Stress

Introduction

Stress is a physical and emotional reaction that everyone experiences as he or she encounters changes in life. These reactions can have positive or negative effects. Stress has positive effects when it makes us deal constructively with daily problems and meet the challenges. Stress has negative effects when it becomes continuous. Such negative effects can lead to depression, heart disease, and sometimes cancer. This reference summary explains the difference between positive and negative stress and presents tips for managing negative stress.

What Is Stress?
Many scientists see stress as a reaction of our body to sudden changes in the environment. Just like animals, people need extra energy to stay and fight or run away when faced with danger. The body’s normal reaction to a somewhat dangerous situation is an increase in heart rate and muscle tension and a higher blood pressure. Nowadays, people are not faced with the same dangers of long ago, like battling with wild animals to save their families. However, we are faced with situations that make our bodies react similarly, with faster heartbeats, tense muscles, increased blood pressure, and sweating. Such physical and emotional reactions help us by increasing our concentration and other bodily functions in order to prepare for a challenge. After meeting a challenge, the body relaxes as the heart rate, muscle tension, and blood pressure return to normal. This gives the body a chance to recover physically and for the person to feel emotionally rewarded for overcoming the challenge.

The fact that people get a little sweaty and their heart beats faster before a presentation or a test is an advantage that helps them succeed. These types of situations are called “challenges”, “good stress”, or “acute stress.” When situations that cause physical and emotional stress reactions are non-stopping or perceived as non-stopping, the body never gets a chance to relax. This causes constant tense muscles and a “knotted” stomach. This type of situation is called “bad stress” or “chronic stress”.

Risks of Stress
Never-ending stress can lead to a variety of diseases. It can lead to high blood pressure, which can cause heart problems including heart attacks. Stress can also lead to migraine headaches, back pain, ulcers, and sometimes cancer. Several studies have associated stress with a weak immune system. The immune system is responsible for fighting diseases and germs that invade the body. With a weakened immune system, a person with chronic stress could become ill more often. People who experience chronic stress may try to relieve it with illicit drugs, smoking, or alcohol. Stimulants like these may seem like they reduce stress but the feeling of relief will only last for a very short period of time. In the end, the stress will only get worse as the person becomes addicted.

Symptoms and Causes
A stressor is a situation that causes stress. It is important to identify what causes stress in order to try to control it. Situations that cause stress may not be very obvious. Moving into a newer, bigger house is a positive and exciting event but may also create unexpected stress from all of the changes that also happen.

When people are under stress they may experience:
• Headaches
• Tense muscles
• Shaking hands
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Heartburn

Stressed people may also feel:
• Nervous
• Fearful
• Confused
• Worried
• Irritable
• Hostile
• Unable to concentrate

Usually these feelings cause changes in behavior such as snapping at others, having accidents, and compulsively tapping fingers. All stressed people do not share these symptoms and feelings. Situations that are stressful for some people may be enjoyable for others. Public speaking, meeting with the boss, and job interviews are a few examples of situations that are stressful for some but exciting for others. Once you realize that you are stressed, it is important to figure out what is causing your stress. What situations cause you to be stressed? What situations produce changes in your body, feelings, and behavior? Can you list 7 things that make you feel stressed? Feeling overwhelmed, either at work or at home, makes a lot of people feel overly stressed. Uncertainty of the future can cause stress. Not knowing what is going to happen after you lose a job, after you get married, or after a child is born are all examples of how uncertainty can affect us.

It is helpful to classify the stressors into 3 categories:
• Accidental hassles
• Major life changes
• Ongoing problems.

Accidental hassles are temporary but can cause significant stress. Examples are losing the house key, a flat tire, missing the bus, or getting a traffic ticket.
Major life changes can include positive events as well as negative ones. Examples of positive events are marriage, graduation, starting a business, or the birth of a baby. Negative changes include events such as death in the family, losing a job, or divorce. Ongoing problems include stressful situations such as an
unhappy marriage, unstable job, poor relationship with a family member or a coworker, or accumulating debt.