LIFE is full of incidents, each with variable potency to cause stress (and illnesses). Even the absence of occurrences can be stressful – picture the clerk not having anything on the “in-tray”, quite under-utilised and soon experiencing the stress of boredom.
More commonly, we associate stress with excessive responsibilities, often over a period of time, or a sudden overwhelming dose of angst. Examples include the sudden loss of a spouse in an accident, or the vexatious tribulations brought on by long standing marital disharmony, or bringing up a delinquent teenage child. Not to mention difficulties at work (with traffic jams, cranky bosses, supersensitive colleagues, backstabbing peers in the corporate corridors) plus domestic worries (overdue mortgages with escalating interests, maid servants who run away, difficult in-laws, etc).
