Q: I feel so distressed that I have recurrent thoughts of suicide or death. Is this stress? What should I do?

A: You should seek care or crisis intervention immediately. These types of thoughts are more indicative of a depressive disorder than stress, but your health care professional can assess your situation, give you a diagnosis and recommend a course of treatment.

Q: What causes stress?

A: What causes a person to experience stress is different for different people; what may be one person's stressor can be an exciting motivator to another person. However, this doesn't mean one person is weak and the other is strong.

Some common causes of stress are changes in your life like marriage, divorce, a new job or the birth of a child; trauma or crises, like illnesses, death of a loved one or a traumatic event like a burglary; excessive demands on you and your time; conflicts or unpleasant people; small daily hassles; barriers that prevent you from reaching your goals; feeling little control over your life; and boring or lonely work.

Q: Sometimes when I feel stressed out, I feel a pain or tightness in my chest. What is this and what should I do?

A: You need to seek care immediately to rule out heart disease or to begin treatment for any heart-related illness you might have. While you might not have a physical illness, you do need to have this symptom diagnosed. If you don't have a serious illness - rather the stress in your life is causing this symptom - you need to address this issue so your health doesn't deteriorate further.

Q: Who's most likely to suffer from stress?

A: Those most likely to report frequent mental stress include younger adults; women in general and working mothers in particular; divorced or widowed individuals; the unemployed; and those on low incomes.

Q: What are the effects of stress?

A: Stress can cause symptoms of a variety of physical and mental illnesses and make you more susceptible to other illness. Some specific symptoms of stress include feeling anxious, depressed or irritable; stomach upset, diarrhoea or appetite changes; muscular tension; headaches; mental or physical fatigue and apathy; sleep disturbances; and frequent minor illnesses.

Q: Can I avoid stress?

A: You probably can't completely avoid stressful situations, but you can alter your reaction to those situations, resulting in far fewer physical symptoms of stress and negative results.

Q: Are there treatments for stress?

A: While you can't necessarily control the events that cause you stress, you can control how you manage the stress. Cognitive-behavioural methods, a form of psychological treatment that is used to help you substitute desirable responses and behaviour patterns for undesirable ones, are the most effective ways to reduce stress.

These methods include identifying sources of stress and then altering or avoiding these circumstances; restructuring your priorities and goals; and adjusting your responses to stress by discussing your feelings, keeping your perspective, looking for the positive and using humour. In addition, learning relaxation techniques - the natural unwinding of the stress response - can be helpful.