It is rather certain that stress as a psychological and medical condition will hit a great proportion of overall world population.
This presents a very serious issue for all the societieswhich embraced the modern way of living.
Therefore, it is not a wonder that there is a surge in institutions, associations, support groups and institutions in general underway.
They are dedicating themselves to understanding the problem of stress and the possible consequences and along with them complications in the life of the individual.
These complications which manifest them mainly in health aggravations are the reason that stress needs to be dealt timely.
One may say it is better to prevent a certain condition before it even arises then to heal what is already damaged.
This claim is in general valid and reasonable.
However, it contradicts and negates the reality most people are confronted with,
This reality consists of going to work or college, taking care of family or parents and dealing with all kinds of problems, which occur daily and often with high intensity.
The aforementioned angle takes us intuitively to the certain conclusion
Namely, stress is an inevitable part of our lives and the volume in which inflicts each of us is, as we will argue later, depenadable upon our so to say personal settings.
It has been noted that regardless the widespread of stress the term itself isn’t clear enough to many who are hit by it.
In the previous article we tried to define stress as closely and as vivid a s possible to make the notion understandable to the full extent.
Nevertheless, we see the need to introduce stress synonyms in form of the more common words which can be grasped more easily, because they contribute to the proper identification of this state.
The search engines and the paperback dictionaries are rather unanimous on the words that may be a corresponding replacement for the term stress when use din various context.
These consist of the following notions:
1. tension,
2. strain,
3. pressure,
which are listed due to the falling overlap ratio with the term stress.
We also note there are dozens of other words which may be used to describe the term stress in a given special occasion, but these do not have the scope of reach as those three just listed.
We argue that search engines were very useful in finding the appropriate words, however we noticed a disadvantage arising from the fact that the further definition of these there and closer examination are rather dispersed.
So, this text aims to concentrate this scattered information in the following paragraphs.
Although a definition of these three term would probably suffice, we aim at processing this notion in the most descriptive way possible.
Despite that, we will also embrace the definition of these terms.
Tension
The first stress synoym that we are set to clarify will be tension.
Why tension?
The term tension is probably the easiest to grasp and it certainly does a good job of explaining the feeling associated with stress and we may say that is represents the core feature of stress.
When a person is tensed, this person stores and fights an emotion of being uptight.
What causes tension?
The feeling of being tensed may successfully include the perception of being physical uptight as well as uptight emotionally.
So, the phrase being uptight may well serve as tension synonym .
Being physical uptight, although a subject worth deliberating, does not correspond to our area of interest.
That is because stress is always a result of our thoughts or a psychological response to the stimuli in our environment.
For that reason it is necessary to concentrate on psychological causes of tension.
This catches the main features of a stressful reacction, which prepares body and mind for an upcoming demand or danger.
An interesting feature of being uptight is that it may be driven from several sources.
These may reach from upcoming events, but also present and past events in relation to the expectation of the results of this events over the objective changes in our environment and regarding our physical self to merely our thoughts, which may and what is more peculiar may not be triggered by any objective reason.
Tension is also our built in feature which is drawn out when we are faced with a new, unexpected or foreign phenomena, which emanate the emotions of fear, uncertainty and cause us to feel overwhelmed.
Rumination about tension must take into account its possible manifestations, for tension may prove to be a double-edged sword.
In that way it may have some expected, but also many unexpected effects.
This points to the possible conclusions on the forms in which it may manifest itself.
After all, tension is a force of some kind. This feature also binds it very closely to the term stress.
We may claim that tension is a potential force which can be exploited to our benefit, but can also paralise our thoughts and actions.
This is mostly dependable upon our ability to control it.
It may be argued that tension is useful due to the fact that it represents the state of alert throughout our bodies.
In such a way it stands as a fair contribution to the fighting or the coping power of our bodies to eliminate or overcome the challenge.
However, tension can take a bad direction and actually result in a hindrance, diminishing or undermining the power of our physical bodies to react properly to a given event, situation or demand.
Furthermore,it can handicap or hinder the power of our minds to successfully confront a certain situation.
Also, it can lead to underachievement, which may easily happen due to the high intensity or duration of the tensed state, regardless of the fact if the stimulus (if even existed) is still present.
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Into the Tension Definition
We hope that the previous few paragraphs present a decent depiction of the term stress.
Regardless, every term is, after all and despite the weaknesses related to such an approach, most often determined by the dry definition.
However, we also took into consideration that the term tension has more meaning.
These, although similar, may not be used freely and in indiscriminate manner.
Among the different disposable options, we opted for the tension definition that takes into account that tension is a force.
It is a force in form of a signal and what is most improtant, a feeling of worry with a source in some dangerous, sudden, important, unpleasant or difficult event or situation.
It is accompanied by nervousness with a result of the heightened preparedness of the body for subjectively percieved challenges.
Due to all these specific elements that build up the tension definition it is reasonable to claim that this term may be used interchangeably with the term stress.
To repeat, tension synonym or at least a notion with the significant overlap with the meaning this term s the feeling of being uptight.
We hope that this greatly contributes to the understanding of stress and its possible implications.
Strain
Now, we can set sail to the second term which may serve as a stress synonym.
Often, stress may be described as a feeling of being stretched out.
Stress definition, as presented in the previous article implies that it is a the response of our body which arises due to our personal feeling of the scarcity or the lack or resources.
In the scope of stress definition that means the resources we feel that we need for the purpose of attaining the level necessary to successfully drive away or handle the problems, demand and challenges looming out of the certain stressor.
