When can you know the difference between experiencing beneficial stress and harmful stress?

For me, beneficial stress is stress that helps me get things done, and harmful stress is stress that stops me from getting things done. If I find myself "paralyzed" by it as opposed to spurred into action by it, I know I need to change something.

Beneficial stress actually makes your bpdy more alert and is your natural reaction to what you instinctively know is going to require more attention and higher performance by you. Harmful stress does the opposite: it overloads you and hinders the way you function to a great extent.

I think you can easily know that by reflecting on how they affect you. In case, it is what you have called the "beneficial" stress, you will feel anxious, but you'd know that you can handle it. You'll perform well in the task as well. However, as soon as the situation goes out of hand, where you're not able to derive any positive emotion, the stress becomes harmful.

I like to think that beneficial stress is the stress that pushes you to write your paper in one night. But harmful stress is maladaptive, so it interrupts your functioning and daily activity such as being too stressed to complete homework, go to work, etc.

If you're experiencing beneficial stress, you'll most likely feel motivated to work hard and do well to meet your deadline etc. If you're experiencing harmful stress, it will most likely make you feel worried that you're not working hard enough. Typically people experiencing harmful stress will feel less motivated and burned out, will dread working and deadlines and feel hopeless or downtrodden when thinking about their workload or deadlines. You usually won't feel like you have enough time to sleep or relax if you're feeling harmful stress.

From what I've read, beneficial stress is something that motivates you to take action. An example would be a challenge that you really want to overcome, like a deadline or a competition. Harmful stress is something that counteracts your ability to overcome an obstacle. For example, you might stress over a deadline, and instead of thinking about finishing the project, you think about how it is impossible to finish, making you unable to finish it.

You are grateful and looking forward to the beneficial stress. Harmful stress feels like it's pulling you, instead.

Helpful stress is a sign that you care about something. It prompts you to study hard for the next test or remember your lines for the play you're in or rush to get there in time to pick up your kids. Or you're getting married and you're excited but at the same time you want everything to be "just right." That kind of stress is temporary. It goes away after you have completed the task. Bad stress doesn't go away; it keeps you up at night. It interferes with your ability to function, and it doesn't go away even after you've had some successes. Because it lasts a long time, it can lead to physical symptoms such as getting sick more often due to a weakened immune system, emotional irritability, insomnia, and irritable bowel syndrome.

If the stress is giving you the desire to shut down and ignore life then this is harmful stress. beneficial stress can be like school work, it will make your life better and help you obtain your degree.

quite easy...answer is within yourself. beneficial stress prompts you to work harder and more organized towards a higher goal, while harmful stress prevents you from performing even what should be routine.