You can let stress beat you up, or you can put it to work in your life toward positive, helpful ends.  Much of your success in putting stress to work for you depends on your understanding of stress and your perspective on its purpose and usefulness.

Types of Stress

There are three main types of stress:

1. Eustress: Positive stress that comes from pleasant circumstances.
2. Distress: Negative stress resulting from undesirable situations.
3. Neustress: Neutral stress that neither causes harm nor benefits.

The Good – Eustress

Eustress is associated with positive experiences and drives people to perform at their best, especially under pressure. Examples include winning a race, getting promoted, or engaging in enjoyable activities like watching a scary movie or exercising. Eustress helps individuals to exceed their current level of functioning and achieve peak performance.

The Not So Good – Distress

Distress stems from threats, pressures, and disturbances in thinking or perception. It can result in physical, emotional, and mental strain. Examples include a home invasion, auto accident, difficult relationships, or excessive workload. When the threat is no longer perceived, the stress response turns off, allowing recovery.  Distress has its positive aspects in that it can keep you alive.

Determining Stress Levels

The experience of stress can vary based on four factors in any given situation:

1. Certainty: Less certainty increases distress, while more certainty reduces it.
2. Relevant Information about a situation: The less information, the less familiar the situation will be, and the more distress experienced.
3. Control: More control reduces stress; less control increases distress.
4. Interpersonal Conflict: More conflict results in more distress; less conflict results in less distress.

For each of the items above, if circumstances allow distress to decrease, the experience of the stressor or the anticipation of the process or outcome you face can become more interesting or exciting (eustress).

Is Stress All Bad?

Historically, stress was labeled as generally unhealthy and to be minimized or avoided.  However, we need stress for high performance and survival, and recent research shows that stress can be beneficial if managed well.

Perception of Stress

Both distress and eustress can have short and long-term effects. Stress reactions are natural and automatic and originate outside of consciousness.  In cases of threat, real or perceived a stress reaction can save lives. Stress is also essential for growth and achieving potential. However, excessive stress for too long can be harmful.

A study on the effects of stress concluded that “High amounts of stress and the perception that stress impacts health are each associated with poor physical and mental health. Individuals who perceived that stress affects their health and reported a large amount of stress had an increased risk of premature death.”* (Emphasis added.) Note that in this study, the perception that stress impacts health affects the potential for poor general health, mental health, and the increase in risk of premature death. So, to some extent, its effect lies in how you view or perceive stress.

Managing Stress

Managing stress is key to leveraging its benefits and mitigating its negative effects. Effective management involves engaging rational processes to respond thoughtfully to manage the reactivity of stress. Growth in responding to stress requires reflection and planning on how to handle future stressors better.

Dr. Paul J. Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress, sees stress as important for our ability to function to the extent of our potential. In the article “Can stress actually be good for you?” Jane Weaver, health editor for msnbc.com quotes Dr. Rosch, who compares stress to the tension in a violin string. He says, “Not enough produces a dull, raspy noise, and too much results in an annoying shrill or snaps the string. However, just the right amount of stress creates pleasing sounds.”**

Southwick and Charney state, “Most of us have been taught to believe that stress is bad. We have learned to see stress as our enemy, something that we must avoid or reduce. But the truth is, when stress can be managed, it tends to be very good and even necessary for health and growth. Without it, the mind and body weaken. If we can learn to harness stress, it can serve as a catalyst for developing greater strength and even greater wisdom.” ***

Wrap Up

Stress can be either good or bad. By controlling the amount of stress and managing it effectively, you can influence its impact on your life. Viewing stress positively and putting it to work can lead to greater satisfaction and peace. Understanding how stress operates can help in managing it for positive outcomes.

In future episodes, we’ll explore how practically to put stress to work.  Or, if you want to skip ahead, see the link below to purchase my book, “Put Stress to Work: Turning Headaches into Advantages.”

* Keller, A., Litzelman, K., Wisk, L.E., Maddox, T., Cheng, E.R., Creswell, P.D., & Witt, W.P. (2012). Does the perception that stress affects health matter? Health Psychology. 2012 Sep. 31(5):677-84. doi: 10.1037/a0026743. Epub 2011 Dec 26. Retrieved on August 27, 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22201278

** Weaver, J. (2006). Can stress actually be good for you?  Retrieved on January 17, 2017 from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15818153/ns/health-mental_health/t/can-stress-actually-be-good-you/#.WH02yRsrLmF

*** Southwick, S.M., & Charney, D.S. (2012). Resilience. New York: Cambridge University Press. [Kindle version]. (p. 19). Retrieved from Amazon.com