What is Stress

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Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions. Most people have a response to events that challenge or threaten them. Stress good and bad. Good stress is called eustress. According to Hans Selye, a series of physiological reactions to stress occurring in three phases. Those phases are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. This is also known as the general adaptation syndrome. General adaptation syndrome describes the body's short-term and long-term reaction to stress. Stressors in humans include physical stressors, such as starvation being hit by a car, or suffering through severe weather. Additionally, humans can suffer emotional or mental stress, such as the loss of a loved one, the inability to solve a problem, or even having a difficult day at work. The first stage of the general adaptation stage, the alarm reaction, is the immediate reaction to a stressors. This stage of stress has the reaction for physical activity. However, this initial response can also decrease the effectiveness of the immune system, making persons more susceptible to illness during this phase. During stage two the stage of adaptation. This phase is the stress what the body is exposed to, the different stressors. Changes at many levels take place in order to reduce the effect of the stressors. The last Stage number three, the stress has been going on for awhile now. Generally, this means the immune system, and the body's ability to resist disease, may be almost totally eliminated. Those who experience long-term stress may have heart attacks or severe infections due to reduced immunity. Although stress can lead to disease, a researcher named Huethner has suggested that long-term stress may cause humans to b... ... middle of paper ... ...hose who are physically fit have reduced illness then those who are not and have the same stressors (421). Coping with stress does not mean that you can prevent all ways of becoming ill. It just means how to deal with stress in your life and how to live with the inevitable troubles that life hands out. Its life. Works Cited en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustress Eustress,Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 20 Feb. 2011. Stress,Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 20 Feb. 2011. Huethner, G. "The central adaptation syndrome: Psychosocial stress as a trigger for adaptive modifications of brain structure and brain function." Progress in Neurobiology 48 (1996): 569-612. "Stress management, General adaptation syndrome, GAS." .

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