English Essay: What's all this about stress?

The Human Function Curve demonstrates that the need for increased performance is proportionate to an appropriate degree of pressure within the individual. Sufficient stress causes a state of healthy tension and helps us to perform well. Stress is needed to help us function well in life. Too little stress and we are laid back to the extent that we are in the rustout zone. Too much and we are heading for exhaustion and possible illness, because there is a point on this curve at which the smallest added pressure can trigger a physical or mental breakdown. What we really need is just enough to keep us on our toes and in a state of healthy tension, somewhere in the middle of the graph.

Good stress motivates you to achieve success, and is the driving force in most of our lives. It is also the salt and spice of life and to have no stress we would have to be dead. It makes life interesting and enjoyable and motivates us. In fact, people often create stress for themselves, setting themselves deadlines and targets to meet, putting themselves under pressure to increase the stress response, in order to get themselves to work more effectively.

The more challenging or difficult the situation, the more stress or pressure we need. The pressure helps us to give our best. When things get too much we may occasionally long for the solitude of a desert island where nothing ever happens/ We would soon get bored with not having enough to do and might begin to suffer from boredom which can be as stressful as a breakdown. So stress is not all bad, but pressure can become unhealthy stress where there is too much of it, when it continues unchecked, or when our perceptions of it are that we cannot cope.

As you carry out your day to day activities, you need a degree of tension to help you perform adequately. We put pressure on ourselves to pay bills, to drive in traffic, to voice our opinions when necessary, to express our displeasure, to complete work to deadlines, to rearrange our schedules when needed. We do many of these things every day and mostly without undue pressure. It is only when the degree of action required is greater than can be performed, that it becomes unhealthy stress. It is at this point that a small problem such as a computer crash, or a jammed photocopier, can be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and you plunge down the scale.

The development of pressure into stress is not just in relation to one particular event. It relates to the whole of our lives. If you work under pressure for long periods of time it can affect your performance in every area. You do not do your job as well as you might, and your relationships and your health suffer. Over a period of time you may find that the degree of pressure seems to be out of proportion much of the time and your whole life begins to feel pressured. Work stress may spill over into home life and you are generally tired. You know you are not doing well and this increases the pressure. This is the stress that we are familiar with.