Psychologists define stress as a state of emotional and mental stress arising in difficult life situations. Among ordinary people, it is believed that a stressful condition is extremely dangerous. And partly this is true - stress can cause an overload of the nervous system. But they bring people benefits.
Stages of stress
Psychologists distinguish three stages of stress. The first stage is anxiety. In humans, it is usually accompanied by a loss of capacity for work, a painful condition and a feeling of loss. At the second stage, a person adapts to the situation and he has a mobilization of mental and physical adaptive resources. But if stress lasts too long, then the third stage begins - exhaustion and decline.
Stress is dangerous in two cases - if it is so strong that the stage of adaptation does not occur, and if it is too long, then you are threatened with exhaustion and breakdown.
The benefits of stress
Stress is primarily useful for motivating action. What does it look like in life? Imagine a person who is not too happy with his salary, but he continues to work and is in no hurry to look for a new place, because he is lazy or afraid to leave his comfort zone. But suddenly he was fired. Stress caused by job loss pushes him to look for a new place.
Stress can increase a person’s attention. For example: a student sits in a lesson, he is bored and wants to sleep. However, as soon as the teacher announces the test, the student gets into a stressful situation, and his attention is fully focused on the assignment.
Sometimes severe stress forces a person to do something that in ordinary life seems unthinkable. For example, many have heard of such cases when under the influence of stress people lifted cars or huge concrete slabs to save a loved one.
In some cases, people themselves create stress in order to feel an adrenaline rush, invigorate themselves and make the brain function better. Such stresses include extreme sports, sports games and competitions, ice water tempering, etc. The state of falling in love is also a kind of stress.
But it is worth remembering that prolonged exposure to stressful situations is dangerous to health!