Stress: Can We Cope?

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person may need psychotherapy to get at the roots of his Type A behavior, while another needs nothing more than regular exercise and vacations. Just as responses to stress vary widely according to age, sex, temperament and other factors, so do the requirements for treatment to offset it.

What no treatment programs attempt to do, however, is eliminate stress entirely. Nor should they. Hans Selye made a career of studying the ill effects of stress, but he nevertheless believed it was "the spice of life." Falling in love, catching a ride on an ocean wave, seeing a great performance of Hamlet—all can unleash the same stress hormones as do less uplifting experiences, sending the blood pressure soaring and causing the heart to palpitate madly. But who among us would give them up? "A certain amount of stress is a positive and pleasurable thing," says Neurochemist Barchas. "It leads to productivity in the human race."

As the relaxation boom spreads, as corporate America learns its mantras and chronic worriers unwind their minds, the point, then, is not to escape the effects of stress, which are inescapable in any case, but to channel and control them. Between the fight-or-flight spasms of too much tension and the dullness and dormancy of too little, the challenge for each person is to find the level of manageable stress that invigorates life instead of ravaging it. —By Claudia Wallis. Reported by Ruth Mehrtens Galvin/Boston and Dick Thompson/ San Francisco