Stress Essay

Everyone everywhere has experienced stress with something they have dealt with in life. Whether it is school, paying bills, managing a busy schedule or work, stress affects everyone. Although everyone experiences stress, many people don’t actually know what stress is. Stress is the physical response of the body to harmful situations that threaten someone’s well being. When someone says “stress”, the word is automatically associated with a negative effect on people but small doses of stress can benefit a person, if used to correctly. Everyone’s stress level is different and the amount of stress that can be handled varies from person to person but a stress overload will not benefit anyone. “When you feel threatened, a chemical reaction occurs in your body to allow you to act in a way to prevent injury” (“Stress Management Health Center”). The chemical that is released when stressed is known as cortisol, also known a stress hormone. “Cortisol is like a long-term form of adrenaline, produced in the adrenal gland when the body is under pressure” (“The Effects of Stress on Your Reproductive Health and Fertility”). Adrenaline is also released to send the body into, what is known as, emergency action (“Stress Symptoms, Signs and Causes”). This emergency action speeds up reactions preformed by the body and the mind. This is a way of protecting the body. While in emergency action, this stress caused by threatening situations can save your life. In emergency situations, you are given “extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on your brakes to avoid a car accident” (“Stress Management Health Center”). Signs of being in this emergency action are a racing heart, blood pressure rises, quickening of breath and tigh...

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...ix percent say they feel tired (Teens’ Stress Levels Rival Those of Adults, Survey Finds”). The survey also revealed that many teens experience the same stress symptoms that adults face and that school was the most common source of stress that is put on teens. “Teens’ financial concerns for their families also ranked among the top stressors” (Teens’ Stress Levels Rival Those of Adults, Survey Finds”).
Stress affects everyone. But it also affects each individual differently. Managing the amount of stress an individual can handle comes with experience of the subject under pressure. Without proper management of stress, symptoms that affect the entire body and mind can not only start as little issues but become chronic disorders that affect an individual for a lifetime. Stress: (noun) the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.