What is stress?
Stress is a reaction to situations, events or people.
Some of these events stir up feelings or thoughts that
cause you to take some kind of action. Stress occurs
when there is a mismatch between the need for these
actions and an individual’s ability (or belief in their
ability) to cope with these demands.
Stress has been around for a LONG time. For primitive
man simply staying alive was stressful. He didn’t know
where his next meal was coming from, or whether he,
himself, was going to become a meal.
Let’s backtrack several thousand years:
Imagine that you are Primitive Man. You’re hanging out in
the woods, and suddenly encounter a pride of lions. THE
EMERGENCY SWITCH IS TRIGGERED to prepare you
to fight the lions, or to run away from the lions (flight).
This is what happens:
When your brain registers an emergency, powerful
hormones associated with stress are secreted into your
body. These hormones trigger the release of adrenaline.
Adrenaline prepares the body for FIGHT OR FLIGHT.
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Blood is shifted to the muscles and your skin
becomes pale.
Your body begins to prepare itself to run, and
you start to sweat and your heart rate and
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blood pressure rise.
Your body prepares itself for increased fuel
demands by releasing glucose and fatty acids
into the blood stream.
Your immune system slows down, because
energy is shifted to anticipate the battle,
rather than maintain health.
As we evolved, our brains evolved and we learned how to
conquer those things that used to threaten our lives.
This comes at a price. Because we are able to think in a
complex way to solve problems, we can also imagine all
kinds of threatening situations around us when there are
rarely any.
Modern man feels an adrenaline rush if some idiot cuts in
front of him in traffic. His muscles tense and he
prepares to fight or to flee when somebody in front of
him has too many items for the grocery store express
line. And his blood pressure skyrockets because he can’t
stand the thought of facing another day in a job he
hates.
When stress is good stress, and it prepares you to meet
a challenge, people feel
 increased motivation and drive
 a sense of challenge and excitement
 a sense of renewed energy
 attention to detail, accuracy
 feelings of excitement and hope
 increased self-confidence
The unhealthy side of stress may manifest itself in four
areas. You may notice:
Changes in your body...
Short Term Physical Symptoms
These mainly occur as your body adapts to perceived
physical threat, and are caused by release of adrenaline.
Although you may perceive these as unpleasant and
negative, they are signs that your body is ready for the
explosive action that assists survival or high
performance:
Faster heart beat
Cool skin
Rapid Breathing
Dry Mouth
Diarrhea
Increased sweating
Cold hands and feet
Tense Muscles
A desire to urinate
'Butterflies in stomach'
Long Term Physical Symptoms
These occur where your body has been exposed to
adrenaline over a long period. One of the ways adrenaline
prepares you for action is by diverting resources to the
muscles from the areas of the body which carry out body
maintenance. This means that if you are exposed to
adrenaline for a sustained period, then your health may
start to deteriorate. This may show up in the following
ways:
change in appetite
frequent colds
asthma
digestive problems
headaches
skin eruptions
sexual disorders
aches and pains
feelings of intense and long-term tiredness
inflammation
Changes in your thinking...
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trouble concentrating
lost self-confidence
lapses of memory
poor judgment
feeling pressured
Changes in your emotions...
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resentment
anger and irritability
feeling “on edge” or agitated
feeling blue, down, hopeless
moodiness
Changes in your actions...
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increased smoking
withdrawing from others
non-stop talking
fidgeting
absenteeism
UMass Department of Psychiatry
Health Psychology Program