What is stress?

       Stress is how your brain and body respond to a challenge or demand. When you are stressed, your body releases certain hormones. Hormones are chemicals that travel in your bloodstream and control how different parts of your body work. The hormones that are released when you are stressed make you alert and ready to act. They can raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. This response is sometimes called a “fight or flight” response.

       Everyone gets stressed from time to time. There are different types of stress. It can be short-term or long-term. It can be caused by something that happens once or something that keeps happening.

       Not all stress is bad. In fact, it can help you survive in a dangerous situation. For example, one kind of stress is the jolt you may feel when a car pulls out in front of you while you are driving. This jolt of hormones helps you quickly hit the brakes to avoid an accident. A little short-term stress can sometimes be helpful. For example, the stress of having a deadline for school or your job may push you to get your work done on time. Once you finish it, that stress goes away.

       But stress that lasts a long time can harm your health.

 

 

What causes long-term stress?

       Long-term stress, or chronic stress, lasts for weeks, months, or longer. As you go about your life, your body is acting as if you’re being threatened.

Causes of long-term stress include:

• • Routine stress from the demands of work, school, family needs, money problems, and other daily pressures that don’t stop.

• • Stress from sudden, difficult changes in your life, such as divorce, illness, losing your job, or other unhappy life events that often have a long impact.

• • Traumatic stress, which may happen when you’re in danger of serious harm or death. Examples include being in a bad accident, a war, a flood, earthquake, or other frightening event. This type of stress can cause a long-lasting problem called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).