Stress is a response to pressure or threat. Under stress one may feel tense, nervous, or on edge. Stress triggers a surge of a hormone called adrenaline that temporarily affects the nervous system. As a result, when a person is nervous or stressed he/she might feel the heartbeat or breathing get faster, palms get sweaty or knees get shaky. Stress and its negative impact on health are derived from a mismatch between perceived environmental demands and perceived resources to adapt. When one is healthy one can cope with the stressful situations better - in a state of illness, or in a very sensitive state of adolescence, pregnancy and old age this coping ability gets weakened. When the situations involve momentous life events like marriage, divorce, promotion and loss of job, serious illness or the death in the family; the feeling of stress is of great order.

Causes of Stress
At some point in one"s life, we have all experienced stress. However the question arises what is the actual cause of stress. Stressors are the causes of stress. These stressors may be physical or emotional. They can even be caused internally or externally. Events, situations, people, are various stressors. The most common stressors in anyone"s life are change, death, career change. Stressors can also vary widely from person to person. What may stress you out, may not stress out someone else.

Stress can be developed in adults, teenagers as well as in children. In children it caused due to lack of happiness. Divorce or separation of their parents can be one of the most stressful things a child can go through. Losing a good friend, going to a new school, death, a big test, are also some grave stressors for children. While in adults stress can be caused due to various factors especially work load, family problems and competition.

Effects of Stress
Stress, either quick or constant, can induce risky body-mind disorders. Immediate disorders such as dizzy spells, anxiety attacks, tension, sleeplessness, nervousness and muscle cramps can all result in chronic health problems. They may also affect the immune, cardiovascular and nervous systems and lead individuals to habitual addictions, which are inter-linked with stress. Stress can even lead to change of appetite, sleep disturbance, headache, indigestion, palpitation, breathlessness, dry mouth or feeling of dryness in throat, butterflies in stomach, nausea, and weakness in muscles, trembling, tiredness, sweating and many more health problems.

Warning Signs of Stress
If ones personality contains the following factors, it would make the person more prone to the feeling of stress:
1. A strong competitive drive, often with hidden or overt aggression and hostility.
2. Intense drive to succeed, often without clearly specified goals.
3. Relentless striving for advancement, responsibility, dominance and recognition.
4. Relatively poor ability to delegate authority and to form an identity outside the occupational environment.
5. Excessively demanding attitudes toward self and others.
6. Striving for perfection, with frustration as the frequent results.
7. Oppressive sense of time urgency, with a tendency to do as much as possible in the least amount of time, resulting in over commitment, time pressure, rushed activity, restlessness, irritability, sleeplessness, and ever denial of fatigue.
8. Strong inner tension manifested by stilted facial expression, gestures and speech.
9. Reluctance to allow time for relaxation.
10. Excessive need for mastery of the environment, with a fear of losing control over the course of events.
11. Generally wasteful utilization of physical and emotional energizes in response to an unrealistic assessment of demands.

Dealing with Stress
On the other hand if ones personality is more balanced and sober the person will have a competitive spirit. It is rather more important to have an optimistic approach to life. Whichever walk of life one comes from the most essential ingredient needed to lead a healthy life is to make use of talents in the rightful manner and possess positivity within the person. A feeling of being under stress is more likely to occur if one find himself caught against his/her will in a certain lifestyle or if he/she cannot shape and amend the routine to suit his/her needs. Thus, ones value system, which makes contented and satisfied or discontented and dissatisfied, would have a significant influence on the feeling of being under stress.