No, ulcers are NOT caused by stress.

They have been shown to be caused by the bacteria Helibacter pylori (generally detected thru a breath test), NSAID use, and frequent vomiting.

Some ulcers cause no pain (and even symptoms) until you have a serious problem like ulcer perforation. These are called silent ulcers. The ulcer I had that perforated and required emergency surgery was a silent ulcer. I had ZERO symptoms. I didn't even know it was there until it perforated. Even then, I had a slight pain at first that I took for a minor cramp and it actually went away long enough for my H to go to work and start teaching his classes at school, then the pain came on SO strong. I was only 5-10 minutes away from fighting thru the pain & driving my daughter to school. If I had done that, I know I would have come home, dropped my purse (containing my cell phone) by the front door, gone to bed, passed out and probably died. I had 4 hr. between first onset of pain and passing out. They told me without emergency surgery I would have been dead in 8 hr. from onset of the initial pain.

Thank GOD my elementary school daughter was capable of calling H's school and relaying an urgent message thru the secretary to ring H's phone during class. H got home and I passed out before he could take me to the hospital. So he called an ambulance and I had surgery to repair the perforation and the recovery was extremely painful, so painful morphine did not even touch it. (Plus, morphine made me hallucinate.)

Ulcers are NOTHING to mess around with.