What is stress?
Stress is a natural human reaction that happens to everyone. In fact, your body is designed to experience stress and react to it. When you experience changes or challenges (stressors), your body produces physical and mental responses. That’s stress.
Stress responses help your body adjust to new situations. Stress can be positive — keeping you alert, motivated and ready to avoid danger. For example, if you have an important test coming up, a stress response might help your body work harder and stay awake longer. But stress becomes a problem when stressors continue without relief or periods of relaxation.
Types of stress
There are three main kinds of stress: acute, episodic acute and chronic.
- Acute stress: Acute stress is short-term stress that comes and goes quickly. It can be positive or negative. It’s the feeling you get when you’re riding on a rollercoaster or having a fight with your boyfriend. Everyone experiences acute stress from time to time.
- Episodic acute stress: Episodic acute stress is when you experience acute stress on a regular basis. With this kind of stress, you don’t ever get the time you need to return to a calm, relaxed state. Episodic stress frequently affects people working in certain professions, like healthcare providers.
- Chronic stress: Chronic stress is long-term stress that goes on for weeks or months. You may experience chronic stress due to marriage troubles, issues at work or financial problems. It’s important to find ways to manage chronic stress because it can lead to health issues.
What causes stress?
Stress is how your body reacts to a change or challenge, and many different things can lead to it. Stressors can also be positive or negative. For instance, getting a new job or losing a job can both cause stress. Other causes of stress include:
- An illness or death of a loved one.
- Marriage, separation or divorce.
- Financial issues.
- Moving to a new house.
- Going on vacation.
- Having a baby.
- Retiring.
Stress can also be acute, meaning short term. Causes of acute stress may include everyday stressors, like:
- Studying for a big test.
- Getting ready for a work presentation.
- Having an argument with a friend or loved one.
- Needing to get a lot completed in a short amount of time.
- Experiencing many small problems all at once, like getting in a traffic jam, spilling coffee all over yourself and running late.
How is stress diagnosed?
Stress is subjective — not measurable with tests. Only the person experiencing it can determine whether it’s present and how severe it feels. A healthcare provider may use questionnaires to understand your stress and how it affects your life.
If you have chronic stress, your healthcare provider can evaluate symptoms that result from stress. For example, they can diagnose and treat high blood pressure.
How does stress affect the body?
Your body’s autonomic nervous system controls your heart rate, breathing, vision changes and more. Its built-in stress response — the “fight-or-flight response” — helps your body face stressful situations.
When you have long-term (chronic) stress, continued activation of the stress response causes wear and tear on your body. You may develop stress symptoms that are physical, psychological or behavioral.
a. Physical symptoms
Physical symptoms of stress may include:
- Aches and pains.
- Chest pain or a feeling like your heart is racing.
- Exhaustion or trouble sleeping.
- Headaches, dizziness or shaking.
- High blood pressure (hypertension).
- Muscle tension or jaw clenching.
- Stomach or digestive problems.
- Trouble having sex.
- Weakened immune system.
b. Psychological symptoms
Stress can lead to emotional and mental (psychological) symptoms, like:
- Anxiety or irritability.
- Depression.
- Panic attacks.
- Sadness.
c. Behavioral symptoms
Often, people with chronic stress try different things to cope. And some of those things are habit-forming and can have an impact on your health. These may include:
- Alcohol use disorder.
- Gambling disorder.
- Overeating or developing an eating disorder.
- Participating compulsively in sex, shopping or internet browsing.
- Smoking.
- Substance use disorder.
Stress Rash
Stress rashes often appear as pink or discolored, raised bumps called hives. Hives are welts that can develop and swell on the surface of your skin. They can itch, burn and even hurt. Hives are usually an allergic reaction to something, like certain kinds of foods, fabrics or chemicals. But sometimes, stress can trigger an outbreak.
