Emily Hackbart

Per 2B
4/12/15
Stress in your life
Whether its stress at work or right before a performance, you are bound to feel it. It can
be something small like a presentation at work or school, or high stress like right before your
very first performance. Without stress your body wouldnt be sure of how to respond to different
situations. Many people dont realize, however, chronic stress is very harmful if nothing is done
to help control it. Graduating high school and heading off to college in the next couple of
months causes me to stress out. Worried about what I want to do and how Im going to do it,
while other friends already know what they are doing and it doesnt seem to faze them. With
people handling stress differently it is presumed that stress is not something a lot of people tend
to worry about, this idea needs to change, or their health can be in danger. By letting you know
what stress is, I hope to inform more people about stress, the pros, cons, treatment and places
that tend to be most stressful.
When there is an upset in balance whether it is real or imagined stress appears. Stress is
your bodys way of protecting you by keeping you focused, alert, and energetic. By feeling
threatened your nervous system releases adrenaline and cortisol, causing your heart beat to
increase, your blood pressure to rise, your breathing to quicken, and your senses to sharpen thus
causing a quicker reaction time. Something small like slamming on the breaks to stop from
getting in an accident is a response to stress. Some believe that having stress every day is normal,
when you have the right amount. Having too much stress is a major health risk and can cause
many complications to ones health.
Having small amounts of stress can be beneficial for you by keeping you focused while
in a stressful situation. Making a decision and being stressed can help you later that is when it is

necessary to make a decision, as well as being able to take control of the situation so that it
doesnt get worse. Befriending leads to substantial mental and physical health benefits in times
of stress (Smith) by having a small amount of stress it can strengthen your heart, help build
stamina, and help fight off infection. Having the right amount can help you when you need to
make a decision in a split second. Take EMTs or Emergency room workers for an example,
having people coming and going with different cases it can be tough. Having one person come in
for a sprain while someone else is being rushed in for a life threating injury the people working
need to have priories set and know what needs to be done first, as well as get them the right
medicine in the right dosage. While a small dosage is alright every once in a while, having too
much can be harmful.
Having too much stress for a long amount of time is harmful because it degrades your
body, both mentally and emotionally. Warning signs for chronic stress are constant worrying,
seeing only the negative sides (cognitive), short temper, general unhappiness (emotional),
dizziness, aches and pains (physical), sleeping to much or little, and eating too much or little
(behavioral). Stress over time can creep up on you, if it stays for a while it starts to become a
normal feeling, as you have become used to it renders to be even more dangerous. Long term
exposure can cause a suppression of your immune system, a raise in blood pressure, speed up
aging process, and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Stress can rewire your brain to
make you more prone to anxiety and depression (Melinda Smith) . Major health risk include
heart disease, sleeping problems, depression, weight problems, and autoimmune diseases
(Melinda Smith). With stress causing so many problem it can really affect your relationships with
people as well as your work ethnics. Stress can cause you to work at a slower pace and not put
that much time and effort in to your work. Resulting in a bad report of your assignment. Without
treatment and coping skill for stress it can cause so many more problems.

Chronic stress doesnt have to take control of your life because there are ways to help
cope as well as treat it. By setting time aside for relaxation can help reduce it. Eating healthy can
improve it as well as exercise. Not only are they a good way to handle stress it also good for your
health in general. Advice to regulate stress follow the four As:
Avoid unnecessary stress [] distinguishing between should and musts.
Alter the situation [] deal with problems head on. Instead of bottling up your feelings
and increasing your stress.
Adapt to the stressor. When you cant change the stressor, try changing yourself. [] is
this really something worth getting stressed over.
Accept the things you cant change. There will always be stressors in life that you cant
do anything about. Learn to accept the inevitable rather than rail against a situation and
making it even more stressful. Look for the upside in a situationeven the most stressful
circumstances can be an opportunity for learning or personal growth. Learn to accept that
no one, including you, is ever perfect. (Melinda Smith)
Bottling everything up it can cause so much stress to build up that that someday you lash out and
end up hurting yourself and others. Thus causing issues in your relationships with others. Having
a strong support group can help you manage. As well as knowing more about what is causing
you to be stressed shows that it wont be as stressful. Do research on how long it will take to
know of the things that can possibly go wrong to become prepared. Know what works for you
and try different techniques to see what works the best. Once you find it, stick to it you will be
much happier in the long run. Work is one of the places you will be stressed out most, whether
its worrying about being laid off or by having too many deadlines close together. Taking that
stress home can be a bad idea, but its hard not to. At a stressful time people will tend to lash out
causing arguments with their spouse as well as kids, causing later cause problems. Having a
father who owns his own business I see how stressed he gets and I feel it as well. Sometimes its
so much he snaps at the smallest thing. Thus causing the family to stress about what they say and

