Positive and Negative Stressors

[Eriny Youssef]

Stress can be positive! You're right!

I recently had a job interview and was stressed beforehand. The stress prompted me to work hard and prepare to be the best candidate for the job I could be! In that case the stress was positive.

Think about a crying baby... that will stress anyone out, but it's positive because the baby is communicating to you that it needs something. The stress from hearing the baby cry prompts you to act. Good for you and the baby! Assuming it's your own kid, lol.

I really like the point you made about the interview. But, it seems you handled the stress well. Others may have a meltdown and quit all together. But yes, in this case, it is positive.

[Bisqwik]

I know some people look at stuff like work and think that stress is a very important thing and positive as well. Now maybe those people are workaholics and its only a seeming positive. I mean their families could disagree. But then positivity is up to your own view. So the money and prestige that can come from working under stress and exceeding, or the stress that comes from performing well once you're there, could be a positive.
I'd say that if something stresses you out but then afterwards you feel a positive emotion, pride or happiness or whatever, you have a positive stressor.
Negative stressors would then be the ones that make you feel bad afterwards

[Alys Sterk]

I think stress can be a great motivator, and I can see this every day in the classroom. I can see people visibly relax when the standards are lowered. While this is initially comforting, they have enough insight to know that they will not score as high as they could when less is expected of them.

[zainherb]

I agree with you, and I have also, always, thought that stress was a negative thing--probably because it is portrayed that way in our society. I think a great example of stress being a positive thing is if a person knows they are in danger, the stress causes a flight or fight response, which can, as a result save your life. But if a person is always in a state of panic, the flight or fight response is always active, even if there is no threat, and that's when anxiety and stress can be detrimental.

Indeed.
Actually, I still believe stress itself is a negative thing-and is meant to be so.the after effects are detrimental in some way.
Stressors, however can in fact be negative or positive and that is where your analogy comes in.

[Gift5]

The book talks about stressors (reasons for one to stress) being of two types- positive and negative. I always believed stress was not good emotionally and physically, basically negative.
But now that I think about it, an assignment which you can solve with some hours of studying should be positive stress. Am I thinking right? Do you have any better examples?

I agree with you stress can be positive, when it becomes necessary for positive result.

[Nikhila Kulkarni]

Yes, I agree. There are two types of stress: eustress and distress. Eustress is a positive stressor, like the one we have before exams. While distress is a negative one. Eustress acts as a motivation to get things done within the given time limit.

[Sararob06]

The main difference between positive and negative stress is that positive stress is often something we look forward to. For example, the anxiety that comes before your wedding is positive stress. Negative stress or distress comes from events like not being able to pay the bills.

[Samana95]

Positive stressors are things that lead to goods results and help you improve your wellbeing whereas Negative stressors are just draining, emotionally, and mentally damaging, they could be about things that could never happen in life or problems that seem to not have a way out.

[Ashley Cremer]

In my experience, stress has never been a positive thing. A positive outcome can come out of stress, but the stress itself has still always been viewed negatively by me.

[Florence Nalianya]

I have personally looked at stress only in a negative way. I think this is the case the world over.But as from this book, I begin to see stress positively. Its stress causes a flight and a fight within thus activating a response that later helps solve the problem or save one from danger. Its clearly highlighted in this book why we stress and how it impacts our lives both positively and negatively.Am thankful to the author for this beautiful piece.

[Miller56]

The book talks about stressors (reasons for one to stress) being of two types- positive and negative. I always believed stress was not good emotionally and physically, basically negative.
But now that I think about it, an assignment which you can solve with some hours of studying should be positive stress. Am I thinking right? Do you have any better examples?

I think there are a lot of positive stressors in our life brought on by wanting to be the best person we can be. For example, wanting to perform well at sports so working hard and spending the time to make it happen. Also doing well in school, like studying for tests and working into the night to make sure that the paper is better than average.

I think the negative stressors in our lives are often brought on by how we think others perceive us. For example, we are often worried about how we look, if people think we are nice, etc. I think teenagers are more apt to feel these stressors.

What I think we all need to do is make sure that we are not adding to the stressors by letting them take too much of our time and attention, especially when it is trying to be accepted or behave the way we think someone wants us to.

[Sarah Schmidt]

I mean there's physical stress on the body, like exercise. There's mental stress when it comes on to entering a competition or contest as it relates to the anticipation of winning, probably heightened by the desire to win. Those are some positive types.

[Moocow1213]

I agree with you, and I have also, always, thought that stress was a negative thing--probably because it is portrayed that way in our society. I think a great example of stress being a positive thing is if a person knows they are in danger, the stress causes a flight or fight response, which can, as a result save your life. But if a person is always in a state of panic, the flight or fight response is always active, even if there is no threat, and that's when anxiety and stress can be detrimental.

I agree with you, stress can be both positive and negative, it’s the flight or fight response. But if the response happens at times when not needed, this is anxiety.
I also thought of stress as a mostly negative thing until I learnt about the flight and fight response. And how survival instincts kick in if needed.

[PeterRabitt20]

A positive stressor would be quickly removing your hand from a hot iron. It is positive because you're keeping yourself from a fatal injury.

[K+SQUARE]

Positive stress enables someone to want to prepare adequately and cover as much as possible within the time limit. Challenges make life more interesting and there can be no overcoming any challenge without some form of stress.