Definitions and perceptions of stress

Stress is an omnipresent experience in contemporary society, affecting a large majority of the population on a regular basis.

Understanding its nature, how it differs from other states such as anxiety, and the crucial role of our individual perception is critical to effectively addressing it and mitigating its effects on our overall health and well-being.

Stress in today's society. Statistics and Concerns

Effective stress management is more crucial today than ever.

A recent survey in the UK revealed that 85% of adults experience stress regularly, and 39% daily.

More than half of participants (54%) expressed concern about the impact of stress on their health.

These figures underline the magnitude of the problem and the need for coping strategies, with exercise being the most cited (32%) for overcoming it.

Stress as a Reaction to Overload

Stress, in essence, is the response we experience when we feel overloaded and struggling to cope with the demands or events in our environment.

Formally, it is defined as any type of change or demand that causes physical, emotional, or psychological strain on the individual.

It is not just the source of the stress (the stressor), but how our body and mind react to situations that we perceive as challenging, requiring attention or action, or that exceed our ability to handle at a given moment, leading us to a state of tension.

Although everyone experiences stress, how each of us responds to it makes a significant difference to overall well-being.

The Role of Cognitive Appraisal in the Experience of Stress

The intensity of the stress experienced depends not only on the event itself, but on our "cognitive appraisal" or "appraisal": the way we interpret and evaluate the situation.

This appraisal is based on our habitual thinking patterns, beliefs, previous experiences, and information related to the event.

Thus, the same event can be very stressful for one person and barely affect another, depending on their perspective.

How Personality Modulates the Cognitive Appraisal of Stress

Our "cognitive appraisal" or appraisal of a situation – that is, how we interpret and appraise it in terms of its novelty, familiarity, importance, and perceived consequences – is central to the experience of stress.

However, this appraisal does not occur in a vacuum,but is significantly influenced by our predominant personality traits.

Different personality profiles will tend to process and weigh these factors differently, leading to individual variations in the perception of threat and, consequently, in the intensity of the stress response.

For example, a person with a high need for control might evaluate uncertainty as more threatening than someone with a higher tolerance for ambiguity.

Stressors are not the problem, but the value we give them.

Often it is not the situation that upsets us, but what we think about it.

What makes something stressful is the interpretation we make, not the event itself.

Two people can go through the same experience and react in opposite ways.

One blocks, another adapts.

The difference usually lies in how they evaluate what is happening.

If everything that happens It is perceived as a threat, life becomes a battlefield.

But if you look at it from a distance, some things no longer have as much power over us.

Reviewing the emotional weight we give to things helps transform the way we experience them.

It's not about denying what's difficult, but about seeing if we're exaggerating it.