Elise Romola
Block 3
March 30, 2014
The Effect of Stress On the Body In today’s world, stress is regarded as a common factor in everyday life. Everyone experiences stress in an individualized way, but no matter the person the stress has similar effects. Stress is mostly negative in the way it affects the human body, but it is a necessity that can be beneficial under certain circumstances. Stress is a negative energy caused by internal and external factors that activate hormonal stressors and leave the body fatigued. Stress also poses negative symptoms to the body and its health that can lead to more harmful diseases as it continues to build. Although stress is mostly negative, it is beneficial to the body. It is the body’s response under threatening situations that allows the human to act rationally. “You can’t avoid stress, it’s everywhere,” (Burrows). It is uncommon to have a person without stress in today’s world. Over the past decade, as the struggle for jobs and financial security has skyrocketed, so has the average stress level raising from a 5.1 in 2005 to a 5.8 in 2013. Each person’s stress is based on different factors as what makes one person stressed could make another happy. However, what is important is not what kind of stress the body has, but what its response is to the situation. Stress is normal. It is the body’s “physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way,” (Segal, Segal, and Smith). However, in recent years stress triggers have been activated when there is no danger. This is a result of rising pressure on humans and their increasing amount of worries. As the pressure of school, jobs, and money grow, so will the stress that goes along with it. Stress is not only caused by external factors but internal ones too. Emotional stressors are an example of internal stressors. This includes fears and anxieties, as well as perfectionism, pessimism, and a lack of control.
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