FREE ESSAY ON STRESS

STRESS

Semester Project
10-page paper
5/3/2000
STRESS!!
Stress is a problem in life that has to be dealt with. It happens everyday to everyone.
Different things make people irritated and cause stress. Stress causes many problems in
everyday life. It could cause everything from a headache to a heart attack. Eventually a
person could be so stressed out and lose all hope to actually commit suicide. There are
also many ways to relieve stress. A person could do anything from going to the doctor to
yoga. In the dictionary the word that is used most as the definition is pressure (New
World Dictionary, 1409). Pressure from your job, family, and life all cause stress.
Stress is also related to panic, anxiety, and depression. Some people work better under
stress and pressure instead of a relaxed atmosphere. Others can't even function with
stress put on them.
Everybody is going to have stress. A person may have a high stress or low stress
personality. They are not born with this; it is deveoloped throughout their life. A
person with a high stress personality will become stressed out easier then a person with
a low stress personality. How you live your life can change the way you look at stress
and therefor change your stress personality. People who excericise and eat healthy diets
normally have a low stress personality. Exercise and a healthy diet are known to reduce
stress. 
Stress has many causes, and these causes are different for everybody. These causes of
stress are called stressors. Everyday people have to deal with stressers. A stressor is
the cause of stress, it is something that is threatening to a person. The threat may be
physical or mental condition, and event, another person, or the person himself. Small
things like having to wait in line can cause stress. They may not seem devastating at the
moment but if you have to deal with enough of these small stressors everyday it can lead
to long term stress. 
Stressors aren't the same for everybody. Stressors change over time, as we do. Children
suffer stress the same as we do, although it doesn't normally last as long. A child may
be afraid of the dark or may be afraid of going to school. This puts a lot of stress on
children may cause them long term harm. 
A teenager experiences different stressors than a child. A teenager is developing from a
child to an adult and is under extreme stress. This stress is overlooked by many adults
because thery believe that they aren't under "real" stress. This could be no farther from
the truth. A teenager may have family stress. This includes arguments between brothers,
sisters, and parents. 
School is huge stressor in most teenagers' lives. A pressure to get good grades
contributes to stress. The teenager may be pressured by parents, teachers, and the
student himself. Peers cause as mush stress as anything does. Fitting in causes extreme
stress. Fitting in may include anything from wearing the right clothes, telling the right
jokes or playing sports. Teenagers strive to fit in and the more difficulty they
experience the more stess there is. 
Teenagers also have to deal with changing bodies. The body changing from child to adult
form may be a stressor. Sexual development, changes in height, weight, body shape, and
self-image are all things a teenager goes through. 
More extreme stress in a teenegers life are things like a relative or friend dying, a
change of schools, parents divorce, the use of drugs or alcohol, or being suspended from
school. An extreme stressor or many small stressors will cause long term stress. 
Adults go through more stress than anybody does because the bear the most responsibility.
The stressors for an adult are endless, they may be anything like loosing a job, starting
a new job, having kids, a car breaking down, and of course bills. 
Stress is really nothing but fear. In the words of Frankling D. Roosevelt, "the only
thing we have to fear is fear itslef". This applies to stress because stress is caused by
the fear of the stressor. For example, some people will be scared of getting a shot days
before they go. The pain if there is any will normally only last a few minutes. It is
actually the fear of the pain, not the pain itself that is the stressor. 
You may be your worst stressor. Stress is always blamed on other people or other things
because people don't like to think that they are the cause of their own stress. A lot of
the time stress is caused by the way we react to our stressors. Things like
procrastination, stubborness, and blame only makes the stress worse. 
Stress is all in the mind, therefor it can be overcome phycologically. The stress that
you feel and react to is determined by your type of personality. A high stress
personality will get stressed out very easily. A person with a low stress personality
under the same stressful conditions as a high stress personality will take longer to, or
may not, become stressed. 
There are ways to break the tension that causes stress. Getting excited about an upcoming
event that may be stressful. Look at it in a way that it will be interesting, fun or
different. Just talking to yourself in a positive manner about this new experience will
lower the stress of the event. 
Learning to relax is essential in mentally overcoming stress. You must not run on nervous
energy. Slowing down and looking at things more carefully will cause you to seet things
clearer. You may do this by taking a break. If you forget about the stressor for a while
your subconsious will work on it as you do something else. When you come back to the
problem you may think of a soluton right away.