THE
DICHOTOMY:
Acute stress: A perceived, immediate threat to oneีs well being and or/survival. An example is rushing to get to the airport on time before missing last flight of night to Bombay.
Chronic Stress: There are two kinds:
Ongoing difficulty: This usually stems from a discrete (point-in-time) event and/or role strain resulting in ongoing problems. For example: Financial troubles after losing a job.
Stressful process: This is an ongoing process that does not stem from an exact event. An example is feeling uncertain about oneีs career path or feeling unattractive to the opposite sex. (Definitions from Towbes and Cohen, 1995)
SO WHAT COUNTS? How people perceive different situations and events is WIDELY varied due to differences in human nature. Being late to the airport may be sending you into a near panic attack, while the person you are traveling with may be calm and cool under the rushing, but may become very stressed and anxious during take-off while you immediately fall asleep. The accumulation of ongoing strains across several life domains, for example school performance and peer relations is considered chronic stress by Towbes and Cohen, (1995). To get an idea of what the rest of the American college population considers stressful, here is the list of the top 25 stressful events and how they were rated by females and males that these researchers found from administering the College Chronic Life Stress Survey to college students just like yourself. Click here to see the results of the survey