Throughout childhood, children can experience a variety of stressors. It is important to remember that not all stress is negative. Stress typically falls into three categories:

• positive stress
• tolerable stress
• toxic stress

Positive stress:

This is a common, routine life event that causes a temporary increase in stress levels that is quickly recovered from. Children can learn to ride a bicycle, get immunized at the doctor’s office, or go to school for the first time. These experiences are temporary and do not traumatize them.

Tolerable stress:

Stress that is regarded as tolerable refers to experiences that are traumatic and cause a child to experience significant levels of stress that last longer and take more effort to recover from. For example, you could be blessed by surviving a natural disaster or losing a loved one. As a result of these experiences, a child’s body produces a stress response that lasts longer. With the support of caring adults around them, the child’s mind and body recover from the experience.

Toxic stress:

When a child experiences traumatic life events for a prolonged period of time without adult protection, toxic stress is the result. Toxic stress can include abuse (physical, sexual, emotional), neglect (physical, emotional), and household dysfunction (parental mental illness, domestic violence, parental incarceration). This prolonged exposure to toxic events causes the child’s body to produce a severe stress response that lasts for a considerable amount of time.