What Is Stress?

• What is Stress
• Causes of Stress
• Signs and Symptoms

Stress is the body's internal reaction to factors such as pressure of work, relationships, family life and danger (stressors) or when real or perceived change overwhelms the body's ability to cope and the stress becomes harmful (distress).

Stress can be defined as a state we experience when there is a mismatch between perceived demands and perceived ability to cope. It is the balance between how we view demands and how we think we can cope with those demands that determines whether we feel no stress, distress or eustress.

Normal stress levels are good and enable us to happily and confidently meet the challenges of our day. Eustress is the term used for positive stress and is usually working for the individual to improve performance i.e. when tackling interesting and stimulating tasks, being creative and productive, achieving goals and desires or participating in competitive sports. People deliberately put themselves into these situations knowing they can handle it and hoping to enjoy the benefits that eustress delivers such as excitement, increased confidence and self esteem, improved health etc.

Negative stress is excessive, prolonged and unrelieved distress that ultimately has a harmful effect on mental, physical and spiritual health. Negative stress if left unchecked leads to poor performance, decreased productivity and ill health.

When we feel we don't have the energy or resources to cope with a situation we feel negative stress this can be triggered by our past experiences, how we perceive the here and now as well as our fear for the future.