis, 36.

 

The scientist, biathlete and former army reservist says the majority of the scientific literature about stress focuses on its detrimental effects, rather than how certain people use it to their advantage.

“Most researchers are looking at people who are too afraid to leave their basement, too afraid to go out and do stuff because of what they are trying to deal with,” says Dentry-Travis.

“Then we have this whole other group of people that have had the trauma, that are still trying to do these challenges… and do something that really tests their limits.”

True Patriot Love, a national charity that raises awareness about the Canadian military, is organizing the Antarctic journey. It will include nine wounded soldiers, 18 business owners and a doctor. Dentry-Travis will be the only researcher — and the only Manitoban — on the mission.

After they land in Chile, a freight plane will drop the climbers off on a blue-ice runway in central Antarctica. Later, Twin Otter planes will take climbers in small groups to base camp.

The Winnipegger will lead the soldiers, whom she has never met, on the treacherous climb. During various points in the expedition, she will collect their saliva samples to analyze in Winnipeg for various stress markers. She will also conduct interviews with the soldiers throughout the 10-day climb to the summit.

Dentry-Travis — who was stationed in postwar Bosnia in 2004 — notes that she’s always been fascinated that some people experience stress and thrive, even after a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“They had to take over a year to learn how to walk and now they are going to climb a mountain. I am just trying to figure out what is going on with these people — these individuals that are having this positive reaction to the challenges that they’ve had,” says Dentry-Travis, who hopes her findings will help people who have trouble bouncing back after experiencing trauma.

U of M exercise scientist Dean Kriellaars, a co-investigator on Dentry-Travis’s stress research, says the findings will not only help the military but also the general population.

“This is for everybody,” says Kriellaars, who is Dentry-Travis’s post-doctorate adviser.

“How does anybody meet the challenges of their life — whatever that challenge is? Whether it’s in a romantic relationship or whether it’s seeing extreme trauma, there’s some exciting work that’s coming from this.

“What trips someone into a high-anxiety state and what are the factors that bring them back? �We want to understand these switches — and turn them quickly.”

Dentry-Travis and Kriellaars are working on other related studies together, including how stress affects professional circus performers.

Dentry-Travis also travelled to the North Pole last year to study soldiers during a ski trek.

The results of each study will be part of a larger body of work about stress and its effects on the body and mind.

Mental illness is a serious problem for members of Canada’s military. According to a 2013 Statistics Canada report, one out of six full-time Canadian Forces members reported conditions including major depressive episodes, panic disorder, PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder and alcohol abuse.

Dentry-Travis says the drawback of her Antarctica study is its small sample size. However, the real-life stressful circumstances that will take place in Antarctica have an advantage over the artificial conditions of a lab experiment, she says.

“There will be high-pressure cooker moments… they are going to be in pretty serious circumstances,” says Kriellaars, noting that the climbers don’t know each other and face steep terrain, high winds, deep glacier cracks and – 40 C temperatures. Dentry-Travis believes she’ll have an advantage over the other climbers, since she’s used to Winnipeg’s winter extremes. The toughest part of the trip, she says, is being separated from her kids, who are eight and five years old.

She admits that personal experience drives her quest for answers about PTSD.

She says her ex-husband, a British soldier, walked out on her and their kids a few years ago, after nearly eight years of marriage. She has not talked with him since. She is convinced that PTSD played a role in his actions.

“He has not been diagnosed with anything, but he (served in) Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo,” says Dentry-Travis. “It changes people.”

 

Have an interesting story idea you’d like Shamona to write about? Contact her at shamona.harnett@freepress.mb.ca.