Take Control of It
General directions about stress management
Before discussing any psychological strategies, relaxation techniques, pharmaceutical or herbal medicines, massages or water therapy, we must bring to understanding one fundamental issue: successful stress management is not about applying one or another method, or taking one or another pill; successful stress management is about dealing with a problem in general.
To deal with a problem, you must know it.
You feel "off" every morning you go to work - fine, but what exactly makes you feel that way? Is it the early waking up, or the colleagues you have to meet; maybe it is the constant fear whether you will perform well - whether you will be on time, whether all reports will be written well, whether you will make good impression on your boss… Could it be those flickering fluorescent lamps above your desk or that depressing dark yellow colour of the wall? Or maybe it is the worry that you spend so little time with your spouse/or your children? It may be a thousand more things. Unless you are clear about what exactly makes you nervous, about what makes you feel discomfort, you will never manage distress in your life. You will treat only the symptoms and not the causes.
In the moment we feel "stressed out" we hardly think about the reasons for feeling that way; afterwards we forget and subjected again to the same stressors, we feel twice as worse.
As a first step to stress management you can take time off to think about what really makes you anxious. Some psychologists suggest that you to take notes - if that helps you, it's OK. Only do not force things; do not schedule time for this; it should come as a natural process every time you have felt frustrated or anxious or nervous.
After such problem analysis you will feel great relief. You won't have solved your problem but you will have already understood what it is and will soon know how to solve it.
The next step of stress management is a systematic approach in problem-solving and perseverance.
If it turns out that we cannot deal with distress we can at least strive to diminish its negative effects as much as possible.
Only do not get too obsesses with stress management; not every stress leads to distress; deal only with stressors which are real threat for your health.
For your facility in identifying and tackling "distressors" we shall examine them in four groups, according to their nature:
Stressors
1. Environmental disturbances: sound, light, UV light, colours(electromagnetic waves), temperature, touch, etc
2. Biochemical changes in the organism - changes in PH, changes after sport activities, influence of chemical substances(e.g. caffeine), etc
3. Real events - very good or very bad news, loss of a dear person, a hassle, an exam, a fight, an earthquake, time urgency, etc
4. Emotional, triggered either by imagination or memory - worries, disappointment(as a result of unrealistic expectation), obsession, night dreams and day dreams, memories of particular event, vigilance, etc
Also: factors boosting the impact of the above ones.
Dealing with "distressors"
1. Environmental disturbances: The best you can do about them is to eliminate them. If that is not possible there is not much you can do. Distressors such as high noise, if suffered permanently, can literally "burn you out". A possible solution might be autogenous training. It however, requires long training and guidance by a qualified instructor. In certain cases, even autogenous training will not help you much - imagine there is heavy traffic on your street during night and noise disturbs your sleep - you cannot apply autogenous training while you sleep, and even during daytime you cannot spend all your time practicing autogenous training.
If you want to read more about the effects of noise on human health go to:
http://www.nonoise.org/library/whonoise/whonoise.htm#7.6.1
http://www.nonoise.org/library/handbook/handbook.htm#NONAUDITORY PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPO
http://www.nonoise.org/library/suter/suter.htm#annoyance and health
2. Biochemical changes in the organism - if you experience distress and you feel it's something going on in your body, you should seek medical help.
3. Real events - distress as a result from real events cannot be prevented at the time of the event. Preliminary (psychological) training is necessary. One effective strategy is to change our attitude towards stressors in general. Distress often comes as a result of poor preparation for an upcoming assignment. A powerful distress prevention strategy is time management.
4. Emotional, triggered either by imagination or memory:
- worries, misgivings
- unrealistic expectation/self-imposed demands, obsession
- vigilance
- fear for losing control/falling into panic
- fear from the unknown/stress caused by doing something for the first time
- fear for not being prepared
- fear what people will say
- fear not to disappoint parents/teachers; fear not to lose your reputation
- falling into greater panic after initial failure to restrain panic
- panic caused by (temporary) inability of our body to execute what our mind orders
General protection against (potential) distress
- taking care of your health
- sports
- time management
Further help
You should also consider professional help. An experienced professional, sought on time, may be of great use preventing otherwise difficult to treat conditions. Stress related disorders involve not only psychological but also many physiological problems. You may be unaware of a physiological disorder, displaying symptoms such as anxiety or mental discomfort and for such cases professional help is indispensable.
Taking care of our health: our immune system is one of the best medicaments for any disease
suggest additional material/new interpretations on the subject
Web Sites:
http://www.momapa.com/str/index.html
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Books:
Coping with shyness and loneliness, Kate Eunson and Michael Henderson
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