Stress is not always bad. In small doses, it can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best. But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.

Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. When you sense danger — whether it is real or imagined — the body's defences kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the 'fight-or-flight' reaction, or the stress response.

Stress is not meant to be something positive or negative, it is just meant to be a physical response to excessive stimuli.

51% of adults who felt stressed reported feeling depressed and 61% reported feeling anxious. Work-related stress is defined as a harmful reaction that people have to undue pressures and demands placed on them at work.

By its very nature, stress is difficult to measure. In 2019/20 there were an estimated 828,000 workers affected by work-related stress, depression, or anxiety. Hence, managing your own stress, or the stress of employees is critical.

What causes of stress?

Anything that puts high demands on you can be stressful, including positive events such as getting married, buying a house, going to college, or receiving a promotion.

Of course, not all stress is caused by external factors. Stress can also be internal or self-generated, when you worry excessively about something that may or may not happen, or have irrational, pessimistic thoughts about life.

What causes stress depends, at least in part, on your perception of it. Something that is stressful to you may not faze someone else; they may even enjoy it.

For example, your morning commute may make you anxious and tense because you worry that traffic will make you late.

Others, however, may find the trip relaxing because they allow more than enough time and enjoy listening to music while they drive.

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