Over the past two decades, there has been
an increasing belief that the experience of
stress necessarily has undesirable consequences
for health. It has become a common
assumption, if not a “cultural
truism”, that it is associated with the impairment
of health. Despite this, the evidence
is that the experience of stress does
not necessarily have pathological sequelae.
Many of the person’s responses to that
experience, both psychological and physiological,
are comfortably within the body’s
normal homeostatic limits and, while taxing
the psychophysiological mechanisms
involved, need not cause any lasting disturbance
or damage.