Key Concepts:
Vocabulary: stress, perception, stressor, psychosomatic response
Understanding Stress
What Is Stress?
Main Idea: How you think about a challenge determines whether you will experience positive or negative stress.
Feeling stress is a natural part of life. Stress is the reaction of the body and mind to everyday challenges and demands. It might appear quickly, like when you are late and running to catch the bus. Stress can also slowly build for days, like when you feel the pressure to perform well in your next basketball game or on a final exam. Often, situations associated with stress are unavoidable. How much the stress of an event affects you, however, depends in part on your perception of it. Perception is the act of becoming aware through the senses. For example, based on your perception, you might believe that a disagreement with a friend has ruined your relationship. Your friend, on the other hand, might believe that you’ll eventually work out the issue. Because of your perception of the event, you are more likely to experience a higher level of stress about the situation than your friend is.
Your reaction to stressful events depends on your previous experiences. If you enjoy playing in a band, performing a solo may not make you nervous. However, if you’ve made a mistake during a band performance, you might worry about how well you’ll play during a solo.
Reacting to Stress
Some people believe that stress is always unhealthy. Stress can have both a positive and a negative effect. Positive stress can motivate you. For example, this type of stress can inspire you to work harder if you have a deadline approaching.
Stress has a negative effect, however, when it interferes with your ability to perform. It might cause you to feel distracted, overwhelmed, impatient, frustrated, or even angry. Negative stress can harm your health. Understanding the causes of stress and how you respond to it will help you develop effective stress-management skills.
Causes of Stress
A stressor is anything that causes stress. Stressors can be real or imagined, anticipated or unexpected. People, objects, places, events, and situations are all potential stressors. Certain stressors, like sirens, affect most people the same way, causing heightened alertness.
As you’ve learned, the specific affects of most stressors will depend on your experiences and perceptions. What causes stress for you may not cause stress for someone else. Figure 4.2 identifies some common teen stressors.
Your Body’s Response to Stressors
Main Idea: Stressors activate the nervous system and specific hormones.
When you perceive something to be dangerous, difficult, or painful, your body automatically begins a stress response. For example, if you walk by your neighbors’ house and their dog barks, you would likely feel startled and your heart might start racing. The sudden, loud barking is a stressor that affects you automatically, without any thought.
Both your nervous system and endocrine system are active during your body’s response to stress. This physical response is largely involuntary, or automatic. The stress response, which occurs regardless of the type of stressor, involves three stages:
Alarm. Your mind and body go on high alert. This reaction, illustrated in Figure 4.3, is sometimes referred to as the “fight-or-flight” response because it prepares your body either to defend itself or to flee from a threat.
Resistance. If exposure to a stressor continues, your body adapts and reacts to the stressor. You may perform at a higher level and with more endurance for a brief period.
Fatigue. If exposure to stress is prolonged, your body loses its ability to adapt. You begin to tire and lose the ability to manage other stressors effectively.
Stress and Your Health
Main Idea: Ongoing stress affects all aspects of your health.
The physical changes that take place in your body during the stress response can take a toll on your body. Prolonged stress can lead to a psychosomatic response, a physical reaction that results from stress rather than from an injury or illness. Some of the physical effects of stress include
headache
a weakened immune system
high blood pressure
bruxism, clenching the jaw or grinding the teeth, and
digestive disorders.
Mental/emotional and social effects of stress include difficulty concentrating, irritability, and mood swings. Using alcohol or drugs to relieve stress may create more problems, if the person begins abusing these substances.
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