Stress
Stress is a normal, biological, and psychological response to both daily life challenges and major stressors. Working on a deadline, receiving upsetting news, or experiencing a traumatic event can all trigger a stress response. Stress affects almost every system of your body leading to changes in your mood, behavior, performance, and overall mental and physical health.
Types of Stress
While everyone will experience stress from time to time, not all stress is the same. There are two primary types of stress: acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term). Whether stress is acute or chronic depends on how long your stressor lasts, your ability to address the stress you're experiencing, and the type of stressor that's affecting your life.
Acute stress
Acute stress is short-term stress. Generally, an acute stressor is a challenge or inconvenience you may commonly experience as a part of daily life. This type of stress will trigger your body's natural stress response, but this response will eventually go away once you address the stressor or the stressful situation is over. Forgetting your house key at work, running late to an appointment, or facing an unexpected obstacle (e.g., sitting in traffic) are all examples of acute stress.
Chronic stress
In contrast to acute stress, chronic stress is your body's response to a prolonged stressful event or a series of events. In these cases, the stressor is long-term and often difficult to solve. A person experiencing chronic stress may have less control over the stressor. Examples of stressors that can cause chronic stress include:
Living in poverty
Experiencing family dysfunction
Dealing with ongoing abuse, harassment, or discrimination
Managing a chronic or terminal illness
Caretaking for an aging or sick loved one
Having a toxic work environment
Guide coping with stress
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