Defining Stress
Sita was an efficient and competent employee of her organization. She was associated with her organization for almost a decade and had proved her worth on many occasions. This year the company announced a double promotion with many benefits. Sita was sure she would be considered for this opportunity as she not only fulfilled but also excelled all the benchmarks on which the decision was to be made. However, when the formal announcement of the shortlisted employees was made, Sita was nowhere on the list. Shock would be an understatement for the emotions that Sita went through at that moment. She was extremely frustrated. A constant flow of questions kept on haunting her day and night. Her productivity reduced as she was less focused on her work. She started falling sick very often for no specifically known reason. She started picking up fights and also became over-critical about her decisions. She didn’t know what was the reason, but all she could claim was she was stressed!
Pihu was a brilliant student. It was time for the final examinations of her postgraduate course. She was well prepared for the first two papers and was relaxing in her house. A sudden message from her university professor popped up in the inbox of her mobile. This message was a reminder about the sequence of papers. The third paper was supposed to be the first paper tomorrow. This change was already mentioned in the hall tickets given to the students. Pihu panicked as she made the mistake of not going through the hall ticket before. Every student in the group assured the professor that they were aware of this change, and had prepared accordingly. Pihu started sweating and her hands were trembling at a rapid pace. She did not know how to handle this state of affairs. She picked up the notes of the third course as an attempt to face the situation. However, as soon as she glanced at the wall clock, everything seemed to go blank and she collapsed on the floor.
The type of stress that was detailed out by means of Sita and Pihu is quite relatable to most of us. Stress can arise due to any and every reason that can be thought about in this world. Be it a mindless activity, traumatic incident, differences with your boss, conflict with your partner, inability to complete an assignment, or the mere possibility of missing your local train. Stress can be experienced in different ways and the intensity of this experience also varies among individuals. The above mentioned hypothetical examples are a good elaboration of this. Stress can lead to a situation of panic or confusion in some. It can be indicative of a slight or major physical illness in a few individuals with no other specific diagnosis. In a similar way, the coping mechanisms of stress and related aspects are also different. Some might counter the stress in a positive way by empowering themselves, whereas, others might succumb to serious psychological issues. Thus, there is definitely a variety in the way an individual experiences and deals with stress. However, before dwelling into the strategies for dealing with stress, let’s begin with the very basic process of understanding the concept of stress in detail.
The word stress originates from “strictus” and “stringere” (Jin, 2012). The meaning of these Latin words can be comprehended as a restricted or limited state that an individual goes through under moments of pressure and challenges (Jin, 2012). In 1950, Hans Selye defined stress as the “nonspecific response of the body to any demand” (Tan & Yip, 2018). Palmer in 1989 defined stress as, “The psychological, physiological and behavioral response by an individual when they perceive a lack of equilibrium between the demands placed upon them and their ability to meet those demands, which, over a period of time, leads to ill-health” (Stainsby & Gandhi, 2018). The world health organization considers stress as any change that leads to a physical, emotional or psychological strain (World Health Organization, 2021).
From all the above mentioned examples, a simplified version for explaining the concept of stress can be stated as follows. Stress is termed as a feeling experienced by an individual that gets triggered through external or internal challenges. These challenges or experiences are said to be stressors. These challenges activate a set of biological and psychological stress responses within the individual that can influence him in a positive or negative way depending on the source and intensity of the stress. One of the crucial elements of this definition is the presence of the word positive in it. This means that stress does not necessarily lead to a negative outcome. Let us understand this with yet another example.
Sameer and Jay are toppers in their college. In the final semester of their course they enroll in an elective subject that has a maximum failure rate. The professor keeps on lecturing the students about the difficulty level of this subject on a daily basis. The professor is sure that most of the students will fail this year in this course no matter what their past records say about their academic achievements. Every interaction of Sameer with this professor is a stressful experience for him. However, to prove the professor wrong, Sameer makes sure to study the subject in depth on a daily basis. He took extra efforts and met experts from the field to get a clarity of the concepts. On the other side, Jay kept on pondering over the professor’s statement. Instead of doing something productive, he kept on wondering about the consequences of the predicted failure. When the results were declared, Sameer had topped the university with record marks in the said subject, whereas Jay had failed to clear the paper.
In the above mentioned example, Sameer and Jay went through the same situation. However, the way they dealt with the situation resulted in different outcomes for both of them. Sameer took the stress as a challenge for adding extra efforts to his examination preparation. In this case, the stress was beneficial for Sameer. This type of stress is called eustress. On the contrary, Jay pressurized himself with the burden of unwanted tension that led to a consequence of ultimate failure for him. Thus, stress had a negative impact on Jay. This type of stress is called distress.