Understanding Stress

Hello, and welcome back.

The word ‘stress’ and all its relatives—’stressful’, ‘stressing’, ‘stressed out’ and so on—are terms we use a lot. But if you were asked to come up with a definition, you might be surprised to find you’re at a loss! This is partly because we use the term ‘stress’ in so many ways—as a verb or noun, adjective or adverb—and even more importantly, because what constitutes a stress for one person may not feel like one to someone else.

Let’s start, then, with a basic definition. ‘Stress’ happens whenever an organism is challenged by a demand or change and feels compelled to react to it. The demand or change can originate either from within—you have a challenging thought, for example you’re away from home and suddenly you can’t remember whether you locked your front door—or from without—you’re given a tight deadline at work, you get stuck in a traffic jam on the way to an appointment, or there’s a sudden deterioration in the weather.

Psychologists like to categorise stress in one of two ways, either that the demand or change feels overwhelmingly difficult, or that it challenges an individual in a way they feel they can—and wish to—manage it with focus and effort. The former constitutes ‘distress’; the latter is referred to as ‘eustress’.

Stress is necessary for our wellbeing. If we never sought out challenges, if we never faced up to obstacles standing in the way of our hopes and dreams, life could eventually lose meaning and purpose.

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

This is all very well, as long as what we’re facing feels like eustress. But what happens when the stress feels too great to overcome?

The secret to maintaining wellbeing in the face of overwhelming challenge is to know how to change distress into eustress. That’s what I’ll write about in my next blog.

Until then, all the best!

Warmest wishes,

Linda