Introduction
Stress is part of everyday life. We encounter stress in different magnitudes. There are many sources of stress that affect human beings ranging from unfulfilled expectations and dreams, how life would be in the future, academic performance, how other people see us to the trivial issues of a favorite outfit not fitting when going for a special event. Stress might be good or harmful to the human body. Some of the positive effects of stress on the human body are that stress helps us to survive dangerous situations by triggering the fight-or-flight modes. This paper seeks to analyze how well the body deals with stress, the common myths associated with stress, how stress affects the brain, examples of short term and long term stress and evaluation of whether stress could be a good thing if managed effectively.
The Most Misunderstood Concept about Stress
There are many myths that revolve around stress and there are misconceptions that come along with them. PsychCentral highlights six myths about stress, and I believe that stress is always bad for humans are the most misunderstood. There is a commonly held misconception that zero stress makes us happy and healthy. Nonetheless, PsychCentral notes that stress is like violin cord: too little and the music is dull and raspy. According to PsychCentral, stress is not a bad thing, and the secret lies in understanding how to manage it.
I consider the concept that stress is always bad for a person is the most misconstrued because there a tendency for people to give advice and ask others to “live stress-free life.” Also, when one seems down, people reach out and ask someone “are you stressed?” in a tone that makes it sound as if stress is a bad thing. To support this view, there are many quotes associated with living stress-free life that seek to ask people to operate stress-less life as much as possible. There are also plenty of books and websites that serve as guides on living a stress-free life. For instance, stress.org website has an article providing guidance on How to Live a Stress Free Life in a Way Most People Don’t (Stree.org, 2020). There are numerous publications such as combat stress magazine and contentment magazine that offer guidance on how people can live stress-free lives. Numerous authors have also published books that persuade readers to live stress-free lives such as Anthony Dallman’s “ The Essesntial Guide To Living A Stress Free Life” Jake Nedd’s Mindefulness Habits: Ways To Live A Stress Free Life and Living A Stress Free Life by R.K are examples of Books Written Asking The Public To Live Stress-Free (Sweat, 2016).
Cognitive stress impact on the human body
Cognitive stress is a type of stress that may be caused by apprehensive feelings, dreadful expectation, and poor attentiveness. I think that mental stress has the greatest influence on an individual’s reaction to stress since the mind is the cause of other causes of stress. For instance, having anxious thoughts is likely to cause behavioral stress such as sleep problems, cause emotional stress such as inability to relax, as well as cause physiological stress like sweating and tension headaches. The mind is what directs the actions of the entire body, it is the mind that tells the emotions that the body has a physical injury making the body to feel pain and eventually feel stressed.
Different reaction of the brain to acute and chronic stress
Short term stress is also known as severe stress that one suffers from a short time period. Illustrations of acute stress are such as being stuck in a traffic jam on the way to an interview or having a heated argument with a loved one. Long term stress is stress for a prolonged period of time such as having a bad relationship with a spouse or a taxi driver who gets stuck in traffic jams every day. The brain reacts to short term stress by becoming more active whereby the hippocampus speeds up the release of dopamine in the pathway o brain that is central to pleasure the changes makes the body feel alert. On the other hand, the body responds to chronic cells by changing how the hippocampal cells functions. The hippocampus cells become more vulnerable to injury resulting in the degeneration of cells (Palmer & Cooper, 2007). Hippocampus cells die with prolonged periods of stress. Long term stress also reduces the release of dopamine in the brain, which reduces a person’s capacity for pleasure and increases the risk of depression.
Deliberation of stress as a good thing
Stress is a worthy thing since it helps a person to meet day-to-day challenges and helps someone to achieve objectives. Stress also serves as an important cautionary system because it triggers the production of flight or fight reaction that can help to save one’s life when in danger. Low levels of stress stimulates the production of the interleukin chemical that provides a quick boost to the immune system and helps to protect the body against illnesses such as colds (Sapolsky, 2012).
