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Does Stress Lead to Personal Growth and Resilience?

dev.to staff on March 27, 2024

What role can stress play in personal development and resilience? Follow the DEVteam for more discussions and online camaraderie! ...
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Albert Coronado

Mmmm.... Stress(REAL Stress, not just a little rush....) is very bad for your mental and physic health in short and long term. It has to a false productivity feeling, what it means that you think that you are learning, growing or working hard but you are just loosing your mind.

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Oscar

Stress helps you personally develop if that stress pushes you only a little bit outside of your comfort zone; your comfort box, if you will. It's good to be a few steps outside of that comfort box every now and then, as it helps you grow as a person and develop that personal resilience.

However, it certainly isn't healthy if your stress pushes you two bus rides and a plane flight outside of that comfort box. That "distance" is way too far and will likely lead to burnout, among other things.

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Marissa B

You described that perfectly!

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Gabriel Kanev

No, it doesn't. - If you need it as a motivator you have more problems than you think. The real motivation will lead you to your personal growth. Stress will only make you be "just" enough for X. - finishing a task, job, etc.

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Sukhpinder Singh

Stress is like the personal trainer of the psychological world. It pushes you to your limits, makes you sweat the small stuff, and sometimes has you questioning your life choices at 3 AM.

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Debajyati Dey

Great take!

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Sukhpinder Singh

Thank you! I'm glad @ddebajyati

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Drew Knab

Generally speaking, long-term stress stunts your personal growth and makes you less resilient by effecting your mental and physical health in demonstrably negative ways. On the short list: depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, and a myriad of unhealthy coping mechanisms.

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Piotr

It’s double edged sword. Working in high-stress, complex and demanding environments led to me being one of the top experts in my field. This gives me a good salary and job safety. On the other side it led me to heavy medication and years of therapy, many broker relationships, health problems etc.

Stress is not something we are supposed to be exposed to for a long time. What it does to our body very often can’t be undone. Stress doesn’t make us stronger, it makes us insensitive and those are two very different things.

If I could go back in my career, I would choose different way of working. One that would make me healthier, happier and didn’t cause chronic insomnia 🤣

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Schalk Neethling

The types of stress that paralyze you and make you want to give up at the end of a day do not. But, the stress that makes you sit up and pay attention and drives you to push just a bit harder for just a bit longer does.

No matter the form of stress though, you have to have ways to manage it and find balance. Running on adrenalin is toxic over the long haul. Everything in life is about balance. Give and take, push and pull. Find your balance and work on something that has meaning to you and fills your cup.

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22catch22

It can. It can also lead to high blood pressure, insomnia, and nervous breakdowns.