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Stress

Signs and Symptoms, Causes and Effects

Learn to recognize stress symptoms and identify the situations that cause them. When these symptoms persist, you are at risk for serious health problems, because stress can exhaust your immune system.

What is stress?

The stress response of the body is meant to protect and support us. To maintain stability or homeostasis, the body is constantly adjusting to its surroundings. When a physical or mental event threatens this equilibrium, we react to it. This process is often referred to as the "fight or flight response." We prepare for physical action in order to confront or flee a threat.

Our ancestors responded to stressful ordeals in this fashion. Millions of years later, when you face a situation that you perceive as challenging, your body automatically goes into overdrive, engaging the stress response. Immediately, you release the same hormones that enabled prehistoric humans to move and think faster, hit harder, see better, hear more acutely, and jump higher than they could only seconds earlier. Like theirs, your heartbeat speeds up; your blood pressure increases; your breathing quickens. Most modern stresses, however, do not call for either fight or flight. Our experience of stress is generally related to how we respond to an event, not to the event itself.

What causes you to experience stress symptoms?

Except for major catastrophes, few events are stressful in themselves. Stress arises when you perceive a situation as threatening. For example, your morning commute may make you anxious and tense because you worry that traffic will make you late. Others, however, may find the trip relaxing because they allow more than enough time and enjoy playing music or listening to books while they drive.

Stress is often associated with situations that you find difficult to handle. How you view things also affects your stress level. If you have very high expectations, chances are you'll experience more than your fair share of stress.

Your stress response can also have a positive effect, spurring motivation and awareness, providing the stimulation to cope with challenging situations.

Take some time to think about the things that cause you stress. Your stress may be linked to external factors such as:

• the state of the world, the country, or any community to which you belong
• unpredictable events
• the environment in which you live or work
• work itself
• family

Stress can also come from your own:

• irresponsible behavior
• poor health habits
• negative attitudes and feelings
• unrealistic expectations
• perfectionism

What are the signs and symptoms of stress?

Stress affects mind, body, and behavior in many ways; the signs and symptoms of stress vary from person to person, but all have the potential to harm your health, emotional well-being, and relationships with others. Below are partial lists of signs and symptoms of stress that a person undergoing stress might experience.

and symptoms of stress can be caused by other psychological or physical problems, so it’s important that you consult a doctor to evaluate physical symptoms. Similarly, emotional symptoms such as anxiety or depression can mask conditions other than stress. It’s important to find out whether or not they are stress-related.

What are the different types and causes of stress?

Acute stress

Acute stress is the most common and most recognizable form of stress, the kind in which you know exactly why you’re stressed: you were just in a car accident; the school nurse just called; a bear just ambled onto your campsite. Or it can something scary but thrilling, such as a parachute jump. It’s the kind of sudden jolt that triggers the hormonal and physiological effects listed above. Along with obvious dangers and threats, common causes of acute stressors include noise, isolation, crowding, and hunger.

Normally, your body rests when these types of stressful events cease and your life gets back to normal. Because the effects are short-term, acute stress usually doesn’t cause severe or permanent damage to the body.

Episodic acute stress

Some people endure acute stress frequently; their lives are chaotic, out of control, and they always seem to be facing multiple stressful situations. They’re always in a rush, always late, always taking on too many projects, handling too many demands. Unlike people for whom stress is a once-in-a-while spike, these folks are experiencing episodic acute stress.

In its article The Different Kinds of Stress, the APA Help Center links some people who live with episodic acute stress with the driven, hard-charging “Type A” personality. Others are worrywarts, anxious about the next disaster they’re sure lurks around the corner. While the Type A tends to seem angry and hostile and the worrier more depressed, both are frequently over-aroused and tense, and both are susceptible to the physical manifestations of extended stress: headaches, high blood pressure, chest pain, heart disease.

If you’re prone to episodic acute stress, you may not know it or admit to it. You may be wedded to a life style that promotes stress. You may explain your frequent stress as temporary (“I just have a million things going on right now”), as integral to your work or home life (“Things are always crazy around here”), or as a part of your personality (“I have a lot of nervous energy, that’s all”). You may blame your frequent stress on other people or outside events, or you might view it as entirely normal and unexceptional. Unfortunately, people with episodic acute stress may find it so habitual that they resist changing their lifestyles until they suffer severe physical symptoms.

Chronic stress

The APA Help Center describes chronic stress as “unrelenting demands and pressures for seemingly interminable periods of time.” Chronic stress is stress that wears you down day after day and year after year, with no visible escape. It grinds away at both mental and physical health, leading to breakdown and even death.
Common causes of chronic stress include:

• poverty and financial worries
• long-term unemployment
• dysfunctional family relationships
• caring for a chronically ill family member
• feeling trapped in unhealthy relationships or career choices
• living in an area besieged by war, ethnic rivalry, or criminal violence
• bullying or harassment
• perfectionism

Severe stress reactions that are the result of a traumatic event or an intense experience such as an accident, hospitalization, loss, or participation in combat can persist for long periods of time and recur without warning. What doctors have come to label post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition in which the stress reactions don’t subside, the body doesn’t regain its equilibrium, and life doesn’t return to normal. This is a serious disorder that requires professional intervention.  

One of the most dangerous aspects of chronic stress is that people who suffer from it get used to it. They accept chronic stress as their lot in life, or they forget it’s there. Because chronic stress is based on long-term, often intractable situations, both the mental and physical symptoms of chronic stress can be difficult to treat.

What are the long-term effects of stress?

It’s important to pay attention to stress symptoms and learn to identify what causes them, because if they persist, you’re at risk for serious health problems. Recent research suggests that anywhere from two-thirds to 90 percent of illness is stress-related. Fifty-five percent of Americans report being stressed at work, and 25 percent of U.S. workers miss 16 days of work each year because of stress.

Stress can damage you in many subtle and unseen ways. For example, a study at Ohio State University showed that short periods of psychological stress can cause the body to take longer to clear heart-damaging fats from the bloodstream. At the University of North Texas , researchers found that high school and college football players who experience stressful events in their lives before the start of preseason practice and the first game are more likely to be injured during the season than other athletes and have a more difficult time coping with their injuries.

Studies show that long-term activation of stress symptoms, triggered by the release of hormones and brain chemicals, can have a hazardous, even lethal effect on your body and brain. Because stress inhibits the immune system, it makes you more vulnerable to infections. Stress can make it difficult to conceive a baby. In children, persistent stress can stunt growth, and a traumatic event experienced young can rewire the brain in ways that leave a young person less able to handle everyday stress as an adult. Stress is a contributor to very serious physical and psychological conditions, including:

And, of course, the stress of living with a debilitating disease or disorder just adds to the problem.

Where can I get help in managing stress symptoms?

Fortunately, physicians, mental-health professionals, and others have discovered many ways for people to cope with stress, repair its damages, and work on removing its sources.

For information on stress relief and management, see

• Yoganidra technique
• Listen to Yoganidra Scientific Music

10 TIPS to reduce Stress

1. Exercise Regularly
2. Relax
3. Sleep Well
4. Laugh It Up
5. Make Time for Fun
6. Improve Your Diet
7. Create a Support Network
8. Change Negative Thinking
9. Learn to Manage Your Time
10. Stop Being a Perfectionist