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Stress occurs when we are faced with a situation or demand that is beyond our personal and social resources and control. When we encounter situations that seem to be beyond our knowledge and capacity to find solution to it, the result is stress. So there is hardly any single person who has not gone through one form of stress or the other in his or her life time. As a fact, one study showed that around 89 percent of respondents in a research, faced one chronic form of stress or the other during the course of their lives.

Our reaction to stress and what makes us open to it could be determined by several conditions like;

1. Genetic trait,
2. Personality,
3. Early childhood encounter and
4. Inflammable diseases like arthritis.

Our response to stress can largely be determined by our childhood life, especially if it is traumatic, it can affect our ability to cope with stress. Also the environment in which a child is brought up is also a determining factor on how we respond to stress. A child brought up in a serene environment may respond to stress in a calmer and more proficient way when they became adults, than a child brought up in a environment that is anxiety packed and fearful on a regular basis. Thus they are more susceptible to diseases caused by stress.

Personality traits can also lead to been highly prone to stress related diseases. It may cause you to overreact to events that you felt are threatening. Genetically, if the regulation of serotonin, a chemical of the brain that regulates how comfortable or uncomfortable we feel, is not normal and is low in production, our response to stressful event could be fierce.

The most vulnerable group of people to diseases caused by stress are;

1. mothers who work,
2. people who are ostracized and discriminated against,
3. young adults,
4. the unemployed,
5. those who live in the city,
6. divorcees,
7. widows and widowers, and
8. women in general.

There are so many stressors around us that can make us susceptible to stress related disease. For the young people, especially the ladies, they are susceptible to stress arising from break or upheaval in a so much cherished relationship, resulting in depression. Parents care for their child could also determine how low or high their stress hormones will be. A child that is cared for and loved would have lesser stress hormones. Unsatisfactory grades in school and loss of parents could be a strong source of stress for boys.

Another group who are highly vulnerable to stress related diseases are those who have responsibility of taking care for members of the family who are ill. It could be a special need child or temporal sick person or persons with terminal disease. It gets worst when there is not enough money to keep the patient and the nurse going and probably living with the patient all alone. This could result in serious heart diseases and heightened form of depression.