Stress Affects Different People Differently

Whether due to age, gender, neurodivergence, genetics or environment, stress affects different people differently. There are factors that contribute to why certain people are more likely to experience the effects of stress than others.

Definition of stress

Stress is not a mental illness, but it can be the cause or symptom of a mental illness. Around the world, stress is viewed differently in different cultures. In some Eastern cultures, stress is seen as an absence of inner peace, in other more Westernized cultures, it is a loss of control.

Biologically speaking, stress is a nervous system response to a threat. It can be physical, emotional, imagined, or something we experienced in the past but haven’t fully let go of yet.

Intermittent stress is common and often manageable, sometimes with healthy or unhealthy coping strategies. However, acute stress can cause problems and even illness, both physical and mental. And subsequent coping strategies can develop into chronic dependency or addiction.

In today’s world, we face a multitude of modern stresses. Learning to manage stress is a vital part of life. Fascinatingly, however, stress feels differently for everyone, according to research.

What affects our experiences of stress?

• Gender: When it comes to gender, mes and women experience stress differently due to psychobiological differences. Vulnerability to infectious diseases, hypertension, aggression and drug abuse is more common in men. Autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, depression and anxiety disorders are more common in women. This could be due to sex hormones, as these differences emerge at puberty and decrease after menopause. The observed gender-specific disease pattern may be attributed in part to the effects of sex hormones, as some of these gender differences emerge during the reproductive years and gradually decrease after menopause. Sex-specific, stress-related changes in our brain also affect us deeply.

• Age: Age also affects our experience of stress, Depending on the person’s age, changes in the brain and cognitive abilities, as well as mental health conditions they have experienced. Repeated overstimulation of our stress response system can affect brain structure, cognition, and mental health. High levels of stress in childhood and adulthood also decrease executive function and working memory, regardless of gender.

• Other factors: Many other things can affect our ability to respond to stress, but more research is needed to find out exactly why some of us are better able to handle stress without detrimental effects, while others are affected in more profound, obvious or immediate ways. due to stress. Research is our only way to understand why some of us are more susceptible to stress and what we can do to address it.

Learn more about stress in the following MQ articles:

Find out how to recognize and reduce stress.

Read more about how stress can affect mental health.

Find out why stress is not a mental illness.