What Is Stress?

Submitted By Roger-Blake
Words: 316
Pages: 2

Stress
Many may ask, "what exactly is stress?” well stress is a physical response to events that make you feel threatened or by an event that can disrupt your balance in some way. For example, When someone sense danger, whether it is real or not the body's defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction, or the stress response. Fight or flight refers to how your body response in a stressful situation. When your adrenaline is pumping, you think you have two choices, fight or flight. Fight is facing your problems, and flight being running away from them.
Under stress, change is experienced as a threat which triggers the release of hormones from the brain. The body goes through three stages: one is the alarm stage, during the this stage the body recognizes a stressor and prepares for it; the pituitary gland releases ACTH, the adrenal gland secretes hormones, blood pressure rises, perspiration occurs, etc. The second is resistance, it is what repairs any damage done during the alarm stage; eventually the signs fade and the body returns to normal. Lastly, exhaustion which occurs if the stressor does not go away or multiple stressors occur; the capacity for adaptation is exhausted. The signs of the alarm reaction reappear and the individual becomes impaired. Stress comes in two forms, bad and good. Bad stress is known as distress.
Distress is "bad" stress. It is stress we experience in regard to "negative" demands to