There are two kinds of stress, helpful and damaging. The helpful stress is called Eustress and the unhelpful or damaging stress is known as distress. If someone is unable to cope with the pressures they are experiencing around them that stress is called distress. The coping abilities of individuals vary greatly making it particularly difficult for men to recognize stress in themselves. Some situations for some men are easier to cope with than other situations. Even later in life for some men, the situations that stressed them out earlier don’t any more.

It is useful when measuring stress for the person under stress to do a self-analysis and rate the stress level of a particular situation, experience or event on a scale. A scale was put together in 1967 by two American psychiatrists. It has become well known and is called the SRRS (Social Readjustment Ratings Scale). By placing a numerical value to items in a list they created of life events thought to be stressful, including such items as moving house, death of a spouse, etc, they established a scale that became the standard in measuring stress. A minor violation of the law was rated a 1 while the most stressful was considered the death of a spouse, measured at 100 on their scale.

When talking about stress we use language that seems to come from engineering, like stress, strain, tolerance, resilience, breaking points, flexibility, elasticity, etc.

Experiencing stress usually occurs in one of two ways, physically and psychologically, with both being interrelated. One of the effects of chronic stress has been shown by a psychologist, Janice Keicolt-Glaser, to be the decrease in the ability of the body to recover from stress with the immune system being compromised. There would be an increased risk of infection coupled with the inability of the body to repair tissues and fight the infections.

We use stress as a way to deal with threats and protect us from them. We find a way to fight threats in some way or we avoid them; this is often called the fight or flight mechanism.

The results of stress can be good however, enabling us to use the adrenaline we build up in stressful situations like winning races, solving problems, taking exams and making changes in the world.

If that stress builds up and becomes long-term stress, it usually leads to the onset of worsening health.

There are physical as well as psychological signs of stress of which we should all be aware. As men, you will become aware of the ones that you experience. Being prepared to deal with them and get help is most important.