Though stress mostly has negative connotation, I have heard about a story in where stress removes another stress.
When fishes, alive ones, are delivered from the harbor to the inner city, they are usually place in a tank with another kind of fish that actually eat them!
If only those fishes are placed in a tank, they all die from the stress of being confined in a small place so long.
However, when a predator is presence, those fishes feel another form of stress, being unsafe, that they do not die from the stress of travel.
Unfortunately, I have so source about this story to say "this is a true story."
Yeah I agree with you. I have heard the fish story too and it was interesting that the caught fish were actively alive with a predator fish in the same tank. I think that even though stress may influence our life negatively, it is something essential. Certain amount of stress indeed motivates us to work hard. For example, being afraid of failing courses makes students to study for finals.