Definition of Stress

Stress can be both healthy and unhealthy, and this will depend on the coping mechanism of the person experiencing the stress. It is a very common word and is used to cover a wide variety of emotions and feelings. People often think that when they talk about stress they are referring to the same thing. There is a wide variety of definition of stress.

Well-known psychologist Richard Lazarus differentiates it as Eustress, when things change for the better, and Distress, when things worsen because of stress. Others would use it to involve anxiety, which is entirely a different thing as it means a fear of something that might happen. While some would define it as something that is outside the person’s ability to cope.

For a person to be able to control, prevent and manage stress properly, a clear definition of stress must be given so that a person understands it better. A person would feel stressed when they focus more on the negative events of life. This would put a lot of pressure and making it hard for a person to cope. Not focusing on negative events in life do not necessarily mean just ignoring it as it comes but rather learning to focus our attention on things that we can do and not on those things that we cannot do.

Stress can be manifested physically, emotionally or mentally. Physical stress happens when it is the body that starts to suffer from any stressful situation. It would usually be manifested by headaches. If it becomes long term, it may lead to problems with digestion like ulcers. It may also cause insomnia, fatigue, hypertension, heart disease, hair loss and stroke.

Emotional stresses are those responses when the stress affects the mind of a person and would include anger, anxiety, anger, irritability, depression, frustration, memory loss and loss of concentration for any given task. Anxiety would be a normal response to failure or danger. Anger is the most common response to social stress or frustration and it may become dangerous to some individuals when unchecked. Depression is often perceived as the emotional response of a person to frustrating situations like illness, failure, or death of a love one.

Psychological problems result from prolonged stress. Some people would withdraw from society because of this. Some people would also develop phobias, eating disorders, night terrors and compulsive behaviors.

Given the above definition of stress, an individual can now learn how to control his reactions to daily uncontrollable events that confronts them at any given day.