Module 40 Introduction
Stress and Illness
Extreme stress From the audio recording of a 911 caller reporting Ben Carpenter’s distress: “You are not going to believe this. There is a semitruck pushing a guy in a wheelchair on Red Arrow highway!”
How often do you experience stress in your daily life? Never? Rarely? Sometimes? Or frequently? When pollsters put a similar question to other collegians, some 85 percent recalled experiencing stress during the last three months—and most said it had disrupted their schoolwork at least once (Associated Press, 2009). On entering college or university, 18 percent of men and 39 percent of women reported having been “frequently overwhelmed” by all they had to do during the past year (Pryor et al., 2011).
Stress often strikes without warning. Imagine being 21-year-old Ben Carpenter, who experienced the world’s wildest and fastest wheelchair ride. As he crossed a street, his wheelchair handles got stuck in a semi-truck’s grille. The driver, unaware of the mishap, took off down the highway, pushing the wheelchair at 50 miles per hour! “It was very scary,” said Ben, who has muscular dystrophy.
In this section, we take a closer look at stress—what it is and how it affects our health and well-being. Let’s begin with some basic terms.