Stress Isn’t All Bad. Here’s When It Can Help

No one gets a free pass when it comes to stress. We all experience it, and though chronic stress can take its toll on our health, there are situations when stress can be beneficial.

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Your stress response can be your body’s way of preparing to rise to a challenge, explains Jeremy Jamieson, a psychologist at the University of Rochester. He studies how stress responses can be “optimized.”

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When it comes to stress, “context matters,” says researcher Wendy Berry Mendes, a professor of psychology at Yale University. There are different types of stress responses and different types of stress.

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