Stress

From CasGroup

[[Image:tradeoff2.png|right|thumb|357px|Trade-off between reaction time and resource usage]] '''Stress''' is a state of increased alertness of the body. It is a psychological and physiological response to events that could threaten the organism. During the course of evolution, the human stress response has saved the lives of our ancestors. The "fight-or-flight" stress response of the body involves a cascade of biological changes that prepare us for emergency action. Today, we turn on the same life-saving physical reaction to cope with intense, ongoing stressors - and we can’t seem to turn it off. Stress is a trade-off for the [[Self-Optimization]] of contradicting mechanisms. The body needs to react immediately to any danger, but it must also save valuable resources. The former means high alertness, the latter low alertness. High alertness and vigilance go hand in hand with high resource usage. Stress is an important trade-off between optimal resource usage and optimal response or reaction time. Stress means the context-dependent short-term activation of all available resource, which are deactivated in the long term. As a trade-off in general systems stress can occur in various forms (readiness, alertness, preparedness, etc.), levels (severe, high, elevated, low, etc.) and phases (for example alert phase in a fire brigade, or the three emergency phases from the coast guard: uncertainty phase, alert phase, and distress phase). Stress is a physiological response to (life-)threatening situations which guarantee the survival of the organism. The stress mechanism itself can be considered as an [[Adaptation|adaptation]] to uncertain and disruptive environments where large peaceful periods are sometimes disrupted by extremely dangerous threats which require full attention and immediate reaction. Such environments are too peaceful to pay the price of constant alertness (which would lead soon to total exhaustion), but they are also too dangerous to neglect the possible threats completely. == Links == * Documentation: [http://killerstress.stanford.edu/ Stress - Portrait of a Killer] * [http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm Understanding Stress]

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