Related Articles: The 10-Part Stress Series Previously in this Series: What Causes Stress? In What is stress?, we learned that stress is our body’s automatic reaction to a change that our brain evaluates as a threat. Stress is perceived by many animals in much the same way and has been part of the human story for as long as there have been humans. Stress can result in enormous challenges for us, including some challenges that are very long-lasting.

Related Articles: The 10-Part Stress Series Previously in this Series: What is stress? Before we can identify what causes stress, we need to get a better handle on what stress is. In the previous article in this series, we learned that stress is the body’s automatic reaction to a change. That’s all well and good but most of us know at least one person who we think of as “stressed out” or “under stress.

Related Articles: The 10-Part Stress Series Stress may seem to be a critical part of life in the 21st century, but it has been with us since time immemorial: The air was still that warm afternoon in Africa two million years ago. He moved quietly as he crossed the grassy landscape. He knew there were predators there. If he wanted to avoid being lunch, he needed to be careful. Then he heard it. Just the soft sound of a stick breaking under pressure.

Related Articles: The 10-Part Stress Series Previously in this Series: The Relationship of Stress to Mental Health In What is stress?, we looked at what stress is. In other, related articles, we’ve looked at what causes stress and how it affects our bodies and our brains. We’ve learned that chronic stress directly causes chronic inflammation and that chronic inflammation directly or indirectly causes death and disease. We’ve also looked at ways to prevent or manage stress and how to cope with stress.