Most people who describe stress use four basic terms – acute, chronic, eustress and distress. I found that these terms, alone, fell short of truly being able to help us understand stress. The reason for this is that not all stress is bad and some stress is even desirable. Leaving the description at these four simple terms left me with a very unbalanced sense of stress. To solve this problem, I have outlined the different types of stress into four quadrants.
Try to imagine a box with four equal squares. The upper left corner is quadrant one and is colored green, the upper right corner is quadrant two and is also colored green, the bottom left corner is quadrant three and is colored yellow and the bottom right corner is quadrant four and is colored red. The Four Quadrant Stress Grid uses the simple, well-known color-coding system of the stoplight to rate stress according to its level of danger. Green means good or go, yellow means proceed with caution and red means stop or bad.
To understand the grid fully, we must first understand the basic terms used to describe the different types of stress.
Glossary of Terms
Chronic
? adjective: being long-lasting and recurrent or characterized by long suffering ("Chronic indigestion")
• adjective: having a habit of long standing ("A chronic smoker")
Acute
? having or experiencing a rapid onset and short but severe course ("Acute appendicitis")
• adjective: extremely sharp or intense ("Acute pain")
Eustress (Good Stress)
? stress that is deemed healthful or giving one the feeling of fulfillment
Distress (Bad Stress)
? great pain, anxiety, or sorrow; acute physical or mental suffering; affliction; trouble.
• a state of extreme necessity or misfortune.
Quadrant One: Chronic Eustress
Quadrant One is known as Chronic Eustress or long lasting, recurrent good stress. This is by far, the very best of the types of stress out there.
This quadrant should be every person's goal in life. To achieve total and permanent health and wellness, we should all work as hard as possible to stay in this quadrant. Be creative, be aggressive and be consistent because this is the quadrant where "real" quality of life exists.
If things happen, in life, that temporarily take you out of this quadrant, then that is OK, but every effort should be made to deal with the problem and get back to quadrant one as soon as possible.
Words like fun, happiness, peace, joy, laughter, spirit, and love exist in this quadrant. When we are in a state of chronic eustress, our bodies have very high levels of the feel good hormones like Dopamine and Oxytocin. These hormones make it possible for us to have high levels of self-esteem and to have really strong relationships in all areas of your life, whether they be romantic, parental or work-related.
If you have been married a long time and the shiny newness has worn off, all you need to do is get into this quadrant again and it will feel like a honeymoon all over again.
Quadrant Two: Acute Eustress
Quadrant Two is known as Acute Eustress or rapid onset, short, intense good stress. On a 'types of stress' scale of 1-10, with 1 being bad and 10 being good, this quadrant sits at about 6-7.
When you get some really fantastic news or you are engaged in a feel great workout or when something really wonderful happens to you, you experience this kind of stress. The body is temporarily, intensely and quickly flooded with feel good hormones like Dopamine and Oxytocin.
This type of stress is desirable and it does a body good to experience this type of stress often.
Quadrant Three: Acute Distress
Quadrant Three is known as Acute Distress or rapid onset, short, intense bad stress. As far as types of stress go, this one is no fun but is not terribly dangerous and in fact it can save your life.
This type of stress happens when we feel shocked or threatened and our fight or flight stress response system kicks into gear. Our bodies are flooded with emergency response hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones allow us to be alert and have increased strength, endurance and energy, thereby allowing us to respond to imminent danger.
This type of stress comes from things like a car accident or if you are attacked or if you feel extreme fear. While this type of stress is classified as a bad stress, it is not dangerous because it does not last a long time and the body will wash away these extra hormones when the danger or threat has passed. This stress helps us to survive.
Quadrant Four: Chronic Distress
Quadrant Four is known as Chronic Distress or long lasting, recurrent bad stress. This is by far the worst of the types of stress in our lives.
Chronic distress is the cause of most peoples' problems. With this kind of stress, your body is constantly flooded with emergency response hormones like Cortisol and Adrenaline. When your Endocrine System is over-used to this extent, things begin to malfunction.
It's just like your Pancreas, which becomes worn out when we constantly over use it by spiking our blood sugar several times each day. Your Pancreas was never intended to process that much sugar and your Endocrine System was never intended to process that much hormonal activity.
When we stay in a state of chronic distress all the time, we overproduce the emergency response hormones and we, significantly, under-produce the feel good hormones.
Every effort should be made to get out and stay out of this quadrant at all cost. Do whatever you have to do. Change your expectations, change your job, get out of a bad relationship, ask for help, pray to a higher power if you need to, but get out of this quadrant NOW!
If you stay here for long, you will develop Panic Attacks, Anxiety, Depression, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and a whole host of other illnesses. Oh and by the way - you will very likely gain a lot of weight and get very fat. All these diseases and problems come from a messed up Endocrine System just the same as Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome come from a messed up Pancreas.
Staying here will kill you and long before this quadrant gets around to that, it will more than steal your quality of life. So get out now, while you still can and stay out.
For more information or to see a graphic image of the 4 Quadrant Stress Grid, please see
Types of Stress.