If you experience great stress in your life on a frequent basis, you're not alone. Nowadays, stress is almost a given fact of life. Actually, a certain degree of stress can have positive effects on us. But if stress continues over a long period of time, the effects on the body can be harmful, resulting in health problems and stress-related illness, including heart attack and stroke. Stress is a normal reaction by the body to what it perceives  as a threatening situation or environment. Short-term reactions may include an increase in heart rate as well as a rise in blood pressure. A person under short-term stress may feel nervous, anxious and even experience shortness of breath. Other reactions can include a dry mouth, quick heartbeat, sweating, stomach upset and diarrhea. When stress is long-term and becomes more chronic   in nature, it can cause more serious health-related problems, including regular headaches, back pain, weight changes, sleep difficulties, changes in mood and so on. Chronic stress can also result in memory problems, including difficulty remembering new information and the inability to quickly deal with old information. No matter how your body reacts to stress, ignoring the problem can have serious health results. Not surprisingly, more women than men openly seek the help of their family doctors or other health care experts when they are experiencing stress or stress-related illness. Men are more likely to refuse to admit the problem or attempt to self-treat it, which may contribute to higher rate of drug and alcohol addiction seen in men exposed to chronic stress. There's no doubt that stress is a fact of life and is likely to remain a part of our fast-paced society. Although stress can't be completely _ , methods of dealing with stress-related issues, in my view, can be developed so that the effects of stress on the body are avoided, so people won't be so easy to suffer stress-related illness. What does the author advise people to do when stress hits them?
They should ignore it. They should learn to deal with it on their own. They should turn to drugs and alcohol for relief. They should seek more methods of dealing with it.