by Recovery Alberta – Community Health Promotion Services
Stress is typically viewed as negative; not all stress is bad and in fact, avoiding it can be more harmful. Stress is the response to a stressor that one may be experiencing. Stressors are anything in your life that causes the release of stress hormones. Some stressors in our life are unavoidable. There are three different types of stress you can experience. Let’s dive deeper into each:
- Positive: Yes, stress can be positive. This is short-term but helps us to adapt and build resiliency. Situations to cause this stress can include work, writing an exam, or calling someone you don’t know.
- Tolerable: Tolerable stress includes situations where the impact may be more serious, such as, loss of someone or divorce of parents, and can occur many times throughout your life, however, with supportive relationships, it is unlikely to have lasting negatives impacts.
- Toxic: When one thinks of stress, we tend to think of this for all situations. This stress is prolonged and extreme and can result in complex outcomes without any adequate support.
Stress can impact our physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral health and it is different for everyone. It can show up as headaches, feeling tired, having trouble focusing, feeling short-tempered or lonely, having sleep issues, unable to relax, and use of unhealthy coping techniques.
Signs of stress are different for everyone but there is a need for stress to keep us alert, healthier, and more understanding human beings! So, what can you do? Mental Health Literacy has developed a toolbox to help you manage your own stress. Here are a few things to consider:
- Change: You want to change the way you think of stress. As you can see, it can be essential to tackle life’ situations.
- Choose: When faced with a stressor, have a toolkit of strategies that work best for you. This can include breathing strategies or talking to others.
- Engage: If there are stressors that heighten your body’s response, try incorporating planning strategies beforehand. When we face the stressor and solve the problem, we have successfully adapted and are left with a new skill!
