How much stress should a person be under?

Question

Stress is a part of life. It's not a choice, but how much stress should we take?

Recently a sports coach died because of stress due to losing badly in an important contest. I know the stakes are high in professional sports, but is it really worth the life of a person? It's easy for people to criticize their team on badly, but aren't they humans? It's just a game.

Many people commit suicide or die due to detiriorated health owing to work-related stress. Yes, we live in an efficient corporate world with cut-throat competition but is death a price for mistake or failure at work?

Many students commit suicide every year due to academic stress.

When I look around the world, with all the poverty and hunger... People in some countries don't have anything to eat, let alone a job. Think of natural calamities like earthquakes, tsunami that changed lives forever or people losing their lives in air crashes, road accidents, wars or other gruesome incidents that take place every day.

Answer 1

Hi Maddy, I agree, whole heartedly, stress is a huge health hazard. I also believe life is far more important than work, a game, how well one does in class, etc. However, we live in a highly competitive world; where achievement and “success” is touted as the sum total of ones life. I don’t agree with the respondent who stated we have no control over the degree of stress we experience. We absolutely have control over most stress in our daily lives. The type of stress I am referring to is that which we create by the decisions we make every day. We choose which job we will work, which type of home we buy, whether it is one we can easily afford or one we struggle each month to make the payments on, we choose how many children we will have, and we choose many other daily stressors we experience.

Currently, most in our society and many societies across the world are swept up into compiling more than is needed to live comfortably. By doing this we bring a great deal of stress into our lives. We also stretch those resources thin by having too many children. The saying, “keeping up with the Jones’s” is all too true, and in doing so we heap stress onto our shoulders and consequently our health suffers. Making a bad situation worse, we also decrease our quality of life while we are amassing these materialistic items and ourselves and our families suffer for it.

The end result of the mad dash to acquire ever more monetary and materialistic “stuff” we greatly dim our enjoyment of our present life for the idealistic “retirement”. We consistently hear folks say, “When we are retired, then we can sit back, relax and enjoy life”. This attitude is so sad. It is sad because by the time these folks reach “retirement” they will be nearly too old to really enjoy life as their physical capabilities will be so reduced. On top of that is the sad fact that those who are workaholics are never satisfied with any retirement period of life. They are almost instantly seeking diversions which have nothing to do with sitting back and enjoying all they have accomplished and everything to do with staying “in the game”. The very idea of stopping the excitement they developed by “winning”, by “achieving”, by “outdoing” the competition, has tied them into the adrenaline rush that stress brings. While it is true stress kills, first it excites and brings adrenaline rushes which generate such a “high” individuals actually become addicted to it. They are always looking for ever more inventive ways to create that rush and care little for how it is affecting their health.

These folks never truly enjoy life. They simply proceed from one stressful event to the next, constantly complaining, bitc*ing and making their families, friends and coworkers miserable. These folks most often wind up divorced and living single lives by the time that allusive ‘retirement” finally reaches them. In my opinion, this is a sad commentary on our society.

These folks are choosing the stresses in their lives. It is as simple as that. That coach who died of a heart attack new long before his death that his life was filled with health threatening stress. He selected not to do anything to reduce it. Claming it, “is his job”, and therefore it is not his fault or responsibility is a copout, in my opinion. When he learned his stress levels were too high he had a choice to continue that line of work or find something that would not cause such high levels. He enjoyed that particular line of work and refused to discover if there were something else he could enjoy as much, but created less stress.

People in the world compile much more financial status and materialistic goods than they actually need to live a comfortable life. I know this for a fact as I once lived on less than $600.00 a month and managed to keep a roof over our heads, food in my family’s mouths, clothes on their backs and entertainment for us all. While there were some level of stress related to a lack of funds, the stress of this was far less than if I had been out working an eighty hour a week job, failed to provide attention to my family, ignored my spouse, etc. I had a happy marriage, happy and healthy children, and we managed just fine with much less than people would ever suspect. I made a choice, a conscience choice, to live with less than be away from my family during a time they needed me the most. I never regretted that choice and will never regret it. My children benefited from my physical presence in their daily lives, and our relationships today reflect that presence. I find joy in my adult relationships with my children. If I had instead chosen to provide them with a higher degree of “stuff” higher levels of income could have provided, I would not have the relationships I have with them; I believe they would not be the young adults they are today, and I would not be married to the wonderful man I am married to today.

It is in our choice to select what will most bring about happiness. Stress rarely brings happiness. When it is a conscience choice between monetary goods and stress; and less materialistic goods, less stress and happiness, the latter will always be my choice. I enjoy the fact my husband earns enough to enable me to attend college. However, we live below our means and always will. I also would not mourn too deeply if I were unable to attend higher education. It all boils down to choice and when we abdicate our responsibilities of those choices, we are committing a lie to ourselves and to our loved ones. When we perpetrate such lies, we live dishonestly and this can never result in any degree of actual happiness.

In conclusion, I repeat that it really is as simple as a choice between stress and happiness. While I don’t have anything against those who choose the opposite as I, I do refuse to allow them to claim little or no responsibility in how their lives are presently and in the future. We can manage to acquire comfort and security without amassing vast degrees of wealth. We can find a balance between living in abject poverty or decadent wealth. I truly feel sorry for the family members of those who select decadent wealth over relationships, health, and happiness.

As usual, you asked a great question. Again, you are right on the button and correct in your opinion that loss of life over stress is a shame. We really need to take an open, honest, and deep inner look at our lives and decide what is really important to us. I don’t support lip service to this, but actual accountability. I wish you a great day Maddy, and a wonderful upcoming week!

Answer 2

hi! i would say if this person is dealing with a lot of stress, try cheering her up by taking her someplace relaxing (i would vote against the mall/movie or any other activities that relate to that). The spa would be good for that, or for her to get her nails done, make sure you pay for it. If you do not wish to do that, I would suggest praying for her, and letting her know that you are. When I am under stress, it helps me to pray about it, and relax for that day. Since you also asked if they have the right to overreact about something, it depends how stressed out they really are. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

I don't think we can control the amount of stress we're under, but we can control how we deal with it. I think that sometimes we get too close to a situation to realize what the stress is doing to us (as in the case of the coach). People need some time to themselves to relax every day and to put things in perspective. No work is worth risking one's health.

Answer 4

it is directly proportional to the square of the height of achievement ( materially) one measures to.