What You Should Know
Each person's experience of stress depends on many factors, including the nature of the stressor and how the stressor is perceived. A person's emotional and behavioral responses to stressors depend on many different factors, including personality, gender, social environment, and cultural background.
The physical response to a stressor may vary in intensity from individual to individual and situation to situation, but we all experience a similar set of physical changes -- the fight-or-flight reaction.
The fight-or-flight reaction prepares the body for physical action regardless of whether such action is necessary or appropriate response to particular stressor.
Common emotional responses to stressors include anxiety, depression, fear, or exhilaration.
High level of stress over the long term may shrink an area of the brain called the hippocampus.