Stress Mastery: The Art of Coping Gracefully

Negative Effects of Stress

So what are the negative effects of stress? What can happen when stress overloads your coping resources, when your skills are inadequate to deal with the demands placed on you by circumstances? Stress negatively affects your physical, psychological, and occupational functioning in a variety of ways.

Physical Consequences

The relationship between stress and your health is neither simple nor straightforward. Stress will not automatically cause you to become physically ill. The impact of stress on your health is mediated by a variety of personality variables (which we will address in later chapters), as well as your genetic makeup and environment. But physically, it is clear that when you are under prolonged stress your ...