What is this Stress?

What is this thing we call stress? They say is causes so many physical problems, from anxiety to weight gain to weight loss to chest pain. Not to mention the emotional & social problems. All I know is the older I get the more stress is in my life. I thought life was going to get easier & was going to get wiser.What's with that? I guess it's just another phase of life, this middle age stress. I sure hope I can figure out how to get past this without going crazy or ending up living on streets! LOL : ) Just Keeping it real! Deb