Stress 101: Acute & Chronic Stressors

Stress can come from a variety of different sources and the body reacts in unique ways to different types of stressors.

• Acute stressors are stressors that involve novelty, unpredictability, and/or threat of death of injury. These are significant events that typically leave a person feeling that they have a poor sense of control in the situation and their body releases stress hormones to help them to manage the situation more effectively.

• Chronic stressors are stressors that involve prolonged and/or repeated exposure to situations that engage neurological and physiological arousal. Examples include stressors such as poverty, relationship violence, discrimination, and more.

The human body was not designed to be constantly activated and overuse of its stress system leads to wear and tear on the body, termed cumulative stress.

While anyone can be subject to stress and its consequences, one particularly at-risk group for negative consequences of stress exposure includes first responders.

First responders are often exposed to both acute and chronic stressors as a function of their work environment and when they come home, their family can be exposed secondarily to after effects of these experiences. Thus, it is vital that first responders AND their families can identify stressors and stress reactions and learn to manage stress in a healthy way to neutralize any negative effects from the job.

-Dr. Jena Casas, Ph.D.