Stress In Peoples Lives - Essay Example

Stress in People’s Lives Since few years, there have been worthy developments in the field of information and technology that have altered the perspective and lifestyle of human lives in a significant manner. Although scientists and experts endeavored on these advancements to ease the human life, however, it is an observation that the more the technologies have come in human life, the more human life has become complicated. In this complexity, stress has become one of the most common consequences that are affecting human lives in an adverse manner. In this regard, stress in peoples lives is leading to a loss of academic ambition, depression, and varied physical consequences in humans globally. For this reason, this paper will include discussion regarding the causes and effects of stress on people’s lives. Nowadays, an individual at work confronts a number of challenges from his tasks at workplace to his duties at home, etc (Boss & Mulligan, pp. 8-17). On the other hand, even a school-going child faces a number of issues concerning his academic requirements to family responsibilities, etc. In midst of all such challenges and in presence of various technologies to cater needs and requirements of humans, it is an observation that such scientific achievements have been unsuccessful in catering the emotional and psychological needs of human lives. Such failure is allowing the menace of stress to grow and become one of the most common risk factors of human deaths in the form of depression after deadly diseases such as cancer, AIDS, etc around the globe (Pfeffer, pp. xvii). In the result, a huge number of experts and organizations are putting efforts to identify and analyze the causes and effects of stress (Pfeffer, pp. 108) that has become a global issue in a rapid manner. One of the major factors of such a huge popularity of stress in health, as well as nonprofessional fields is its huge scope that does not only affect the individual but people around the individual also confront the adverse consequences physically, socially, and physiologically as well. In terms of causes, experts have identified the underlying causes of stress, ‘stressors’ (Biegel, pp. 28) that do know allow the victims of use their will while controlling such individuals with the help of chemical inequalities in the body. In specific, psychologists (Barlow, pp. 169) believe that situations are the most fundamental causes of stress that result in the pressure on individuals causing them to shift from normal status to the abnormal one. Some experts believe that situations can exist in the form of people as well that often put pressure on individuals in different situations and at different places, such as schools, homes, workplaces, etc. Although most of the individuals are capable of coping with stressors, however, frequent and consistent confrontation with stressors result in the feeling of anxiety that enables production of chemicals in the human body that are usually detrimental for the persons in stress (Barlow, pp. 313). Particularly, experts have identified adrenaline as the most imperative chemical that plays a critical role in the cases of stress, and that has the ability of affecting immune system of the human body. For instance, Pfeffer (pp. 229) said, “Research on life stress and immunity in adult humans has identified several conditions in which altered, primarily suppressed, immunity occurs.” In addition, researchers have indicated that such chemicals cause rapid increment in heart beat, as well as blood pressure, nervousness, hypertension, and most importantly, reduction in the concentration power of the individuals. Every person has some abilities, as well as some weaknesses. Similarly, every situation or place, such as school, workplace, home expects something from individuals, and when there becomes an imbalance in the demand and supply status, this imbalance becomes the cause of stress. For instance, White (pp. 33) said, “The requirement cannot be produced because what is required is out of the ability range of the organization…This non-congruence then result in stress on the organization.” Although human body is an efficient machine, and has the ability to deal with this imbalance, however, when individuals fail or when imbalance evaporates, anxiety, high blood pressure, and other symptoms result in digestive problems, depression, cardiac arrests, memory issues, hair loss, frequent mood swings, obesity, and a huge number of problems in the human body (Gregson, pp. 25). In this regard, even though stress may seem normal and common, however, its impact is huge and that is the major reason of huge number of psychologists, physiologists, etc putting efforts enormously to offer efficient coping methodologies for stress that is the first phase before a deadly end. Since few years, pharmacologists and experts have been successful in creating medicines for every disease; however, stress is one of the problems of human lives that still confront absence of any specific medicinal treatment due to its subjective nature (Barlow, pp. 549). Researchers have shown that every person confronts different and diverse extent and level of impact from the stressors that is keeping experts away from finding something effective for the issue of stress. For instance, experts (Biegel, pp. 14) have observed that some individuals show positive attitude under stress; however, some are unable to work under stress and end up confronting discussed problems. However, in the majority, it is an observation that stress has been resulting in adverse effects on individuals’ lives globally regardless of culture, language, race, etc. For instance, reports have indicated that students now accepts higher levels of stress at the academic institutions due to huge load of academic requirements for the students that have now become essential in this competitive environment. However, it seems like such level has resulted in exhaustion of students that is causing adverse effects on academic performances of the students. Besides academic burden (Gregson, pp. 14), sexual harassment at schools, as well as at workplaces has been another major cause of stress among individuals that results in unfavorable effects on the individuals, as well as their family members. At non-academic level, employment is another imperative cause of stress, whereas, at the employment, individuals confront workplace violence and harassment that have become most common causes of stress at workplace, which do not enable the employees to perform effectively causing huge reduction in motivation and productivity level of the individuals (White, pp. 124). Besides financial adversity, stress brings negative alterations in behavior and personality of the victims that subsequently, causes stress in the families, and results in unpleasant effects on children as well. In this way, stress does not limit itself to the individual, and continues an unbroken cycle of undesirable effects in the environment. Nowadays, studies have pointed out that in this era of economic recession, job insecurity and lack of clarity in the job’s responsibilities have become significant risk factors causing stress among individuals around the world. In the result, stress does not enable the employees to concentrate on their work as they find themselves concerning about the security of their jobs. Similarly, at schools, students are nowadays confronting higher stress levels while focusing in their marks and grades, in order to ensure their stable walk in the competitive market while overlooking their intellectual development that will result in unfortunate outcomes in the coming years (Biegel, pp. 10-15). Conclusively, the paper included critical discussion regarding causes and effects of one of the most common issues of present era, Stress. Although stress can be helpful in achieving objectives and accomplishing goals, however, most of the times, stress has resulted in adverse and detrimental effects on individuals, as well as people around the victims including colleagues, classmates, family members, friends, and the list continues. In this regard, it is very imperative that organizations along with collaboration of employers, school authorities, community authorities should take considerable effects to provide a stress-free environment to the individuals that are confronting adverse effects due to stress in their lives. Convincingly, it is anticipation that this discussion will be fruitful for students, professionals, as well as nonprofessionals in comprehensive understanding of the topic. Works Cited Barlow, David H. Abnormal Psychology. Cengage Learning, 2008. Biegel, Gina M. The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens. New Harbinger Publications, 2009. Boss, Pauline, & Mulligan, Carol. Family stress: classic and contemporary readings. Sage Publications, 2003. Gregson, Susan R., Graves, Bonnie. (2000). Stress Management, Capstone Press. Pfeffer, Cynthia R. Severe stress, and mental disturbance in children. American Psychiatric Publication, 1996. White, Tania. Perceptions and Effects of Stress in K-12 Education. 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