First published in The Hindu, 3 May 2026
The term ‘stress’ does indeed receive bad press. So much so that people deem all forms of stress as aversive and something to be avoided. In his book, 10 to 25, psychologist David Yeager says that this “stress-is-debilitating belief” is pervasive in modern societies. However, stress is an endemic feature of life that we cannot live without. Though we need to minimize acute and chronic stress, that does not imply that we banish all stress from our lives. Rather, we may learn to differentiate various forms of stress and learn how to cope with milder forms to realize our full potential.
In a video titled How to maintain healthy stress levels on Psyche, psychologist Mirela Habibovic describes the “stress spectrum” and argues that there is an optimal level of stress that we require to thrive in certain situations. The stress system exists in our bodies to warn us of dangers and is essential to our survival. For example, if you are crossing the street and a car unexpectedly comes hurtling at you, your stress response kicks in, causing physiological changes in your body that help you dash onto the pavement to safety. Likewise, when we perform a mildly stressful cognitive task, like taking a test you’re prepared for, more oxygen is diverted to your brain, helping you focus better. In fact, the term ‘eustress’ is used to describe the beneficial or healthy forms of stress.
However, if we cling on to the notion that all forms of stress are harmful, we may not experience the positive impact of optimal levels of stress because we might shun any task that’s mildly challenging. According to Yeager, we need to embrace a “stress-can-be-enhancing belief” to counter the negativity associated with all forms of stress.
While awareness of mental illness has grown considerably over the last decade or so as more people speak out about their struggles, it has had an unfortunate fallout. In Losing Our Minds, psychologist Lucy Foulkes says we have begun to pathologize “normal negative emotions and experiences.” People are quick to categorize all forms of stress as toxic, failing to differentiate eustress from distress.
According to Habibovic, problems arise when the stress system is activated unnecessarily and often. Lack of sleep, an argument with a friend, pursuing a course that you despise, a boss ghosting you, or even your own negative thoughts can trigger the stress system. Habibovic says that our stress response also gets activated when we’re not adequately stimulated, like being stuck in a boring job that doesn’t engage us. So, both overstimulation and under-stimulation can evoke a stress response in us.
Strike a balance
Stress becomes toxic when it endures for a long time and you don’t have sufficient “recovery time” between recurring bouts of stress. You know that stress has reached unhealthy levels when you enter one stressful situation after another without adequate time to reset your mind and body. This is how you fall victim to either burnout or “bore-out,” the two extremes of the stress spectrum, says Habibovic.
When you aren’t being sufficiently challenged, you are likely to be unmotivated and bored. If you are given tasks at your level that meld with your interests, you are in your “comfort zone.” Just outside this zone, when challenges stretch you slightly beyond your current capabilities, the stress levels are optimal, according to Habibovic. This is when your energy and creativity are likely to peak. But if the tasks continue to get more complicated and demanding, then you are likely to reach a state of burnout.
Habibovic acknowledges that it’s okay to be at either end of the spectrum once in a while. But, by and large, we need to pursue tasks that let us operate in the middle ranges of the stress spectrum. Foulkes concurs that we should take “sensible precaution” to minimize “dangerous or traumatic situations” but at the same time, we shouldn’t shy away from “stress altogether.”
The writer is a visiting faculty member at the School of Education, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, and the co-author of Bee-Witched.