Stress is a completely natural physical reaction. The stress reaction has developed as part of our evolution to enable us to react quickly by fleeing or fighting when we are faced with danger. We still react in this way to this day. If a situation is dangerous, exciting or challenging, it is viewed as “stressful”: the stress reaction is then triggered.

What happens when stress occurs in the body? Your pupils widen to improve your vision. Your pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rate increase to ensure optimum concentration and performance. Your initial rapid reactions are primarily driven by the hormones noradrenaline and adrenaline. As a result, the level of cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, increases and has a long-term effect.

Stress also has a residual positive effect nowadays if we need to be active for a short time, motivated, fully concentrated and totally focused on what we are doing. The stress reaction was originally only relevant for exceptional circumstances. However, it has become a permanent state nowadays and can have an impact on the health of the psyche and the body. This is also called “negative stress”.

The causes of stress differ from person to person. They depend on the issues, which occur in your daily life. Common causes of job-related stress include insufficient time, overwork, over demanding workload or feeling insufficiently challenged, as well as problems with colleagues or your superior. Your family, children and partner can become additional stress factors when day-to-day family life or your partnership has problems. It should not be underestimated how much long commutes with traffic jams or train delays contribute to a stressful life.

However, whether or not someone perceives a situation to be stressful (and if so, to what extent), depends on their own resources. Your personality and the way you deal with stress greatly affect your individual perception of what constitutes stress – however, taking specific relaxation measures and knowing how to best reduce the level of stress in your life are also important.

If stress hormones are raised over a longer period, this has consequences. A lack of rest can cause chronic stress. This in turn can have a negative effect on the body and psyche, and increase the likelihood of specific diseases occurring.

More than half of people surveyed in Switzerland, Austria and Germany admit that they regularly suffer from stress. It affects those aged between 35 and 45 particularly often. In this group, four out of five people often perceive their life to be stressful. Every fourth or fifth employee admits that their professional day places them under severe stress or exhausts them. Increasing numbers of children and young people are also being affected. Test anxiety, the fear of bad marks, too much homework, too little time, as well as problems with teachers, parents, siblings or classmates are the main reasons for stress in school-aged children and young people. Therefore, it is particularly important that children learn at a young age the best ways to relieve stress.