I don't like the title of the article either. I very much doubt "mentally strong people" even know those things about stress. People just react and some handle it better than others. There are lots of studies that say some people are more predisposed to handle it better than others. So called "type A's".

I think I know both types. I think there is a huge difference between stress and pressure. When I am doing really good I am naturally predisposed to handle pressure very well. I have been a plumbing foreman on big construction jobs most of my life. There are the pressures of time schedules, making money for your owner, managing others. Mostly it was about getting things done fast and I had small crews. There was always initial stress but I had a good crew and we would take it as a challenge and a game and it was fun because we performed and could feel good about ourselves. If we were not going to make it we worked lots of overtime to do it. I would not call that stress at all. There were not stress hormones raging through my body. It was fun, you got into it. Of course mistakes were made. Sometimes very costly ones. We learned to say whats done is done and lets find a solution. All the trades worked together to resolve issues. Everyone makes mistakes. Same with so called multi tasking. When I am doing really good I am good at it. Its not really multi tasking it is juggling 10 things in your mind, organizing them, prioritizing them, and tackling one at a time completely and moving on to the next. It comes natural and is nothing I earned or says I am stronger than others. I suppose I can take credit for learning from mistakes and becoming a better foreman and plumber. It really was because I had some natural talents and intelligence that put me in a position to learn. I had opportunities. Doesn't make me stronger or better than anyone.

Then there are the times when I feel the pressure but don't have the confidence that I can perform. This occurs when I am moderately to severely depressed. Sometimes when the depression is not horrible I can bull my way through it but I feel the stress. There are definitely stress hormones raging through my body. Times when I am severely depressed is when it is the worst. Some of those pressures are real and some I put on myself. They create a lot of stress and anxiety. I have no confidence so I stress out on how I am going to get certain things done. Even taking a shower. That is when I how I am thinking about it can make a difference. That is when my therapist can help. If I can live just for today and not think about the future it reduces the stress. If I can divide tasks into very small bite size chunks that maybe I can handle it reduces stress. If I realize I do have choices even though they may not be ideal and really they are sucky choices at least I have some choices and that reduces stress. The worst one for me is thinking about an uncertain future and how is it even possible things will work out for me with the horrible depression i am dealing with. That causes be a bunch of anxiety and even paranoia and makes things worse. So how I think about things and perceive them and changing that does make a huge difference in reducing stress. Doesn't make the depression go away but makes coping much easier.

There are many studies that show that having stress hormones raging through your body for extended lengths of time wreaks havoc on you in all kinds of ways. I don't think people who operate good under pressure have that, they just naturally work good under pressure.