Stress management is a set of techniques that can help people successfully cope with difficult situations and manage the effects of stress in their life. Sources of stress are ubiquitous in modern life and the inability to successfully cope with them can lead to psychological and physiological changes in the body with serious effects on health. Sources of stress can be big and small, short-term and long-term, internal and external. Managing stress means identifying sources of stress in your life, then learning ways to reduce the impact of these stressors on your health and well-being.

Stress is not always a bad thing; in the short-term stress can be highly beneficial. For example, if you are about to be hit by a car or you are being chased by an attacker, stress can help you react to and escape from these situations. Or say you need to deliver an important speech or presentation at work; the stress-response can help you concentrate and deliver a polished product. The short-term or acute response to stress that involves the release of adrenaline (epinephrine) and makes your heart beat a little faster and your mind a little clearer is called the “fight-or-flight” response. The name is derived from the fact that epinephrine release quickly readies you to deal with adversity by either staying to fight or fleeing immediately.

But consider what happens when sources of stress continue for long periods. If you are about to be hit by a car and the acute stress response kicks in, you take evasive action and hopefully avoid injury. While you may feel jittery for a few minutes after the event, you will probably be back to normal, both psychologically and physiologically, in an hour or so at the most. But what about that work presentation? You probably found out about it weeks or months ahead of time and you may have been thinking about it ever since. This is a different type of stress called chronic stress, and it has a different physiological response.

Chronic stress occurs when situations that cause stress go on for long periods of time or when they keep occurring over and over again. Stress management is designed to help people deal with chronic stress.