The universal factor in the activity of SVO participants in the situation of performing extreme service and combat missions is stress. What is “stress”? The term “stress” was first introduced into physiology and psychology by Walter Cannon in his classic works on the universal "fight or flight" response. In 1946, Hans Selye began using the term "stress" to refer to general adaptive tension. Stress, following Farenberg's concept of complementarity, can be considered in two planes: mental and somatic. Each plane has its own system of categories and relationships that intersect both internally and externally. Thus, two concepts of stress are distinguished, both in the narrow and in the broad sense. In a narrow sense, the term “stress” is a set of nonspecific physiological and psychological manifestations of adaptive activity under strong, extreme influences on the body. In a broad sense, it is the psychological state of an organism when there is a discrepancy between its ability to satisfactorily cope with environmental demands and the conditions of such demands. It is worth noting that stress in the life of any person is an integral part; with its help, when an individual gets into extreme situations, the mechanism of adaptation to certain conditions is triggered. Participants in combat operations performing official and combat missions are exposed to constant stress, that is, they find themselves in a state like this called “combat stress.” The concept of “combat stress” means a complex process of multifactorial adaptation of an individual in a combat situation, the action of which causes a wide range of psychophysiological manifestations. The intensity of the experience of such stress depends on the interaction of two main factors - the strength and duration of the impact of combat stressors on the psyche of a serviceman or employee and the characteristics of the response to their effects. Such stressors are divided into specific and non-specific for a combat situation. Specific ones have an increased level of stress and include: 1. situations that threaten the life and health of a serviceman or employee;2. wounds, contusions, injuries and radiation doses; 3. death of loved ones and colleagues; 4. horrifying images of death and human torture;5. cases of death of colleagues and civilians, for which military personnel and employees attribute responsibility to themselves;6. events as a result of which honor and dignity were damaged. Non-specific events include: 1. increased level of permanent threat to life;2. prolonged strenuous activity;3. long-term dissatisfaction with basic biological and social needs;4. sharp and unexpected changes in conditions of service and life;5. severe environmental living conditions;6. lack of contact with loved ones (concerns about health, the lives of wives, children, parents)7. inability to change the conditions of one’s existence;8. intense and prolonged interpersonal conflicts;9. increased responsibility for one's actions; 10. the possibility of dying, being injured or being captured in a war that is senseless, in the opinion of a serviceman or employee. The reaction of military personnel to the impact of stressors in a combat situation depends both on their significance for each individual and on the characteristics of his coping behavior. The significance of the impact is determined individually - by psychological characteristics and personal properties, psychological and professional readiness to conduct combat operations, the nature and level of his motivation, the peculiarities of the perception of the place and role of military operations in the history and perspective of his life system. (Arzamaskin Yu.N., Bublik L.D. Moral and psychological support of the Armed Forces of Russia. - M.: VU, 2002). Low-intensity combat stress, as a rule, is effectively overcome by the majority of participants in the military defense and at the initial stage can help increase their combat activity. In the future, such.