First of all, lets understand this. Stress is not the pile of papers sitting on your desk. Stress is not the child screaming in the living room, or the clean laundry the dog just dragged out the door. Stress is not the phone that is ringing off the hook, throwing you behind schedule.
Stress is your response to those things. They are stressors, not stress.
A Stressor May or May Not Be a Cause of Stress
When we look for signs and symptoms, causes of stress, we must look at every stressor as a potential cause of stress. I say potential because stressors do not have to cause stress. Different people will respond differently to them, and it is the response, you remember, that is the stress.
For example, a great cause of stress for one secretary may be a stack of documents waiting to be filed. She hates filing because she has no system. She is never sure where to file a given paper, so she puts off all filing. The stack grows, her anxiety grows, her guilt grows, but a lack of expertise paralyzes her. Finally, she becomes ill, and takes a day off work. The substitute secretary takes one look at the stack of documents and sets to work cheerfully. She has...