Chronic Stress

Stress is the combination of physiological, psychological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes stress is helpful, providing people with extra energy or alertness they need. Stress can also motivate people to perform. In response to danger, your body prepares to face a threat or flee or flee to safety. Stress results from the interaction between stressors and the individual’s perception and reaction to those stressors. The amount of stress experienced may be influenced by the individual’s ability to cope with stressful events and situations. Every age group is affected by stress; college students in particular cope with stress in both healthy and self-destructive ways.
Stressors are events that threaten or challenge people. They are the sources of stress, such as having to make decisions, natural disasters, etc. There are many sources of stress. Stress in the environment includes
noise, pollution, and the weather. Illness, injuries, inadequate sleep or nutrition are psychological sources of stress. Negative self-talk, perfectionism, work demands, financial pressures, and losing a loved one are examples of social stressors.
Stressors include three types of events, referred to the daily hassles, major life events, and catastrophes. Specific types of stressors occur within certain domains in life, such as family, work, and school. Examples of major life events are getting married, getting divorced, and being fired from a job. Although they do not happen often, when catastrophes do occur they can be major sources of stress. Natural disaster is a major type of catastrophe. After people are exposed to natural disasters, they are more anxious. A group of Stanford University students who completed a survey before and after the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, for example, were more stressed afterwards than they were beforehand. A reason why major life events and catastrophes are less significant sources of stress is because people do not experience them as often.
The good kind of stress is called eustress.
Unfortunately, most stress is not good. The bad kind of stress is called distress. Acute stress is your body’s immediate reaction to a new challenge, event, or demand. Episodic acute stress is when acute stress happens frequently. People who are pessimistic tend to have acute stress. Chronic stress is stress that is constant and doesn’t go away. When you feel anxious or in danger, your body produces hormones such as cortisol. This hormone may cause you to get sweaty palms and have rapid or shallow breathing. Stress hormones are released under the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical) axis to help the body cope. If a situation is judged as being stressful, the hypothalamus is activated. When a stress response is triggered, it sends signals to the pituitary gland, and the adrenal medulla. The sympathetic medullary system is the body’s response to acute stress. The hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal system is the body’s response to chronic
stress.