feeling worried, anxious, or under pressure about something; experiencing mental or physical tension.
From Old French 'stresse' meaning 'narrowness' or 'tightness,' which came from Latin 'strictus' (tight, drawn tight). The word originally referred to physical strain before extending to emotional worry.
Your body's stress response hasn't changed in 10,000 years—it was designed to help you escape tigers, but now it fires up when you're just thinking about a test, flooding your system with cortisol even though you're sitting safely at a desk.
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