What is stress and how does it affect your body? Stress is a normal human response that happens to everyone. In fact, the human body is designed to undergo stress and react to it. It’s a feeling of emotional or physical tension.  When you experience changes or challenges (stressors), your body produces physical and mental responses. A stressor may be a one-time or short-term occurrence, or it can happen repeatedly over a long time. In short spurts, some stress is positive. It causes the body to release adrenaline, which can help accomplish assignments and projects and can even enhance performance and problem-solving abilities. But when stress lasts for a long time, it can harm your health.    When a person has long-term (chronic) stress, constant activation of the stress response can take its toll on the body and be debilitating and overwhelming.   Symptoms of stress   Physical symptoms of...