billys

Definately real but people suffer it in different ways, some cope well, some dont cope at all... some seem to cope but get destroyed on the inside...

Being part of the first two groups is much more preferable to being in that last one...

Nisses

That's the point I'm trying to make, if stress doesn't have a basis in physical reality, an anti-depressant, which is a mixture of chemicals, shouldn't be able to influence it

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Moderation should be moderately moderated.

Cadwiz

I think that stress is something that is mainly self induced, but produces real symptoms in people. The severity of of the symtoms are totally dependent on the person. My grandmoter had a refrigerator magnet that read, "stress is what happens when the mind overrides the body's urge to slap the shit out of someone who needs it."

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Semper Fi

ForgottenKnight

Environmental stress caused me to overload my mind and sink into a clinical depression where I became suicidal. How can stress not be real if chemicals have an effect in countering it?

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"People say I'm strange, does that make me a stranger?"

Bentley Little

I would like to add to this by saying that stress is not a "physical" thing. It is an intangible. A few years back, I read an article discussing the reality of stress and it made me think. Stress is not a physical thing, but rather the result of our fears, worries, excitements, etc. For example, I may have a huge mid-term coming up and I would say that I am stressed. I am not "stressed", it is that I am fearful of not passing or doing well. See, emotions are real, based physiologically and mentally and chemically. We can quantify these by how fast our heart beats, how high our blood sugar is, etc. When we feel stressed, it is actually our emotions, but because we can feel many emotions at once, it is easy for society to place a term to this and subjectify as stress. Yet stress is a collective of emotions.

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That is my 2 cents.

Bentley Little

Sorry, I tried to find the article, I know it was in Psychology Today but no luck...

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That is my 2 cents.

Nazggul

There is nothing in Einstein’s theories that would indicate that Time/Space is not “real.” Time/Space is real and is relative to the reference frame to which you belong. Using it as an example to prove that stress isn't real is beyond a rational argument.

The term "stress" is a label we've used to articulate a real experience. Call it whatever you want, if someone on the street stopped you and put a gun to your face you would feel stress. There are physical manifestations of this stress in your autonomic nervous system. You may begin to sweat, experience “tunnel vision” (high degree of focus on the event that is causing the stress), fear or "fight or flight" response would trigger, etc., etc.

Edit: Gramar

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"If something has to give then it always will."

-- Editors

Untitled

First of all, stress is anything that effects us. There's distress (bad - which most people just call stress) and eustress (good).

Of course stress has a basis in physical reality. If it didn't, we wouldnt be able to feel it. Your entire personality and every emotion you feel is caused, at least in some part, by the chemical make-up in your brain. Stress is part of this. Certain chemicals being released give you a 'stressed' feeling and your body responds to that. Therefore, and anti-depressant (made up of chemicals which counteract the chemical imbalance in a 'depressed' brain) is actually very useful (assuming you have the right combination).

/hoping that made the kind of sense I wanted it to.....

Bentley Little

Call it fear. Not stress. No such thing. See previous post.

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That is my 2 cents.

Nazggul

Fear is just one part of the response to stress.

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"If something has to give then it always will."

-- Editors

Bentley Little

Damn, nazggul, I think we are flipping back and forth between Martha and stress.

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That is my 2 cents.

Bentley Little

But stress is not real, we define the emotions we have as stress, but it is a made up concept derived from the collection of emotions we feel to put a name to it.

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That is my 2 cents.