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- Identifying stress triggers so you can tackle what makes you tense
- Making lifestyle changes that will prevent stress before it hits
- Learning effective ways to alleviate stress right when it occurs
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What Is Stress?
Stress is a physical, psychological, or emotional response to a particular stimulus, situation, or event in a person’s life. There are two types of stress:
- Good stress: Also called eustress, this type of stress has positive implications and gives you a feeling of fulfillment. Most people thrive on situations that induce good stress. Examples of eustress include falling in love, riding a roller coaster, and winning a race.
- Bad stress: This type of stress has negative implications and leads to feelings of uneasiness. Bad stress describes the type of feelings that most of us identify as stress and try to overcome. This guide deals only with the management of bad stress.
Acute Stress
Acute stress is stress that comes on suddenly. The stressors that cause it are rarely a mystery—they’re usually obvious and abrupt events that happen in a person’s life and tend to be temporary. Acute stress is associated with the fight-or-flight response, which is the human tendency either to confront or to flee an immediate threat. Examples of acute stressors include:
- A car accident
- Loss of a job
- A flood in the basement
Episodic Acute Stress
Episodic acute stress displays the same characteristics as acute stress but has different causes—the triggers of episodic acute stress are recurrent. This type of stress is most common among people who live hectic and chaotic lives. Examples of episodic acute stressors include:
- Chronic lateness for work or social engagements
- A tendency to take on too many projects at once
- A hostile work environment
Chronic Stress
Chronic stress is constant and seemingly never ending. It is compounded daily and allows no sense of relief. Though chronic stress is usually brought on by family strife, financial hardship, and/or a hostile living situation, something relatively insignificant yet consistent, such as traffic jams during a daily commute, can help to prolong this sense of powerlessness. Some examples of chronic stressors include:
- Constant care of an ill or elderly family member
- Bullies at school
- Long-term unemployment
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