We experience stress because we are human and biologically designed for living in a more natural environment. Stress is an energizing response to the kinds of dangers that we might have faced ten thousand years ago. We have survived, in part, because our ability to respond in this way was highly adaptive. When faced with danger we needed a radical source of energy to prepare us to fight our way out of trouble, or to enable us to flee. Our brains unleased a cavalcade of hormonal changes to prepare us for strenuous activity. The energy expended in flight or flight exhausted us returning our system to normal once the danger was over. Stress was meant as a short term adaptive response to an extremely acute situation; it was never meant as a response to the kinds of chronic civilized dangers we face in our society today.

WORK: downsizing, job loss, wage freezes, overtime, shift-work, increased workload, lack of alternate employment opportunities, glass ceiling, glass cellar

FAMILY: aging parents, illness, school phobias, increase youth crime, drug and alcohol addiction, personality clashes, sibling rivalry, return to the nest of adult children

PARTNER: poor communication, verbal or physical abuse, affairs, increased divorce rate, in-law conflict, financial disagreements, sexual problems, addictions

SOCIETY: pension cutbacks, reduced government services, increased taxation, hospital closures, violent crime

SELF: illness, aging, procrastination, self-harassment, aggression, shyness, poor time management, low self-esteem, moodiness, fear, grief

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