Lesson One - How Stress Affects Your Life
| Site: | MoodleHUB.ca š |
| Course: | Mental Health & Wellness [1 cr] - AB Ed copy 1 |
| Book: | Lesson One - How Stress Affects Your Life |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Sunday, 7 September 2025, 6:45 PM |
Information
Information
- This lesson is designed to take approximately 2 hours.
- You have the following tasks and assignments to complete in this lesson.
- Read all Lesson 1 content, including videos, supplementary links, etc.
- Lesson 1 Journal
Lesson Outcomes
- Describe how life events can affect stress levels
- Identify positive and negative stress including
- Personal perception
- How negative thoughts and language can affect the perception of stress
- How positive stress can impact performance
What is Stress?
Stress is something that we have all felt at some point, but what causes us to feel it? You can probably name a few things that make you feel a little stressed right now, but have you ever wondered why these things make you feel that way?
The word stress is used to cover a wide range of behavioural reactions and emotions to events that are beyond the coping abilities of an individual. When the body starts to feel stress, the brain releases hormones throughout the body. These hormones send alarm signals that make our breathing and heart rate faster, and our muscles tense. This is what is known as the āfight, flight, or freezeā response.
The word stress is used to cover a wide range of behavioural reactions and emotions to events that are beyond the coping abilities of an individual. When the body starts to feel stress, the brain releases hormones throughout the body. These hormones send alarm signals that make our breathing and heart rate faster, and our muscles tense. This is what is known as the āfight, flight, or freezeā response.
Pexels
Stress can be good in small amounts, helping to motivate and reach potential. Stress is also very individualized. For example, some people find driving in heavy traffic very stressful, but some people do not.
Continual stress can negatively affect an individualās mental health. Ongoing stress can also affect bodily functions such as blood pressure. But, it is very important to note that stress is not a mental illness.
Check your current level of stress at Be Mindful. Keep track of your score so that you can compare your results after you take this unit.
What is a Stressor?
A stressor is something that is the cause of stress. The list of stressors is endless since everyone is different, but here is a list of how stress can affect your life:
Click each collapsible row for more information.
Uncomfortable and/or unsafe living conditions can cause stress. Events in this category could include traffic, noisy next door neighbors/pets, aches/pains, being frequently sick, or having sirens keeping you up at night.
This category revolves around healthy or unhealthy relationships. Events in this category could include disagreements, being rebellious, taking care of a family member that is ill or a child with special needs.
Work or school can cause ongoing stress. This category can include things such as a workload that is exhausting, conflicts with others, being on the low end of the pay scale, or job dissatisfaction.
Anything that happens in your life that is stressful. Events in this category can include financial pressure, different types of discrimination, or lack of a support network (isolation).
This includes anything that irreversibly changes your life and can be a positive or negative change. Events in this category can include a career change, divorce, having a baby, or moving to a new area.
Factors that Influence Stress
It is not only the stressor that affects your stress level; there are also factors that influence the level of stress experienced. This course will look at and explain four main factors.
- Intensityāthis is how āstrongā the stress is; the intensity can also change with context. For example, a dead cell phone battery is a relatively low stress situation when a person has access to a charger. However, the stress level can increase dramatically if a person is lost in the woods and has a dead cell phone battery.
- Durationāthis factor has to do with how long a particular stressor lasts. The longer a stressor is in a personās life, the more impact it has on the person and their mental health.
- Numberārefers to how many stressors a person is dealing with at a particular time. A certain stressor may not seem like anything particularly difficult to deal with, but paired with multiple other stressors, it can become overwhelming.
- Coping Strategiesāthis factor has to do with how skilled a person is with their coping strategies, and how many actual strategies they have to utilize. The larger variety of strategies and abilities to use these strategies, the less impact the stress will have on the person.
Pexels
Positive Stress
Stress is not always a bad thing. Stress is only how your body reacts to situations that are beyond your coping abilities. People tend to use the word āstressā to describe negative situations, but there is a difference between positive and negative
stress.
Positive stress is called eustress. Eustress is the type of stress that motivates you, and it is actually perceived as something that is within our coping abilities. It is perceived this way because it is exciting and helps to improve our performance; these are factors that are anticipated. Eustress helps to focus our energy, but it is short-term.
Positive stress is called eustress. Eustress is the type of stress that motivates you, and it is actually perceived as something that is within our coping abilities. It is perceived this way because it is exciting and helps to improve our performance; these are factors that are anticipated. Eustress helps to focus our energy, but it is short-term.
Click on the collapsible row for more information.
- Getting a raise/promotion at work
- Going on vacation
- Taking courses you are interested in or learning a new hobby
- Buying a home
- Moving
- Getting married
Credit: Mental Help
Negative Stress
Negative stress is what the majority of people think of when they hear the word āstressā. Negative stress is also called distress and is perceived to be outside of a personās coping ability. Distress can be both short- and long-term and decreases performance. Ongoing distress may be the precipitant to anxiety, mental, or physical issues.
*Not everyone who is under distress will develop anxiety, mental, or physical issues. If you have concerns, consult a professional.
Click on the collapsible rows for more information.
- Financial hardships
- Death of a loved one
- Sleep issues
- Losing contact with a close friend/family member
- Issues at school (bullying, low marks)
- Being abused or neglected
Credit: Mental Help
-
Fears or phobias (spiders, heights, being in public)
- Cyclical or repetitive thought patterns
- Constantly worrying about the future and "what if's"
- Having unrealistic expectations (a perfectionist type of attitudeānothing will ever be good enough)
Credit: Mental Help
- Overcommitting your time (not making enough "down time")
- Not being assertive enough
- Procrastination and not planning ahead
Credit: Mental Help
Self-Efficacy and Coping Skills
By now, you will have noticed that stress is very individualized. Some things that make you feel eustress may not make your friends feel the same way and vice versa.
One thing that has been shown to play a role in how stress is perceived is something called self-efficacy. The concept of self-efficacy was established by psychologist Albert Bandura, and it describes how much effect people believe they have on what happens to them.
For example, imagine two people are going to write a final exam in 30 minutes. Person A has not had many positive experiences with writing exams and is expecting to do poorly on the exam. They are not very confident in their ability to pass the exam. Person B has had many positive experiences with exams and feels fairly confident about the upcoming exam. This person is confident they will pass the exam. Person A has low self-efficacy because the demand of them (writing the exam) is perceived to be beyond their abilities. Person B has high self-efficacy because the demand is perceived to be within their abilities.
Coping skills are different types of techniques or tools that people use in order to solve issues that arise in their lives. They can also be referred to as coping mechanisms and are internal, meaning that it is something that a person does instead
of just a reaction to a situation. People with a higher number of coping skills are more likely to handle more demands placed upon them. A person can also learn coping skills if they feel they might need to learn more techniques.
Pixabay/ADLC adapted