Bad Stress, Good Stress

1.A summary of “Bad stress, good stress”

The former Editor of the Daily Mirror Piers Morgen used to have a very stressful life. He was under immense pressure at work, and this affected his behavior and his mood. He would relieve his feelings in his spare time. One of the ways he coped with the pressure, was to drink obscene amounts of alcohol. Mr. Morgan is far from the only person, who has suffered from stress. Stress is in fact an increasingly common illness. It’s so common, that it actually effects the entire society, and in 2004 the British Government announced that it had cost the society £13,5 billion due to lost productivity and increased illness at work. How well you cope with stress varies from person to person, and even though no one likes to be stressed, some persons are capable of using stress in a positive manner. They can but themselves in fearful situations in order to pursue their goals. Stress is not an entirely bad thing. Some stress is vital to our well-being, and if you want a long and healthy life, you can’t dispence stress.

2.Outline some of the various stress-related problems presented in the four texts.
Nowadays it’s common, that both mom and dad have a job. They work a lot in order to earn a sufficient amount of money to support their lifestyle. When parents spend so much time at work, they don’t have very much time to take care of their children. When the parents finally get home from work, they often don’t have enough energy nor time, to prepare a healthy and nutritious meal for their children. The parents often solve this problem by buying fast food for their children. This way, they save a lot of time. However, fast food contains insane amounts of calories, and the large consumption of fast food combined with too little exercise, often results in weight problems. Obesity is one of the greatest problems of our time, and costs the society billions of pounds every year.

In the text “Bad stress, good stress” Piers Morgen used alcohol to cope with the stress he was exposed to at work. This is also very problematic, because you easily can become addicted to alcohol. If you consume large amounts of alcohol on a daily basis, you are very likely to develop permanent brain damage or a liver malfunction. Another downside to stress is the loss of productivity and increased illness at work that cost the UK an estimated £13.5 billion a year.

3.Comment on the statement: “If you want to live long and healthily, don’t settle into routines” Some people use routines to avoid stressful situations. If they do the same thing every day, it won’t cause them any stress. But the text “Bad stress, good stress” says that it’s very important that you don’t settle into routines. If you settle into routines, you won’t live as long and as healthily as if you don’t.

4.An Article for a school magazine in which I discuss how to manage stress as a student. The main reason why students get stressed is because of homework, or more correctly the time pressure generated by the homework is stressful. Homework is particularly stressful, if you postpone it to the last minute. As a student, you often find yourself under immense pressure because you’ve a huge assignment due to tomorrow, and you haven’t even begun yet. Therefore one of the ways to avoid putting yourself in a stressful situation is to start making your homework in good time, and not postponing it to the last possible minute. Quite often, the most stressful part of the homework isn’t doing the homework, but thinking about doing the homework. If you start doing your homework in good time, it won’t be on your mind for as long time than it will if you postpone it. Therefore it won’t be as big a strain on you mentally.