K.E
KINE 1164
06/22/2012
Stress
Stress is a part of everyone’s life. It is a response from the body to a variety of internal and external stimuli. External triggers may include a job change, a move to a new city, marriage, death of a loved one, or an illness in your family. Internal stimuli may include physical or mental discomfort. Personality traits, such as a need to strive for perfection or to please others, may also cause stress." Stress can produce either negative or positive reactions. The difficulty with stress is determining its cause among different groups of people. The word “stress” was coined by Hans Seyle who defined as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.” His experimentations on animals under stress found that many would develop diseases similar to humans such as heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease. Soon after people assumed stress was in the form of a threatening feeling, putting it in a negative light. Stress can also be positive, called eustress. For example, a candidate winning a race is just as stressful as losing. Even with the discovery of positive stress, there was still some difficulty in describing stress. One analogy that fits a good description is the rollercoaster analogy. People preparing for a rollercoaster ride anxiously wait for the ride to begin. Some people are nervous, waiting for the end of the ride to get back on the ground. Others know what’s to come and show no feeling of nervousness. But others seek the thrill of the ride, screaming with excitement and joy. While most people under stress, positive or negative, there is a feeling within them that dictates their every move.
http://www.stress.org/topic-definition-stress.htm