stressors

Whether something sets off a stress response depends on the person and their situation at the time.

examples of triggers of a stress reaction

• Traumatic events

• finance

• fear of negative feelings arising

• sleep deprivation

• social interactions

• family relationships

• overcrowding

• multiple or conflicting roles

• competition

• reduced capability

• change of role

• success

• failure

• anniversaries

• times of the day or week

• loss

• uncertainty

• change

• sickness

• Someone else’s stress

• stress

• noise

• particular sound frequencies

• visual stimulation like writing, billboards•

• Exhaustion over-stimulation

• foods

• TV

• air borne pollutants

• fluorescent lights

• drugs

• chemicals

perfumes particularly artificial

Multiple stressors can combine to reduce tolerance to stress even if not stressful by themselves.

industrial stress
Stress in the city leaves us geared up to confront danger. The risks of crowds and fast moving vehicles are almost impossible to assess in the milliseconds available as they flash by. These are potentially deadly. Most civilians cope by suppressing their natural stress response, just as soldiers learn to suppress their survival instincts after being taught the reflex of advancing into incoming fire.

Urban living plays out against a backdrop of low level stressors like noise, overwork, poverty, bullying, isolation, and media violence that have a slow cumulative effect.

Long periods of low level stress from poverty, noise, discomfort or caring for an incapacitated relative even if they are tolerable for a while can eventually become overwhelming as the effects accumulate. They can be traumatizing.