Stress Symptoms and Risk Factors

Symptoms

Sweating, tingling, rapid or shallow breathing, racing pulse, tension, or general anxiety in response to some change -- negative or positive -- in the environment.

Physical illness or pain that develops in response to these changes. Who Is at Risk

Everyone experiences varying degrees of stress as the body's physiological response to change. The more serious and numerous the sources of stress (stressors) in your life, the more likely it is that you will become ill as a result.

Which Personalities Cope Best With Stress?

Keeping your cool on a slow checkout line doesn't prove that you cope with stress, although research suggests that people who can take such aggravating situations in stride stay healthier and live longer.

The Type A behavior of driven personalities, once believed to bring on heart attacks, is now seen in a somewhat different light. Some Type A traits -- ambition and fierce competitiveness, for example -- may help you handle stress because they motivate you to deal with the events and circumstances that cause you discomfort. So-called Type B personalities, people who appear to be easygoing and relaxed, may actually be suppressing a great deal of anger and internalizing the bad feelings brought on by stressful or irritating situations.

The issue may not be how you deal with anger--whether you blow up or hold your tongue -- but how often you experience hostile feelings. People who are always fuming, who are chronically cynical and mistrustful, cope least well with stress. Holding on to negative emotions such as anger or paranoia ("they" are out to get you) and letting aggravations accumulate -- doing a slow burn -- may put you at high risk for stress-related illnesses.

Most important, psychologists say, is whether you are able to do something about the sources of your negative feelings. Healthy anger can inspire you to make changes in your life that will improve it (quitting a job that you don't like, for example). People who aren't able to make those helpful changes -- who don't have control over what's making them miserable or who can't accept what they can't control -- are most likely to suffer ill effects from stress.