Stress
Stress can be defined as the response of the body to any demand place upon it and can have a positive or negative effect on us. Most often, it is the negative that people are talking about – the distress – caused by demands that exceed out ability to cope and that detract from our well being.
Demands may come from the external (people, places, things, situations), or they may be internal (our thoughts). The latter is the most important cause of distress for any of us. As a result of the various demands, we respond physiologically (increased heart rate, sweating, rapid and shallow breathing, muscle tightness), psychologically (worry, anxiety, guilt, poor concentration, racing thoughts) and behaviorally (increase in smoking, use of alcohol, drugs, nail biting, compulsive eating, reckless behavior).
The three basic responses are interrelated, i.e. one will affect the other. The most important thing to remember is that almost all distress is of our own making. The important issue is not what I’m responding to but how I choose to respond.