In 2002, researchers compared severe acne in university students during a relatively stress-free period and during a highly stressful exam period. After adjusting for other variables such as changes in sleep or diet, the researchers concluded that increased acne severity was strongly correlated with increased levels of stress. Learning about the study, your roommate is surprised. “Acne is a skin disease,” your roommate says. “I don’t see how it could have anything to do with your mental state.” How would you weigh in on the role of stress in medical diseases? What other examples could you give of ways in which stress can affect health?

A friend of yours, who is taking a heavy course load, confides that he is feeling overwhelmed. “I can’t take the stress,” he says. “Sometimes I daydream of living on an island somewhere, where I can just lie in the sun and have no stress at all.” What would you tell your friend about stress? Is all stress bad? What would a life with no stress really be like?

One of your classmates spent the summer interning in a neurologist’s office. “One of the most fascinating things,” she says, “was the patients with psychosomatic illness. Some had seizures or partial paralysis of an arm, and there were no neurological causes—so it was all psychosomatic. The neurologist tried to refer these patients to psychiatrists, but a lot of the patients thought he was accusing them of faking their symptoms, and were very insulted.” What would you tell your friend about psychosomatic illness? Could a disease that is “all in the head” really produce symptoms such as seizures or partial paralysis, or are these patients definitely faking their symptoms?