Stressors & the Stress Response

Understanding stress starts with understanding what causes it.

Talking openly about stress helps us recognise that none of us are perfect. We are all “hard-wired” to respond to stressors in our own individual ways, and understanding these responses can make our experiences feel more normal and easier to discuss. We all need to understand what our stressors are, where they come from, and how we are responding to them.

What is a stressor?

Our stressors can be physical, psychological or social pressures and demands that create real or perceived pressure on our bodies, emotions, minds or spirits. It is important to recognise that a stressor, stress and the stress response are not the same thing. A stressor is any event, situation, or person that creates demands or pressure on us;  our stress response is our biological, physiological, psychological, and behavioural response to the stressor. There is no such thing as “stress”; this term has been overused for decades and has only managed to confuse us. 

Why does this matter?

The language we use when talking about stress can sometimes make it difficult to understand what is actually happening to us. The word “stress” has traditionally been used to describe both the stressor – things happening around us and to us- and our stress response- our biological, physiological and psychological responses – happening within us that drive our behaviour. When we understand the difference, we can begin to understand how our own stress responses can be more stressful than the stressor causing them. 

There are only the stressors in our daily lives and our responses to them that cause the release of stress hormones, that,  overtime,  can cause our physical and mental illnesses. Understanding this difference is an important part of understanding how our prolonged stress responses can influence both our physical and mental wellbeing.

This is where our journey begins—by understanding what our stressors are, how we respond to them, why our stress responses trigger biological, physiological, and psychological reactions, and why these responses matter.