Stress: How It Works And How To Beat It

Stressed out. Under pressure. Run down. We tend to think of stress as a bad thing—and it can be. Traumatic experiences in early childhood can destroy mental health later in life, and chronic stress has been linked to illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. But stress can be good too. It helps us navigate an unpredictable world and determine which new experiences are good, bad, or dangerous. It also primes us to respond to similar situations in the future. The key with stress is to strike a healthy balance—getting enough at the right moments, but not too much overall. If the prospect of following that advice makes you tense up, take a deep breath: Science can help.

How It Works

• What Happens To Your Body When You’re Stressed?

• Data Visualization: Who’s The Most High-Strung?

• Chronic Stress: It Could Be Killing You

How To Cope

• Quiz: Assess Your Stress

• Hacks For Handling Hangups

• Tested: Not All Stress Monitors Are Created Equal

Feeling Tense? Learn From These High-Stress Professionals

• The Secret To Resilience

• When There’s Nothing To Do But Crack A Cancer Joke

• In Space, No One Can Hear You Stress

This article was originally published in the March 2015 issue of Popular Science, under the title “The Science Of Stress.”

What Is Stress?

Why Do We Get Stressed?

Strung Out? You’re Not Alone.

The Consequences Of Chronic Stress

How Strung Out Are You?

Coping

Tested: Stress Trackers

The Secret To Resilience

Dealing With A Cancer Diagnosis

How Astronauts Decompress

Keeping Calm While Fighting Ebola