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Module 4 English Book

While the media portrays stress as harmful, experts believe mild stress can be beneficial. Stress hormones increase blood flow and prepare the body for action. Regularly experiencing short periods of mild stress can strengthen the immune system and lower risks of diseases. Distress is negative stress, while eustress from exercise is positive and leads to feelings of accomplishment. The stress management industry profits from portraying stress as a condition needing treatment, even though mild stress is normal and does not require products or professionals for most people. Embracing mild stress can be healthy, while chronic stress warrants seeking help.

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350 views1 page

Module 4 English Book

While the media portrays stress as harmful, experts believe mild stress can be beneficial. Stress hormones increase blood flow and prepare the body for action. Regularly experiencing short periods of mild stress can strengthen the immune system and lower risks of diseases. Distress is negative stress, while eustress from exercise is positive and leads to feelings of accomplishment. The stress management industry profits from portraying stress as a condition needing treatment, even though mild stress is normal and does not require products or professionals for most people. Embracing mild stress can be healthy, while chronic stress warrants seeking help.

Uploaded by

ksenija
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Who says stress is bad for you?

Think stress is your enemy? Think again. To be happy and healthy, we all need a little stress in our
lives!
‘Stress: the disease of our times’, ‘Stress-related illnesses the number one cause of doctors’ visits’,
‘Stress: the silent killer‘ - it seems like you can’t pick up a newspaper or magazine these days without
seeing a headline about stress and how bad it is for your health. The message is loud and clear:
stress is your enemy and you should be doing everything you can to minimise it in your daily life.
Is stress really the monster it is made out to be by the media? On the contrary, most experts believe
there is nothing wrong with experiencing a little bit of stress from time to time. As physiologist Monika
Fleshner states, “Only under circumstances of chronic stress do we suffer its negative effects.” This
type of stress comes when we face a situation that feels inescapable or takes a heavy toll on us - a
stressful job or an unhappy home life, for example. On the other hand, experiencing mild stress,
according to Fleshenr, can even be good for us.
When we feel stressed, glands in the body secrete hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol which
serve a number of functions. For one, they make the heart beat faster thereby increasing blood flow to
the brain and muscle and making us ready for action. As psychiatrist Judith Orloff states: “Stress
energises us, speeding up our systems to handle what we have to handle.” Accordingly, stress is not
a problem, as it is usually perceived, but actually, a condition that humans have evolved over
thousands of years to deal with problems!
Stress does not only have benefits in the short term. recent researches suggest that regularly
experiencing short periods of mild stress can strengthen the body’s immune system and lower the risk
of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In effect, stress acts like a ‘workout’ for the brain. Just
like exercising a muscle in the gym, stress exercises the brain ensuring it stays healthy and fully
functional!
It’s also worth thinking about the consequences of stress. Psychologists distinguish between two main
types of stress: distress and eustress. Basically, distress is negative stress. Even considering the
positive effects mentioned above, distress, more often than not, makes us feel disheartened.
Eustress, on the other hand, is the positive stress that results in us feeling happy. Tha e physical
exercise, for example. It is undoubtedly stressful to push your body to the limit, but the health benefits
and feeling of accomplishment afterward by far make the initial stress worth it.
So why, you may be asking yourself, if esutress and even low level of distress are beneficial, are we
being continually fed the message that every type of stress is our enemy? According to Angela
Padmore, author of The Truth about Stress, the answer lies with the multimilion-pound stress
management industry. According to Padmore, the vast majority of us do not feel stress to the ppint
where we need to buy products or seek professional assistance. Yet, in Britain alone, there are now
over 15 milion website and 2 milion Stress Management Practitioners selling everything from hormone
test sets to massage balls, all treating a contidion that, to a large extent, does not need to be treated.
People are made to think they have a problem so that they will hand over ther hard-earned cash for
the cure. As one experianced counsellor put it, “They’ve turned a normal part of living into a disease
that needs to be cured.”
So, how can we apply this information to our everyday lives? Well, firstly, it’s important to recognise
the difference between chronic stress and mild stress. If you are suffering from the former, get help
today. On the other hand, the next time that you feel mild stress, try to embrace the sensation. Don’t
get stressed about feeling stress; chances are it’s doing you a lot of good.

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