What causes stress?
Stress is our psychological and physiological response to an event or condition perceived as a threat or challenge.
Stress affects many systems within us, including our metabolism, memory, and immune system. Have you ever taken an important test and forgotten the answer to a question you knew you prepared for? Or maybe you're working on a stressful project at work and get a cold as soon as you finish it? It's the stress that takes its toll.
That means, under normal circumstances, our mental, emotional, and physical states will return to normal after a stressful event passes. This is where mental health comes into play, helping us maintain a level of happiness even in the face of stress.
Although small amounts of positive stress can help us function better, this stress must be short-lived. Acute and prolonged stress can lead to long-term health problems and worsen existing conditions.
Hormonal changes cause stress
Every time you encounter something stressful, like when a car cuts you off on the road highway, your hypothalamus (a small area at the base of the brain) activates your stress response.
Your stress response is essentially an advanced and complex alarm system that sends a series of signals to the adrenal glands. From there, your body releases various stress hormones to help prepare for the fight or flight response.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the main stress hormone is cortisol, which increases blood glucose (sugar) levels to improve brain and muscle repair function. This hormone also helps your body function more efficiently by relieving non-essential functions like the reproductive and digestive systems.
Adrenaline, another of the main stress hormones, makes it easier for your muscles to use the increased glucose in your blood provided by cortisol. Together, these two hormones are very helpful in times of stress.
However, triggering the release of stress hormones too often can hurt your health. Learning to manage all types of stress, from the emotional stress of a breakup to everyday annoyances like traffic, is important for your health.
What causes stress?
There are many different causes of stress and each can affect you differently. If you can find the root cause of your stress, it can help you manage and even resolve it.
1. Financial obligations
Not being able to meet financial obligations is a source of significant stress for many people. Some situations that can cause financial stress include:
Some situations that might cause financial stress include:
- The inability to pay your bills
- Long-term unemployment
- Increasing debt
2. Death of a loved one
Most of us have experienced the devastating emotional impact of the passing of a loved one.
For many of us, it is not only grief that we feel. As well as the stress from a major loss, some people experience a mix of other emotions like loneliness, disappointment, and even anger.
3. Job loss
The loss of a job is not just about the loss of income. Very often, it causes our self-confidence to take a knock as well.
In some cases, being stressed and unable to find work for a long period can lead to job search depression. Feeling hopeless about your job prospects and career path can further exacerbate stress levels.
4. Traumatic events
Traumatic events like natural disasters and car accidents are often completely out of our control.
These kinds of unpredictable and unforeseen events naturally create a lot of stress and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for those who experience them.
5. Problems at work
In today’s increasingly fast-paced world, many of us feel that we constantly have to do more at work to keep our jobs. This compounds with the increase in time pressure that most of us feel from today’s near-instantaneous communications.
Workplace stress can be especially prevalent among working parents and women in male-dominated industries. Regardless of the reason, though, constant stressors at work can cause many employees to suffer from burnout.
6. Emotional well-being struggles
All of us are subject to low moods and experience worry. However, these emotional states can lead to chronic stress without the right emotional regulation skills.
In turn, this can develop into anxiety and depression.
7. Relationship issues
While all relationships create stress, many types of stressors are relatively mild and easily dealt with.
It is the larger issues within relationships, such as divorce or an unhappy marriage, that produce a lot of stress for the people involved.
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