Changing Behavior Related to Stress Stress is experienced by all at some point in their lives. It is extremely common for students and occurs on a daily basis. However, about three years ago, I realized that stress affects me in a more serious and severe way than it does others. For most people I know, when they stress out they just eat more or begin to feel overwhelmed. I, on the other hand, tend to let stress completely take over. Whether it is something big or small, I will let it stress me out to the point of it affecting my health. When I stress out, I make myself physically sick. I will begin to get head aches and stomach pains to the point of me not being able to eat. One of the biggest stressors for me is school. …show more content…
I became so stressed that my whole body broke out in hives. I was brought to the ER and given Benadryl through an IV. I was told that these hives were most likely caused by stress. Substantial evidence was found for an association between stress and increased illness behavior, and less convincing but provocative evidence was found for a similar association between stress and infectious pathology (Cohen & Williamson, 1991). It took about a week for the hives to completely stop coming back and at that point I vowed to do something to lessen my stress. I decided that when I got stressed I would take at least 10 minutes to sit in silence and calm myself. I have now learned to somewhat manage my stress; however, I never truly stuck to this specific plan so I have decided that now is the time to be active and follow my