Definition: Stressors are situations that are experienced as a perceived threat to ones wellbeing or position in life, when the

challenge of dealing with which, exceeds the persons perceived available resources. When one encounters stressors, the bodys stress response is triggered, and a series of physiological changes take place to allow the person to fight or run. Sometimes when people talk about stress in their life, they are really talking about stressors; stressors lead to the bodys stress response, and the experience of stress. What Situations Become Stressors? What situations are stressors? That can vary from person to person. While some things tend to stress many peoplejob demands, relationship conflicts, a hectic schedule not every potential stressor causes stress in everyone. This is everyone has a unique set of resources, understanding of the world, and way of perceiving things; what seems like a threat to one person may be perceived as a challenge to another. Managing Stressors While it would be impractical to eliminate all stress (and because certain types of stress, such aseustress, are actually good for you, you wouldn't want to, anyway), it is important to be able to minimize stressors in your life and deal with the stress that you do experiencewhats known as stress management. This site has a wealth of ongoing stress reduction resources to help with that, but here are some targeted resources for managing the stress from specific stressors: Stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, an external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an organism. An event that triggers the stress response may include for example:

   

environmental stressors (elevated sound levels, over-illumination, overcrowding) daily stress events (e.g. traffic, lost keys) life changes (e.g. divorce, bereavement) workplace stressors (e.g. role strain, lack of control)

Signs and symptoms of stress overload The following table lists some of the common warning signs and symptoms of stress. The more signs and symptoms you notice in yourself, the closer you may be to stress overload.

Stress Warning Signs and Symptoms

Cognitive Symptoms

Emotional Symptoms

     

Memory problems Inability to concentrate Poor judgment Seeing only the negative Anxious or racing thoughts Constant worrying Physical Symptoms

     

Moodiness Irritability or short temper Agitation, inability to relax Feeling overwhelmed Sense of loneliness and isolation Depression or general unhappiness Behavioral Symptoms

     

Aches and pains Diarrhea or constipation Nausea, dizziness Chest pain, rapid heartbeat Loss of sex drive Frequent colds

     

Eating more or less Sleeping too much or too little Isolating yourself from others Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)

Keep in mind that the signs and symptoms of stress can also be caused by other psychological and medical problems. If youre experiencing any of the warning signs of stress, its important to see a doctor for a full evaluation. Your doctor can help you determine whether or not your symptoms are stress-related. Too much stress can seriously affect your physical and mental well-being. Recurrent physical and psychological stress can diminish self-esteem, decrease interpersonal and academic effectiveness, and create a cycle of self-blame and self-doubt.

Physical symptoms: These occur as a direct consequence of the constant level of stress hormones. For examples, headaches are one of the most common effects of chronic stress. The muscles of the face, head and neck remain tense, causing inflammation and pain to develop. Because the heart works harder under stress, you may experience chest pain or angina, especially if you already have heart disease. Other physical symptoms of stress include ulcers, constipation or diarrhea, bladder and kidney infections, asthma attacks, allergic rashes, and unexpected blood sugar fluctuations (if you are diabetic).

Emotional symptoms: These symptoms refer to thoughts and feelings that no one knows about except you. These include anxiety (excessive worry about the stressor), depression, thoughts of hopelessness, loneliness, anger, resentment, and difficulty concentrating. You may believe that the stressful situation will never get better, or that you are incapable of handling it. You may want to give up.

Behavioral symptoms: These symptoms are those changes in your behavior that others can see when you are under stress. For example, you may lose your temper more easily or find yourself uncharacteristically cursing. Or you may be oblivious to all other events and people (such as your family), concentrating only on the stressor. If you have a tendency towards obsessive and compulsive behaviors, including addictions, you are more likely to engage in these behaviors when your stress level is high. One of the important principles of addiction recovery is not to let yourself get too stressed in any way, as this almost always provokes a relapse. At times you may not even realize that there is something bothering you until another person notices the change in your behavior and confronts you. This can be very annoying, but it is essential to recognize the stress if you are to reduce its effects.

If you have experienced stress for a long time, you may accept the effects as a normal condition. Examining yourself in relation to the stress symptoms discussed above can help you determine in what ways stress is affecting you. Then you can discover the causes and find ways to reduce them, leading to greater comfort and happiness in your daily life.

Description Stress in humans results from interactions between persons and their environment that are perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive capacities and threatening their well-being. The element of perception indicates that human stress responses reflect differences in personality, as well as differences in physical strength or general health. Risk factors for stress-related illnesses are a mix of personal, interpersonal, and social variables. These factors include lack or loss of control over one's physical environment, and lack or loss of social support networks. People who are dependent on others (e.g., children or the elderly) or who are socially disadvantaged (because of race, gender, educational level, or similar factors) are at greater risk of developing stress-related illnesses. Other risk factors include feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, extreme fear or anger, and cynicism or distrust of others. Causes and symptoms Causes The causes of stress can include any event or occurrence that a person considers a threat to his or her coping strategies or resources. Researchers generally agree that a certain degree of stress is a normal part of a living organism's response to the inevitable changes in its physical or social environment, and that positive, as well as negative, events can generate stress as well as negative occurrences. Stress-related disease, however, results from excessive and prolonged demands on an organism's coping resources. It is now believed that 80-90% of all disease is stress-related. Recent research indicates that some vulnerability to stress is genetic. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin and King's College London discovered that people who inherited a short, or stress-sensitive, version of the serotonin transporter gene were almost three times as likely to experience depression following a stressful event as people with the long version of the gene. Further research is likely to identify other genes that affect susceptibility to stress. One cause of stress that has affected large sectors of the general population around the world since 2001 is terrorism. The events of September 11, 2001, the sniper shootings in Virginia and Maryland and the Bali nightclub bombing in 2002, the suicide bombings in the Middle East in 2003, have all been shown to cause short-term symptoms of stress in people who read about them or watch television news reports as well as those who witnessed the actual events. Stress related to terrorist attacks also appears to affect people in countries far from the location of the attack as well as those in the immediate vicinity. It is too soon to tell how stress related to episodes of terrorism will affect human health over long periods of time, but researchers are already beginning to investigate this question. In 2004 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report on the aftereffects of the World Trade Center attacks on rescue and recovery workers and volunteers. The researchers found that over half the 11,700 people who were interviewed met threshold criteria for a mental health evaluation. A longer-term evaluation of these workers is underway. A new condition that has been identified since 9/11 is childhood traumatic grief, or CTG. CTG refers to an intense stress reaction that may develop in children following the loss of a parent, sibling, or other loved one during a traumatic event. As defined by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), "Children with childhood traumatic grief experience the cause of [the loved one's] death as horrifying or terrifying, whether the death was sudden and unexpected (for example, due to homicide, suicide, motor vehicle accident, drug overdose, natural disaster, war, terrorism, and so on) or due to natural causes (cancer, heart attack, and so forth). Even if the manner of death does not appear to others to be sudden, shocking, or frightening, children who perceive the death in this way may develop childhood traumatic grief. In this condition, even happy thoughts and memories of the deceased person remind children of the traumatic way in which the deceased died." More information on the identification and treatment of childhood traumatic grief can be obtained from the NCTSN web site,