Stress is the trash of modern life—we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.

— Author Unknown

Stop & Ponder: The image above depicts a landfill full of trash. As the epigraph indicates, we all generate trash. This “trash” refers to situations and events that cause us to feel stressed. If we don’t dispose of our “emotional garbage” and effectively cope with stress, it can accumulate and overtake our lives. As you look at the image, think about some of the things that are cluttering up your life and/or causing you to feel stressed. If you were to draw a picture or take a photograph of your own “trash,” what would be on the pile? In other words, what is the stress that’s cluttering up your life right now?

Introduction

It’s important to first define stress to learn how to effectively deal with it. In this chapter, several definitions of stress are provided. We’ll also discuss components of which stress is comprised. Stress is multifactorial—it includes much more than the stressor or the situation causing stress. Defining stress, understanding it’s components, and identifying common causes of it are important precursors to understanding the nature of stress. Understanding its nature provides a foundational basis upon which we can effectively cope with it and become more emotionally resilient to it. In this chapter, we’ll look at some definitions of stress, the need for learning how to effectively deal with stress, and typical components of which it is comprised.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, you’ll be able to:

1. Define stress.
2. Describe the need for learning how to manage stress.
3. Identify components of which stress is comprised.

Section I: Defining Stress

One Size Does Not Fit All

It’s been said that stress is one of those words that everyone knows the meaning of but no one can define. It’s no surprise, then, that there’s not one standard definition of stress accepted by all experts in this field. And the term stress is not useful for researchers anyway because it’s a highly subjective concept. In other words, what constitutes stress for one person may not be stressful for another. When you initially hear the word “stress,” several thoughts or feelings probably come to mind quickly and easily. We all know how it feels to be stressed and we can all easily identify stressors: finances, meeting deadlines, getting into arguments, getting stuck in traffic, losing your car keys, being in debt, being in a bad relationship, hating your job, and so forth. But it might be more difficult and take a bit longer to come up with an actual definition of it.

Some might define stress in terms of their specific stressors or stress-inducing situations. Waiting in a long line, receiving a poor grade, or a confrontation with a family member—these are all stressors that might elicit different emotions to varying extents among individuals. Others might define stress in terms of their tolerance, or lack thereof, to the life-depleting emotions elicited by those stressors. For example, you might experience intense anger when someone cuts you off while driving because you have a low tolerance for inconsiderate drivers. But you feel very little anger during an interaction with a rude server at a restaurant because of your empathy toward servers, a job you once had.

Our individualized definition of stress might also depend on how we process and express stress-inducing emotions. One person might have an explosive temper at the slightest provocation, but another person might tend to hold their anger in and rarely express it. You might experience stress as an intense panic attack or a subtle feeling that something is just not right in your life. Or you might feel anxious, overwhelmed, or helpless when you’re confronted with a situation in which you don’t have control. Or you might feel fearful about not being able to pay your bills, or not being able to meet your own expectations or those of someone else (Daugherty 2019). Another definition of stress is a situation where environmental demand exceeds the capacity for an effective response (Koolhaas, et. al 2011). Regardless of how stress is defined, it is a highly individualized concept based on varying types of stressors and the types of emotions elicited by those stressors.

Reflection Question: What are your thoughts about the “one size does not fit all” principle in terms of defining stress? What situations or events cause you to feel stressed, but those very same stressors don’t seem to affect a friend or family member with the same intensity or vice versa?

Hans Selye

Dr. Hans Selye (1907–1982), an endocrinologist who studied biological stress throughout much of his career, is the “father of stress research.” Take a look below at definitions proposed by Dr. Selye.

Stress is any event or situation that brings us out of homeostasis. Homeostasis usually refers to maintaining internal equilibrium and refers to the normal functioning of your body. It’s when all is well physically. The concept of equilibrium also applies to our psychological state. Some would say there is also “emotional homeostasis” when all is well emotionally.

Stress is any outside force or event that influences our mind or body. This implies that stress involves a life event or some pressure or challenge that affects us both physically and emotionally—both our mind and our body together. In other words, our physiology is largely influenced by our psychology and vice versa.

Stress is the rate of wear and tear on the body and mind. Again, this definition implies that stress affects both our mind and body, but “wear and tear” implies that this effect is negative. In other words, there may be consequences to our physiology (i.e., physical well-being) and to our psychology (i.e., emotional well-being).

Stress is the spice of life. Unlike many others, this definition has a positive connotation and implies that stress can be good for us. In other words, not having enough stress in our lives can be detrimental to our health (Selye 1956).

College Students

Check out definitions of stress provided by college students. Notice that both life-draining and life-enhancing emotions are mentioned in some of the definitions.

Stress is that overwhelming feeling of anxiety that is created and triggered by events.

Stress means being faced with a situation that I have no control over and that will eventually hurt me if I do not gain control soon.

