LONDON — It may be surprising to hear, but medically speaking, not all stress is bad. Healthy stress levels help build resilience, said Safia Debar, MBBS, a stress management expert at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London. In this expert alert, Dr. Debar explained the difference between good and bad stress and how to tell when you are in danger of overload.
Stress is a physical and psychological reaction to a demand, and that demand can be anything, Debar said. Stress that is good for us and may even give us a sense of well-being is eustress, the opposite of distress. The same event — for example, getting married — might provoke either one, Debar said.
“It’s about the perception of that stress and how your body is actually handling it,” Debar said. “Chronic stress will impact every organ system in the body: You might feel anxiety, depression and digestive issues, for example.”
Stress prompts a cascade of reactions within the mind and body as you mount a stress response, Debar said. Under normal stress, a person starts at a baseline of relaxation, encounters a stressor, the stress response begins, rises to a peak, and then comes back down to baseline.