Should we treat stress?

The answer to this question, as for most complex questions, is “it depends.”

For the good and tolerable stresses of daily life, the answer is a clear “no.” By definition, we handle good and tolerable stress well enough without needing to treat it. Forget about the mythical “stress-free life”—if it were possible, it would be bad for your health.

We need the good and tolerable stresses of daily life—demanding jobs, raising family, taking care of where you live—to stay fit. Our stress response systems need these challenges to automatically self-regulate our temperature, heart rates, blood oxygen levels, immune responses, and all the other functions that keep us alive each day.

But for toxic stress, if we recognize it, the answer is a clear “yes, we should treat it.” By definition, toxic stress is a persistent pattern of severe demands that we perceive to exceed our coping resources.

Imagine having to care for three family members with severe chronic illnesses. Imagine being a young mother who loses her job and then her apartment, now sleeping with her three kids in the back seat of a car with a hole in its muffler. Toxic stress leads to symptoms, and persistent toxic stress (over six months) often leads to illnesses. In some people, years of toxic stress can lead to diabetes, heart disease, depression, obesity, or chronic pain conditions, to name just a few. The list........

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