stress [stres]

Physiology. a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism; physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension

Synonyms include: affliction, agony, anxiety, tension

Oh stress. Some of us feed of it to get things done; but some of us, honestly, have the potential to die from it. It's the world we live in - this stressful society that thrives on the minute by minute dictation of our Outlook calendars and Blackberries. As children, we were taught that, "idle hands were the devil's playground," so we were raised to keep ourselves productive...as often as we could. As grown-ups, we keep our daily schedules packed, not only with our careers, but with our families, our friends, etc. These days, idleness doesn't have a fighting chance.

We had a stress management seminar at work today, sponsored by the Holman Group. They provide behavioral health care services for our company. It's funny what things Jane, the Holman rep who came to talk to us, pointed out about stress and the ways that we can deal with it. It all seems like common sense (meditate, take a breath, eat right, exercise, etc), but she pointed out that when we are placed in stressful situations, we often don't give ourselves enough time (if any at all) to DO any of those things.

So much more can go wrong when we react negatively to stress, and each of us handles it in whatever way "calms" us down. We can become irritable, closed off or depressed and cry; stress-eat, stress-shop, go on a bad decision-making rampage...whatever floats our boats . There are a whole slew of stress "symptoms" and I knew I was in a bad place when, upon Jane reading each one, I felt like I was placing mental checkmarks by each symptom.

And then, we took this test - a measure of the likelihood of us getting sick due to stress. We were given a list of circumstances, each assigned a certain number of points, and were asked to circle each one that applied to the last 12 months of our lives; circumstances like career changes, marriage, planning weddings, having children, changes in living situations, in diets, etc. A score under 150 is ideal and gives the highly unlikeliness of getting sick. A score of 150-300 gives a person a 50% chance of becoming ill. A score of 300 and above gives you a 90% chance of getting sick. I think I need to schedule some Anna alone time soon because my score was...drumroll...440! HAHAHAHA!!!! Freakin' ridics!