How big a role does stress play in life?

Here is the unbroken link to that site
I agree that the more stressed you are, the more prone you are to sickness or injury. And many times stress is unavoidable, so its important to come up with good ways to wind down after a long day.

I try to avoid stress. I am stressful when I’m surrounded by people in general. I love being alone and in peace.

I’ve learned through years of therapy that I am not at peace unless there is chaos going on. I am trying to change that.

Stress plays a huge part in influencing how you react to life around you. It’s different for each person. As @digitalimpression said, it can make you physically sick. It can make you depressed, angry, or feeling helpless. You do need a way of keeping yourself in balance and you have to find it for yourself. Religion, counseling, exercise, meditation, boxing, talking to friends, are all positive ways of making it easier to cope. Then there’s overeating, yelling and swearing, kicking in doors, driving too fast, throwing things around. These are less desirable ways people try to handle the stress, although they may not realize that’s what they are doing.

It plays a bigger role than I ever thought possible.

Stress plays a HUGE role in how people succeed or fail in their tasks at hand. I have had to near total breakdowns recently and ultimately were character builders and did give me confidence to be able to do more going forward.

@Cruiser
Yes I am a survivor too, Sometimes I wish could permanently eliminate unnecessary stress.I have too many people in my life sometimes that require too many reminders. Unfortunately we only have control over what we do.
Advocating for my son is stressful.

Yes. How it effects you depends on the type of stress.

I have two basic types of stress in my life.

Performance Stress
Hitting a deadline, accomplishing tasks, learning new skills, performing on demand. For me, this is good stress. I find it motivating and often leads to a sense if accomplishment.

Worry Stress
Financial concerns, relationship struggles, parenting concerns. These are the things that keep me up at night. I consider this bad stress because it feels like it eats away at me and manifests itself physically (stiff neck, headaches).