In the Harvard Medical School publication that has the motto “Trusted Advice for a Healthier Life” has a booklet that offers help to we nut jobs that have gone mental, (no politically correct euphemisms here, just try to cancel me and I’ll show you stress). In the journal publication “Anxiety and Stress Disorders” they divide stress into 4 categories: Positive – Tolerable – Unhealthy – Toxic. They then drone on about each of them and make up some stuff about what to do. You can spend the $29.00 to get the report or let me summarize it for you here. (Full Disclosure: I didn’t buy the book but was able to surmise a great deal from the ad).
Positive Stress: Starting a new job or taking on new responsibilities, or figuring out how to keep the fact you won the lottery from your family so you don’t have to share.
Tolerable Stress: A non-normative experience that present a greater magnitude of adversity; a death in the family, serious illness or accident, couples counseling because your spouse says you are “emotionally unavailable.”
Unhealthy Stress: Anything that makes you irritable, angry or impatient like the butt-munch in the car ahead of you not noticing the light has changed because he is on his cellphone.
Toxic Stress: Changes in emotions and behavior: Anxiety, guilt, denial, grief, fear, irritability or Intense anger, emotional outbursts, depression, withdrawal, panic, feeling hopeless or overwhelmed. Basically what most of us refer to as Monday.
For those of us without the financial means to simply withdraw from society let me again offer my standard one size fits all advice: “Suck it up!”