Stress is part of everyday life. We encounter stress in different magnitudes. There are many sources of stress that affect human beings ranging from unfulfilled expectations and dreams, how life would be in the future, academic performance, how other people see us to the trivial issues of a favorite outfit not fitting when going for a special event. Stress might be good or harmful to the human body. Some of the positive effects of stress on the human body are that stress helps us to survive dangerous situations by triggering the fight-or-flight modes. This paper seeks to analyze how well the body deals with stress, the common myths associated with stress, how stress affects the brain, examples of short term and long term stress and evaluation of whether stress could be a good thing if managed effectively.
The Most Misunderstood Concept about Stress
There are many myths that revolve around stress and there are misconceptions that come along with them. PsychCentral highlights six myths about stress, and I believe that stress is always bad for humans are the most misunderstood. There is a commonly held misconception that zero stress makes us happy and healthy. Nonetheless, PsychCentral notes that stress is like violin cord: too little and the music is dull and raspy. According to PsychCentral, stress is not a bad thing, and the secret lies in understanding how to manage it.
I consider the concept that stress is always bad for a person is the most misconstrued because there a tendency for people to give advice and ask others to “live stress-free life.” Also, when one seems down, people reach out and ask someone “are you stressed?” in a tone that makes it sound as if stress is a bad thing. To support this view, there are many quotes associated with living stress-free life that seek to ask people to operate stress-less life as much as possible. There are also plenty of books and websites that serve as guides on living a stress-free life. For instance, stress.org website has an article providing guidance on How to Live a Stress Free Life in a Way Most People Don’t (Stree.org, 2020). There are numerous publications such as combat stress magazine and contentment magazine that offer guidance on how people can live stress-free lives. Numerous authors have also published books that persuade readers to live stress-free lives such as Anthony Dallman’s “ The Essesntial Guide To Living A Stress Free Life” Jake Nedd’s Mindefulness Habits: Ways To Live A Stress Free Life and Living A Stress Free Life by R.K are examples of Books Written Asking The Public To Live Stress-Free (Sweat, 2016).
Cognitive stress impact on the human body
Cognitive stress is a type of stress that may be caused by apprehensive feelings, dreadful expectation, and poor attentiveness. I think that mental stress has the greatest influence on an individual’s reaction to stress since the mind is the cause of other causes of stress. For instance, having anxious thoughts is likely to cause behavioral stress such as sleep problems, cause emotional stress such as inability to relax, as well as cause physiological stress like sweating and tension headaches. The mind is what directs the actions of the entire body, it is the mind that tells the emotions that the body has a physical injury making the body to feel pain and eventually feel stressed.
Different reaction of the brain to acute and chronic stress
Short term stress is also known as severe stress that one suffers from a short time period. Illustrations of acute stress are such as being stuck in a traffic jam on the way to an interview or having a heated argument with a loved one. Long term stress is stress for a prolonged period of time such as having a bad relationship with a spouse or a taxi driver who gets stuck in traffic jams every day. The brain reacts to short term stress by becoming more active whereby the hippocampus speeds up the release of dopamine in the pathway o brain that is central to pleasure the changes makes the body feel alert. On the other hand, the body responds to chronic cells by changing how the hippocampal cells functions. The hippocampus cells become more vulnerable to injury resulting in the degeneration of cells (Palmer & Cooper, 2007). Hippocampus cells die with prolonged periods of stress. Long term stress also reduces the release of dopamine in the brain, which reduces a person’s capacity for pleasure and increases the risk of depression.
Deliberation of stress as a good thing
Stress is a worthy thing since it helps a person to meet day-to-day challenges and helps someone to achieve objectives. Stress also serves as an important cautionary system because it triggers the production of flight or fight reaction that can help to save one’s life when in danger. Low levels of stress stimulates the production of the interleukin chemical that provides a quick boost to the immune system and helps to protect the body against illnesses such as colds (Sapolsky, 2012).
