A stressful situation can be beneficial . Athletes build up their physical strength through frequent workouts. Professional training programs build competence by straining people to their limits and slightly beyond. Emotionally stressful experiences can motivate a person to learn new coping skills. Good events in a person's life can be stressors .
Most people think of stress in only negative terms.
The fact is that any change from what one is accustomed to requires adaptation and that draws on the physical reserves of the person in a way that may lead to illness or injury. Psychological Fitness Evidence that people do not know how to handle their life stresses well is found in the wide spread use of tranquilizing substances. Research by the National Institute on Drug Abuse reveals that each year Americans obtain 57.1 million prescriptions for Valium and 15.3 million prescriptions for Librium. The health education challenge in the years ahead is teach students how to develop psychological fitness instead of turning to chemical substances. Life's best survivors gain strength from stressful experiences by learning how to handle them better the next time they occur.