What Causes Stress Overload?
Although just enough stress can be a good thing, stress overload is a different story — too much stress isn’t good for anyone. For example, feeling a little stress about a test that’s coming up can motivate you to study hard. But stressing out too much over the test can make it hard to concentrate on the material you need to learn. Pressures that are too intense or last too long, or troubles that are shouldered alone, can cause people to feel stress overload. Here are some of the situations that can overwhelm the body’s ability to cope if they continue for a long time: • being abused or exposed to violence or injury • relationship stress, family conflicts, or the heavy emotions that can accompany a broken heart or the death of a loved one • ongoing problems with studies related to a learning disability or other problems, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (usually once the problem is recognized and the person is given the right learning support, the stress disappears) • c