Stress means you don’t get what you want, when you want it.

Stress is that feeling where nothing anyone says or does can make you feel better.

Stress is what causes one’s life to seem like an ongoing roller coaster.

Stress is anything and everything that makes me question why things are the way they are.

Stress is the thing that pushes you to get things done.

Stress is the feeling of being overwhelmed, unmotivated, depressed, anxious, or worried.

Stress is when reality and theory don’t meet.

Stress is anything that causes you to be in anything but a normal state of mind.

Reflection Question: Take a close look at your stressors and explanations above. Which definition (Hans Selye or the college students) most resonates with you based on your stressors? Explain. Or create your own definition. How do you define stress?

Section II: The Need for Stress Management

The famous cartoon cat, Garfield, says in a perfect world, you’d love your job, and it would love you back. You’d work two weeks and vacation 50; you’d always be first in line; sleeping would be an Olympic event; TV would make you smart; and mornings would start later in the day. Without a doubt, we don’t live in a perfect world, and things don't always go the way we’d like, which can be stressful. Because we all live in this imperfect world, no one is immune to stress. Everyone will deal with bumps in the road of life. Some might have more bumps and/or steeper bumps than others. Some bumps might be self-induced or stress you created yourself. Other bumps are just there, or stress that is completely out of your control. Regardless of the number and severity of bumps in our road, we all experience stress, regardless of our socioeconomic status, education level, gender, age, level of intelligence, et cetera.

Reflection Question: What would your perfect world look like? Would someone be able to identify your stressors, or the situations that cause you to feel stressed, based on the description of your perfect world? In other words, to what extent does your perfect world reflect the opposite of your typical stressors? Explain.

As we go throughout our journey in life, we learn that even the one person who wasn’t supposed to ever let you down probably will. You’ll have your heart broken probably more than once, and it may be harder every time. You’ll fight with your best friend. You’ll eventually lose someone you love. You’ll receive a score on an exam that does not reflect the time and effort you put into studying for it. You’ll likely have insufficient funds to cover the costs of all your needs and/or wants in life. Life can be stressful—especially, as a college student! Unfortunately, many people are ill-equipped to effectively handle stress as evidenced in part by alarming rates of deaths of despair, which refer to deaths caused by suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism (Na et al. 2022; Scutchfield and Keck 2017). In other words, deaths of despair are deaths caused by behaviors that result from inability to effectively cope with stress (stressors and life-depleting emotions such as despair and depression). Before addressing stress management techniques and tools, it’s important to first understand how stress is defined.

Section III: Components of Stress

Stress is multifactorial, meaning it consists of several components. When asked what stress is, many people typically identify stressors or something that causes them to feel any life-depleting emotion. For example, getting stuck in traffic when you’re already running late, getting into a heated argument with a good friend, and not having enough money to pay your bills are examples of typical stressors or causes of stress. However, stress involves much more than stressors or events. Stress is a comprehensive term that refers to a chain reaction or ripple effect involving multiple components. This ripple effect can affect us emotionally, behaviorally, socially, and physically, which can result in short-term and long-term health consequences.

The components of stress, which also reflect the stress response, or the process of what happens when we experience stress, are:

1. Stressor
2. Thoughts/Perceptions
3. Feelings/Emotions
4. Physical Reactions
5. Behavioral Consequences
6. Health Consequences

Each component of stress triggers or activates the next component. After encountering the stressor, the next three components often occur quickly in rapid succession, almost instantaneously. You’re running late and are stuck in traffic (stressor). You hate running late (perception). You’re frustrated (emotion). Your feel tension in your shoulders as you’re driving and grip the steering wheel tighter than you normally would (physical reaction). You were a bit rude to your roommate as you ran out the door (behavioral reaction). It’s important to note that a cognitive appraisal is made after encountering a stressor. In other words, your thoughts are influenced by your perception or appraisal of the situation. Is this bad? Or is this good? If it’s good, you go on with your day and the stress response stops there. If you perceive the situation to be bad, then the chain reaction or domino affect continues unless you make a conscious effort to intervene. Also, sometimes it takes a while for us to react behaviorally to a stressor. For example, someone may have said something that offends you and causes you to feel angry. But you didn’t experience anger until after you thought about the comment for a while. And sometimes we don’t change our behavior at all in response to stress. No one would be able to tell that we’re stressed because our behaviors remain the exact same. Health consequences often don’t occur until several days, weeks, months, or even years after experiencing stress (McFarlane 2010). For example, you might get sick a few days after a stressful week of final exams rather than during finals week.

Reflection Question: Think about a stressful event or situation that you encountered recently. Identify the stressor (e.g., “I failed an exam”); your perception and/or thoughts about the stressor (e.g., “I’m not going to pass this class, which means I’m not going to graduate”); your emotional reaction (e.g., I felt sad, frustrated, and a bit angry”); your physiological reaction (e.g., “I got a headache within an hour or so after I saw my grade”); and your behavioral reaction (e.g., “I was more quiet and withdrawn than normal”).

