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Asked by 464rhed26 to Rachel, David, Eva, Kate, Nicholas on 10 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by 1ewis penguin.
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Rachel McMullan answered on 10 Nov 2015:
Hi
Stress can be really serious and I know a lot of companies are very keen to protect their employees from stress because stress-related illnesses can lead to a lot of time off work.
Our bodies are fairly good at coping with short periods of stress so the real problem is long-term stress. This can make you really ill and can lead to depression and other mental health problems.
I definitely get stressed at work when I’ve got loads of deadlines or when my experiments aren’t working.
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David Nunan answered on 16 Nov 2015:
Hi,
Stress (or the stress response) is evolved with humans to help keep us alive from attacks by wild animals or another human. The body developed a system called ‘fight or flight’ to react by releasing hormones that cause your pupils to dilate (get bigger) and your heart rate and breathing to increase. This gets you ready to either runaway (flight) or to stand and fight. This is called the acute stress response.
Nowadays most of us don’t have these dangers (well not that often) but we still have the defence system. Other things like our work or exams cause this system to be switch on but over much longer times. This is chronic stress. If you are exposed to this type of stress for too long, then your body starts to react by causing you to have high blood pressure and a weaker immune system so you get ill more easily.
But doing things like exercise or hanging around with friends and having a laugh, can help lower your stress hormones and the negative effects of these on your body. Here’s an infographic that shows the difference between acute and chronic stress but also how you can help reduce stress 🙂
http://visual.ly/lets-talk-about-stress
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