The term stress has become a widely used word with a bad reputation. It is usually used to let people know not to give us more to deal with or to let them know how much we are doing, how busy and therefore important we are. In addition to the personal connotations that each of us gives to stress, in the following article we will look at areas where stress can be good and where it is bad.
What is stress?
It is not easy to find a generally acceptable definition of ‘stress’. Doctors, engineers, psychologists, management consultants, linguists, and laypeople all use the word in their own distinctive ways with their own definition. Stress is basically a ‘demand made on the adaptive capacities of the mind and body’.
This definition is useful in three ways:
(1) Stress can be both good and bad,
(2) It is not so much the events that determine whether or not we are stressed, but our reaction to them, and
(3) The definition tells us that stress is a demand on the capabilities of the body. If our capabilities are good enough, we respond well. If they are not enough, we give in.
Due to the overabundance of stress in our modern lives, we tend to think of stress as a negative experience, but from a biological point of view, stress can be a neutral, negative or positive experience.
Physiologists define stress as the way the body reacts to a stressor, real or imagined, a stimulus that causes stress. Acute stressors affect an organism in the short term; long-term chronic stressors.
good stress
The reality is that we experience some form of stress on a daily basis. If the level of stress relative to our ability to cope is balanced, good stress helps us get things done and get things done. If, for example, we suddenly realize that it is 12:00 pm and we still have to go to the store to buy food for lunch, we may experience an adrenaline rush, feel a bit rushed and, without However, get us out the door and back. in time to have lunch ready when the children return from school.
bad stress
Persistent stress that is not managed properly will lead to distress, anxiety, and potentially withdrawal behavior such as depression. It is not that we can identify a specific form of stress as useless, everything has the potential to become unhealthy over time if we do not resolve, learn to cope or adapt to what causes us stress.