Multiple Emotions

Regarding the emotional component of stress, it should be noted that stress involves many different emotions. Anxiety or feeling overwhelmed often comes to mind when people think of stress. These are stressful emotions. However, there are several additional emotions that can cause emotional, physiological, and behavioral reactions, as well as health consequences over time. As indicated in one of the definitions proposed by Dr. Selye, stress involves any event or situation that brings us out of homeostasis. So, any emotion that pulls us out of an “everything is okay” state technically falls under the umbrella of stress. Also, rather than associating stress with simply “negative” emotions, stressful emotions are described as life-draining or life-depleting (Daugherty 2019). There are myriad emotions associated with stress: anger, anxiety, frustration, sadness, depression, irritability, worry, fear, overwhelm, impatience, discouragement, resentment, despair, shame, grief, heartache, embarrassment, et cetera. For example, when you’re angry, you’re stressed. When you're depressed, you’re stressed. When you’re grieving, you’re stressed. These emotions can be incredibly life-draining, especially if experienced on a regular and consistent basis and if experienced at a high level of intensity.

Reflection Question: Think about life-depleting emotions (e.g., anger, frustration, fear, sadness, grief, loneliness, hopelessness, anxiety, helplessness, insecurity, jealousy, humiliation, being undermined, vengeance, self-criticism, nervousness, misery). What are the top three life-depleting emotions that are the most stressful for you? In other words, which emotion is the most difficult for you to cope with? Explain.

Questions or Ideas: Carefully consider the content in this chapter, including the video. Identify two questions or ideas you have based on the material. Or you may state two “take-away” points that you feel are the most interesting and/or the most important.

Key Points

Below is a list of key ideas to take away from this chapter.

1. No one is immune to stress. Everyone will deal with it throughout their lives because we don’t live in a perfect world. Yet, many people are ill-equipped to effectively handle stress as evidenced by alarming rates of deaths of despair (i.e., alcoholism, suicide, drug overdose).
2. Stress is a highly subjective term because what is stressful for one person may not be stressful for another. However, most definitions include emotional and physical changes.
3. The term stress typically includes life-depleting emotions: feeling overwhelmed, anxiety, anger, depression, and so forth.
4. Stress is a multifactorial concept. It involves multiple components such as a stressor, thoughts and perceptions, feelings and emotions, behavioral reactions, physiological reactions, and health consequences.
5. Unmet needs can be a significant source of stress. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the ABCs of human needs help identify our basic needs.
6. It’s often the consequential emotion of a stressful event that is stressful, and not the event itself.

References

Cardon, M. S., and Pankaj C. P. 2015. “Is Stress Worth It? Stress-Related Health and Wealth Trade-Offs for Entrepreneurs.” Applied Psychology 64 (2): 379–420.

Daugherty, A. 2019. Unstressed. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.

Gebhart, F. 2017. “More Money, More Stress: Salaries, Demands Rise.” Drug Topics 161 (12): 18–20, 22. http://proxy.library.cpp.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/more-money-stress-salaries-demands-rise/docview/1978268004/se-2?accountid=10357

Koolhaas, J. M., Bartolomucci, A., Buwalda, B., de Boer, S. F., Flügge, G., Korte, S. M., Meerlo, P., Murison, R., Olivier, B., Palanza, P., Richter-Levin, G., Sgoifo, A., Steimer, T., Stiedl, O., van Dijk, G., Wöhr, M., & Fuchs, E. (2011). Stress revisited: a critical evaluation of the stress concept. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 35(5), 1291–1301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.02.003

McFarlane, A. 2010. “The Long-Term Costs of Traumatic Stress: Intertwined Physical and Psychological Consequences.” World Psychiatry 9:3–10.

Na, P. J., E. A. Stefanovics, T. G. Rhee, and R. A. Rosenheck. 2022. “‘Lives of Despair’” at Risk for ‘Deaths of Despair’: Tracking an Under-recognized, Vulnerable Population. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 57:1123–34. https://doi-org.proxy.library.cpp.edu/10.1007/s00127-022-02218-w

Petrone, P. 2018. “Stress at Work: See Who’s Feeling It the Most and How to Overcome It. Linked In (blog). https://www.linkedin.com/business/learning/blog/productivity-tips/stress-at-work--see-whos-feeling-it-the-most.

Scutchfield, F. D., and C. W. Keck. 2017. “Deaths of Despair: Why? What to Do?” American Journal of Public Health 107 (10): 1564–65.

Seaward, B. L. 2006. Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-Being. 5th ed. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Selye, H. 1956. The Stress of Life. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Credit

Fig. 1.1: Copyright © 2022 Pixabay/Sony Ilce-7rm4.