Types and sources of stress

Three types of stress:

• Physical and environmental: overexertion, poor diet, lack of sleep; noise, pollution, crowding, heat; and disasters like floods and earthquakes.
• Psychological: stress from within our own minds.
• Social: from our relations with others: death or illness in the family, strained relationships, troubles with neighbours.

Sources of psychological stress:

• Frustration: when our needs and motives are blocked, for example failing to get admission to a chosen course.
• Conflict: when we must choose between two incompatible goals.
• Internal pressures: demands we place on ourselves, such as 'I must be perfect' or 'I must never fail'.
• Social pressures: from people who make demands on us, or whom we must deal with.

Where stress comes from:

• Life events: big changes, good or bad: marriage, a new job, moving house, a death in the family. Psychologists Holmes and Rahe made a scale giving each event a stress score. An Indian version, the Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale, was developed by Singh, Kaur and Kaur. Note that positive events (like marriage) are counted too, because all change demands adjustment.
• Daily hassles: small, everyday irritations: traffic jams, quarrels, losing things, crowded buses. They seem minor, but they add up: the more daily hassles, the poorer a person's psychological well-being.
• Traumatic events: extreme events like an earthquake, a fire, an accident or violence, whose effects can last a long time.

So big events and small hassles both count.