where. Stress is contagious. Once someone is stressed and snaps, others and the persons life will
feel stressed as well and, they might stress out as well. Being stressed at home and school can
cause some major damage to a teenager, sometimes causing them to snap as well or start bad
habits to relax, (e.g. underage drinking, or drugs.) This then causes the parents to stress out until
it becomes a vicious cycle. Others can handle the stress at work well and not bring it home at all,
this gives them time to improve relationships with their family, letting them to be able to talk
things out and solve their problems. Being able to talk things out leaves very little opportunities
to be stressed at home, then you can help when your kids are stressed. Some people say kids and
teens have no reason to be stressed, but they do. (E.g. Sports, classes, deadlines, homework,
projects, work, and yet still have a social life.)
High school, can be very stressful, by having so many classes, and having homework.
Teachers have due dates and tests on the same day things can get crazy. For some people, it
doesnt seem to faze them but for others, it can really affect them. For me, there are times that
everything is under control and I get things turned in on time, while other times this is not the
case. Being busy with school and Color guard, I dont usually have a lot of time. My weeks
consist of color guard, church youth group, homework, color guard, dress rehearsals,
competitions, church and homework. This doesnt leave me a lot of time to do homework during
the week. Some teachers expect one to two hours of studying for their class alone. By having
teachers who require two hours of studying doesnt help when I get home from practice at 9:30
and still have to eat and get ready for bed. Because I am so tired from the day and practice I am
not going to study for four hours for two classes. It tends to get very stressful around test dates
because there is not a lot of time to study because of competitions and practice. When teens are
in AP classes, extra-curricular activities, and still have a social life, people tend to wonder if they
are stressed. By handling it differently we tend to not see how stressed they really are. Others

tend to bottle up the stress and end up lashing out later. If students go to school then straight to
work, and still manage to get homework done it amazes me. With good time management and a
good support group students are able to do get everything done with very little stress. Some
people tend to isolate themselves and bottle it up because they dont want to be a burden to
others which in return can cause problems. By talking to others and venting, that is way better
than keeping it bottled up inside where it can cause more damage.
I have found that medical students tend to have a higher stress rate than most
other students. Yet they have a better way to handle and manage that stress. Many tend to go to
groups that help them to relax and to look forward on to becoming doctors. Each group has a
similar structure. It begins with a quiet meditation, often slow deep breathing, in through the
nose and out through the mouth, with the belly relaxed or soft. (Gordon) By relaxing an
prioritizing what needs to be done at what time can help reduce the amount of stress one has. By
knowing how to solve their stress level they ended up having a better academic performance.
By the end of the course, their anxiety had declined significantly and their levels were
indistinguishable from non-enrolled counterparts. These improvements were sustained at 3months follow-up. (Gordon) With what the students have learned from the group they will be
able to pass that on to family as well as their patients years to come. By being in a group of
others they can slowly become more aware of different types of stress and how handle it, causing
them to be more open minded.
Whether stress either good or bad, it can have an impact on your health. While just the
right amount can have benefits, too much can cause health risks. By knowing what stress is, the
pros and cons of stress, ways to handle stress, stress at work and stress in teens in school you can
better understand it. So when someone is having a bad day try to be caring and compassionate,

you never know what they are going through , maybe help because someday that can be you who
really needs the help and compassion.

Works Cited
Gordon, James S. "Mind-body skills groups for medical students: reducing stress,
enhancing commitment, and promoting patient-centered care." (2014).
Melinda Smith, M.A., Robert Segal, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. Help Guide. 2015.
11 April 2015.
Smith, James. "Stress Management - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Best
Practices, Benefits and Practical Solutions." tebbo, 2011. 188.