Therefore, the feeling of being stretched out enters when we become aware or even just believe that the employment of all of our resources we currently possess is not enough.
Enough in the way of problem resolving, will not be not enough to enable us to overcome the percieved difficulties.
This opens the door to connect the term of strain to notion of stress and stressful reaction.
We will try to further explain the core of the meaning of this term through physical strain.
We believe this approach works greatly to depict its close association with stress and allows the trasposition to mental strain, where stress and strain really meet.
How does strain develop?
To come to a definition of strain/definition of strained it is very useful and for the purpose of this article necessary to get more deeply into the content of this term.
Beneath the layers of the different meanings of this term lay two further notions which unmistakeably catch the essence of being strained.
These comprise of force and exertion and of the infleunce of the first one on the latter.
Therefore, a strain is the result of a certain force, which is applied with focus on a certain object.
By now, perhaps you noticed how much importance is paid upon the notion force.
That is because it plays an irreplacable role in the origionation of stress and, as we will see shortly, in the existance of strain.
In the physical sense the strain is set to occur when the application of the force, viisible or unvisiable on an object in the form of pressing or stretching is of that intensity that it leads to the change of the form or the position of the object, which may bring to the damage of the same.
In this sense it means the force is exercised in such a way that it surpasses the capability of the object to adapt properly, going past the limits that the object is able to handle.
Therefore, the strain is the result of overexertion.
This explanation is of such sort that it does not need any alteration for the purpose on translating it into mental strain terms, what represents stress and that is how we come to the goal of our effort.
Now, we can move further to defining strain to see how it fits into this story.
Defintion of Strain/Definition of strained
What remains for us to do now is to which extent can we use the term strain interchangeably when translated to the frame of mental strain.
For this purpose, we shall help ourselves with the previous paragraphs.
Without any difference to the explaination of strain in the physical sence, mental strain incurres only and only if a force is present.
Such a force may reach from an event of situation over the changes on or in our bodies to our thoughts.
So,mental strain appears when our minds which are processing these forces and which it sees as a danger or demand cannot come to a pleasing solution and a adequate response to them, whatever the reasons for this may be.
The result of such process, when it plays out like this, is manifested in the overexertion and overuse of our emotions and our nerve system.
In the long term, similar to the explanation above, the reccuring of this scenario may lead to some unwanted consequences to our health.
Let us put definition of strain/definition of strained in simple brackets.
Strain or mental strain to be more precise is the result of the overexertion of our mental capacity in response to forces which target our minds in an unpleasant or unwanted way or in way that the mind percieves it as danger.
Close analysis of the strain definition/strained definition reveals that it containes all the main features we are to find in a stressful reaction.
The difference to the definition of tension consists in the fact that the term strained is more often used in a way which implies a damage as a result of a force being exercised.
As we saw, stress often does not lead to any further consequences or hazard to our health.
Nevertheless, as well as tension, the term strain, when it implies mental strain, may be also used interchangeably with the term stress.
We are left with one final term: pressure.
Let us see how it can be introduced when discussing stress.
Pressure
So, how does the term pressure fit in the story of the stress synonyms?
To find that out, we have to see how we mostly experience stressful situations or events.
These answers will lead us to the pressure definition,
With this term, it is also reasonable to rely ourselves on physics, because the explanation of pressure has its origins in that scientific branch.
This approach has one other value.
Having in mind that the term pressure in physics implies a clear and a precise phenomenon, it should be easy to loosen the boundaries of that definition for the purpose of placnig that term into the stress context.
Again, we cannot continue without refference to the term force.
Force is an essential gredient needed for pressure to occur. Pressure occurs when this force is applied to a certain surface and under the right angle.
Abstraction of pressure for the purpose of stress
Just above, we saw which conditions need to be met for the presence of pressure in the physical sense.
Obviously, for the purpose of creating a link with stress we may disregard the story about surface and angle.
This is due to the fact the stress process develops exclusively in our minds as a result of „forces“ which require some sort of adaptatiom.
Therefore, pressure as a stress related term, represents a burden arising from the impossibility to react properly to a stressful event, situation or demand.
Now, we are equipped with the elements required to approach the pressure definition fot the purpose of determining the possible usage of that term as a stress synonym.
Pressure definition
The pressure definition points us to over and over again to the term force.
In the terms of stress it may be a visible or an invisible force.
The only relevant factor is that our mind percieves something as a force that is directed to its capacity to cope with a certain issue.
I our minds percieve this force as challenging and recognize it as possibly harmful, the result is the feeling of being burdened or simply put, a pressure.
In comparison to the terms tension and strain and tension and strain definition, we are of the opinion that the term pressure is not to be used interchangeably with the term stress, although its usage ineveryday life points to the contrary.
Tension and strain imply that the point of our possiblity to cope with a certain demand of challenge had be surpassed.
Pressure,on the other hand tells us a similar, but ot so thorough story. Pressure reveals us only that a force is present and that it is being processed by our minds in a way takes it into account a possibly harmful.
However, the presence of pressure does not tell us if a stressful situation, event or demand is of such intensity that exceeds our possibility to answer properly.
With this sreserve, it is however possible to use that term with the term stress.
Instead of conclusion
I hope this article was helpful to you for the purpose of grasping the term stress.
Stress synonyms that we covered are really most common used in daily conversation.
That is why they have value in undestanding of this term.
Now, we set course to examine where the sources of stress reside.
Before haeading on, we are going to take a cup of tea to relax ourselves. Find your package here.
If you have any questions and comment, fell free to write them down.