Understanding Stress A major challenge facing any worker who wants to stay healthy and have good interpersonal relationships is to manage stress effectively. Although stress is an everyday term, a scientific definition helps clarify its meaning. Stress is an adaptive response that is the consequence of any action, situation, or event that places special demands on a person. Note that stress, as used here, refers to a reaction to the situation, not the situation or force itself. A stressor is the external or internal force that brings about the stress. The term special demands are also critical because minor adjustments, such as an ink cartridge that runs dry, are usually not perceived as stressful. Yet piling on of minor adjustments, such as having ten small things go wrong in one day, is stressful. This is true because stress is additive: A series of small doses of stress can create a major stress problem.
Symptoms and Consequences of Stress The physiological changes that take place within the body in response to stress are responsible for most stress symptoms. These physiological changes are almost identical for both positive and negative stressors. Ski racing, romantic attraction, and being downsized can make you feel about the same physically. The experiences of stress helps activate helps hormones that prepare the body to run or fight when faced with a challenge. This battle against the stressor is referred to as the fight-or-flight response. It helps you deal with emergencies.
Methods and Techniques for Stress Management
In modern society, most of us can’t avoid stress. But we can learn to behave in ways that lessen its effects. Researchers have identified a number of factors that affect one’s vulnerability to stress-among them are eating and sleeping habits, caffeine and alcohol intake, and how we express our emotions.
Unless stress is managed properly, it may lead to harmful long-term