Stress Management

Stress-What is it?

• Stress means a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.
• Stress is a fact of everyday life. When people reach out for help, they are often dealing with circumstances, situations, and stressors in their lives that leave them feeling emotionally and physically overwhelmed. Many people feel that they have very little resources or skills to deal with the high levels of stress they are experiencing.
• According to the 17th-century French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) stress is influenced by modern thinking with his belief in dualism, or separateness, between the mind and body.Today, scientists recognize that mind and body are much more closely intertwined than Descartes would have imagined. Psychological factors both influence and are influenced by physical functioning (Jones, 2006; Ryffa et al., 2006).
• Stress generally refers to two things: 

1. The psychological perception of pressure 
2. The body's response to it, which involves multiple systems, from metabolism to muscles to memory 

• Stress occurs mainly due to demanding situation where people in a mood of fight & flight which trigger to cascade of hormones like Adrenaline & Cortisol leads to increase in heartbeat & blood circulation, fat and sugar mobilization for fast energy due to above mood.
• Stress is a part of life. In small quantities, stress is good; it can motivate and help to become productive. However, too much stress, can be harmful. 
• How we perceive a stress provoking event and how we react to determines its impact on our health. We may be motivated and invigorated by the events in our lives, or we may see some as “stressful” and respond in a manner that may have a negative effect on our physical, mental, and social well-being.
• Sources of Stress:

1. The Environment – the environment can bombard you with intense and competing demands to adjust.Examples: weather, noise, crowding, pollution, traffic, unsafe and substandard housing, and crime. 
2. Social Stressors – we can experience multiple stressors arising from the demands of the different social roles we occupy. Examples:deadlines, financial problems, job interviews, presentations, disagreements, demands for your time and attention, loss of a loved one, divorce, and co-parenting.
3. Physiological – Situations and circumstances affecting our body can be experienced as physiological stressors. Examples: Rapid growth of adolescence, menopause, illness, aging, giving birth, accidents, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, and sleep disturbances.
4. Thoughts – Brain interprets and perceives situations as stressful, difficult, painful, or pleasant. Some situations in life are stress provoking, but it is our thoughts that determine whether they are problem for us.

• Types of Stressors:

1. Physiological Stressors. This put strain in the body like temperature, injury, chronic diseases.
2. Psychological Stressors. These are events, situations, individuals, comments or anything we interpret as negative or threatening like not getting a baby sitter for your sick child when you cannot take time of work.

• Now the Stressors can be further divided into 2 categories by the scientists

1. Absolute Stressors. Everyone expose to them would interpret  as being stressful. Examples: Tsunami, Earth quakes etc
2. Relative Stressors. This stressors act differently in different persons. Examples: Traffic, Paying taxes etc.

• Internal stress comes from inside of us and determine our body's ability to respond to, and deal with, the external stress-inducing factors or stressors:
  • Nutritional status
  • Attitudes
  • Thoughts
  • Feelings of anger, fear and worry
  • Anticipation
  • Imagination
  • Memory
  • Overall health and fitness levels
  • Presence of illness and infection
  • Emotional well-being
  • Amount of sleep and rest you get.
• External stress comes from outside us:
  • Our physical environment
  • Our job
  • Noise – loud and constant low level noise
  • Pollution
  • Trauma
  • Injury
  • Foreign organisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi)
  • Toxins
  • Poor work conditions (not enough attention paid to ergonomics, too much noise, poor air circulation, lack of privacy, excess demands, etc).
  • Relationships with others
  • Our home,
  • All the situations, challenges, difficulties, and expectations we're confronted with on a daily basis.
• Managing stress can involve making changes in the external factors which confront you, or in internal factors which strengthen your ability to deal with what comes your way.

kids and stress
Children are a great joy and a great source of stress!

• Accept your kids for who and what they are
• Realise that you’re human and your kids know it – don’t try to be a perfect parent, partner or employee. Just try your best and ask for help. Delegate.
• Let them learn from you and then go their own way.
• Parenthood is not about control. It’s about freedom.
• Kids also have stress. They react differently to stress than do grown-ups! Be on the look-out for:
  • Changes in eating or sleeping patterns
  • Lack of need for social interaction
  • More moodiness than usual
  • Dramatic or inexplicable deterioration in academic or sport performance

Internal stress management can help to prepare your body to handle internal stressors more effectively:

• Anger management
• Healthy nutrition and using the correct food supplements to help you cope with stress
• Dealing with anger, fear and worry
• Developing a positive mental attitude
• Exercising moderately, but frequently
• Practicing daily relaxation techniques
• ealing with sleep disturbances

References:

Stress & Stress Management Produced by Klinic Community Health Centre, January, 2010

Stress basic by Psychology Today

Stress , Psychological factor, chapter 5 by Nevid

CSHS study for Stressors

Health24, Internal & external stress, 08 Jan 2009