It's your turn to enter the anti-shark cage. Your heart beats faster, and your breathing becomes rapid and shallow. What are you feeling?
You may be excited, or you may be terrified. But one thing is for sure: you are stressed!
Stress is the series of physical and psychological reactions that occur when you respond to a demanding or threatening situation. A stressor is anything that sets off that series of reactions. Review the information on the tabs below to learn more about the three main causes of stress.
Physical
Psychological
Past Experiences
Physical causes of stress include any activity or situation that places an unusual burden on your body. For example, intense exercise, illness, pain, or injury can all cause stress.
Psychological causes of stress include extreme emotions, uncomfortable social situations, and troublesome situations or relationships.
Previous events in you own life can affect whether or not a new situation causes you to feel stress. For example, if you were bitten by a big dog when you were a child, seeing a large dog, even if the dog is friendly, can trigger feelings of stress in the present.
Regardless of the cause, stress causes real biological changes in the body. From raising blood pressure to slowing digestion to interfering with our sleep, stress affects every system in the body. These changes can be temporary if the stressful situation is over quickly. Or these changes can have long-term effects on health if the stress is chronic or continuous.
In this lesson, you will learn what stress is, how some stress can be useful, and what the effects of stress are.
