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I think it depends on how you define "stress." There are physiological things that happen when your body and mind are "challenged" - you release cortisol, adrenaline, your heart rate goes up, etc. Depending on your own individual biology, you might experience the physical sensations caused by these things as "stress" (negative) or as "excitement" (positive), or you may not even notice them.
Mentally, I think it's a different story. I think mental stress is a product of disempowering conversations we have in our head about events. For example, if I have a project due and I'm behind schedule, I could be saying "you're so stupid for waiting this long, now you're going to look bad in front of your supervisors and they'll think you're a loser and you won't get the raise and then you won't be able to afford the relaxing vacation you've planned." Stress. Or I could say "This is going to be late. I should either work longer today, or I should tell someone this is going to be late." No stress. Now, mental stress and physiological stress are definitely related, so if I'm experiencing (or causing) mental stress, I'm likely to experience the physical sensations that go along with it as a negative thing.
So is stress "real?" Not exactly. It's absolutely a product of cultural and individual conversations about future consequences. Those emotional conversations produce certain physiological outcomes, which may or may not be interpreted as "stress." And different cultures definitely deal differently with stress. For some people and in some cultures, the physical sensation of stress is something to be avoided. For others, it's something to be overcome and ignored in favor of the larger goal.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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