Q. How early in life can a human experience stress?

A. This is a great question and a few years ago there might not have been any answers. First, stress is simply living. Every time you ask your brain and body to do something different and new—that’s stress. When your brain and body can no longer respond to requests for change there is no stress because—you’re history. Studies suggest that humans can experience stress during gestation. Naturally the type of stress will depend on what the mother is experiencing in either her internal or external environment: Positive Eustress, Negative Distress, or Hidden Misstress.

Experiencing high levels of negative stress during pregnancy or during the first few years of life can result in the development of reactive patterns that can alter the way the brain and body respond to what the child perceives as a stressor. It can also change the way in which the brain is templated, and the child may become hyper-reactive to whatever he or she perceives as a stressful situation for years on into adulthood.

According to Dr. Al Seibert, no stress exists in any situation unless an individual human brain perceives something as a stressor and experiences strain. The stress is less the result of what occurs or exists objectively and far more because of the way in which the brain perceives what is happening. This means that stress is as unique as both your fingerprints and your brain. Its subjectivity is reminiscent of an old proverb: One person’s pleasure is another person’s pain.