How often do you use the expression ‘I am under a great deal of stress’ or ‘I feel stressed out?’
In that case, stress is something that is ‘done to you’.
Stressors are the pressures that induce the stress response. These stressors may come from within you - your attitudes, beliefs and expectations in relation to the world and to yourself, your habits, behaviour or your personality.
On the other hand there are stressors from the environment- the home, work, social or cultural. Generally referred to as environmental stressors, they include noise, pollution, a disturbed family atmosphere, a problematic boss, or hostile neighbours and so on.
Any new event in your life can cause stress as you try to adjust to the demands made by that event. Some events are more stressful than others as these events, by themselves can be positive or negative. An event such as the birth of a child in the family, a promotion involving a new position at work are new events that can be stressful as they demand fresh adjustments from you. But their stress impact is reduced, as they are positive and pleasant events.
On the other hand, if there is a death in the family, or you lose your job, or fail in an examination, you would probably be under severe stress as these events are negative or unpleasant in nature. So the stressfulness of a particular stressor depends on the degree to which you have to adapt to it, and how much of your resources you need to use.
Research suggests that experiencing an excessive number of ‘life events’ in a particular period of time can lead to increased ill-health.
The work of two American researchers, Holmes and Rahe has indicated the relation of life events to our health. Below is a list of the events, which commonly occur in our lives and the stress points each carries as an index of the likely severity of the stress caused by that event. You can calculate the stress score for yourself if the event has occurred in your life in the last twelve months. |
