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MY
HEALTH
Definition
Of Stress
Posted:
Nov 2009
What
is stress? What is the
definition of Stress? Are you
under a stress?
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Today,
everybody is complaining
that there is a lot stress
all around us. It is true
that the stress always
present, throughout men's
history. From prehistoric
men until today. A
prehistoric man was living
in caves and huts and was in
frequent stress, since he
was in situation to be
hunter or even hunted. In
such situation, prehistoric
men were under the stress. A
modern man was under the
stress under many situations
like wars. But today, even
if there is no war of force
majeure, we consider being
under the constant stress
because of contemporary life
style.
Simply,
today we are under constant
rush to work, from work,
driving from one place to
another, while trying to
finish different things in
shortest time possible. We
find that lifestyle that to
be stressful, but it seems
that we cannot run away from
that style of living. So
what is exact definition of
stress?
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There
are many different understanding
of stress. Stress is usually
defined as being under too much
pressure from various sources at
work, at home or elsewhere.
It
would be good to define pressure
to understand this definition.
In physics the force is
expression of physical influence
of one object to another. For
example, if you take the 1kg
weight in your hand, it will
pressure your hand, due to
gravity force. Basically, this
weight is not large and its
influence to your hand is spread
on surface between weight and
your hand. Now, imagine the same
weight, but this time the
contact surface is the area of
the needle. What will happen?
Well, probably your skin will
not stay intact, since the same
weight is distributed on much
smaller surface. In physics the
pressure is defined as force
applied to some surface. If the
contact surface is smaller for
the same force, the greater
pressure will be applied per
surface unit. Example, 10 kg
weight applied on surface of 10
cm2 will create more pressure
per cm2, than the same force
applied on surface 20 cm2.
As
analogy, the stress is occurring
when we are exposed to some
workload of obligation in short
period of time. If we just have
enough time we think that it
would be easier to handle. It
can also be a too big financial
pressure in short period of
time. If we just have more time
for pay our debts, we think that
it would be easier to handle. It
can also bee too many
obligations overlapping, even
all these obligations are not
too difficult individually. But
if you apply them all at same
time, we see that as to much
pressure which causes stress.
All
these examples shows stress
caused by too much pressure
compressed in too short period
of time. There are other sources
of stress, different from
compression concept. These are
one time events that are simply
too difficult to handle. This
could be death of somebody close
to us. It can be loss of job. It
can be any one-time event that
is simply making too intensive
to our lives that makes us to be
stressed.
Basically
the definition of stress is the
emotional and physical strain
caused by our body's response to
pressure that comes from our
surrounding. This strain varies
in terms of severity and impact
from person to person, as each
person handles stress
differently and responds
differently to separate
stressors. Stressors are the
factors around us that cause us
the stress.
Another
definition of stress states that
it is the physical and
psychological reaction of an
individual's body to a specific
situation that evokes feelings
of anger, anxiety or stress. The
individual can experience stress
either in the workplace, the
home or some other place. This
definition of stress in effect
implies that it is the
individual's response to a
stimulus in the environment.
What this suggests is that it is
the new and the unknown that is
typically the stress factor.
Now
we see from several perspectives
and different examples what is
the definition of stress. This
definition does not have to be
the same for everybody, since we
all take stress in a different
way. Something that is the
stress for one person doesn't
not have to be a stress to
another person. Therefore, the
stress can be defined in many
ways. The more important fact
from pure definition of stress
is that the stress does exist
and that we must cope with it as
best as we can.
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