Stress Management Information

Stress is something which inevitably plays a role in the lives of every human, of every age group. When you see a baby crying inconsolably, it's a sign of stress. A child having a temper tantrum, two people in a heated argument, a person in the hospital after a stroke are all signs of stress upon individuals.

Stress is a part of everyone's life and is also a commonly talked about feature in our society. Most people can tell you that there is more stress placed on individuals in our culture than at any time in the past, as we strive to keep up with what we are told are ideal lives. Middle aged people are stressed as they try to make enough money, children are stressed as they try to earn good grades and keep up with a huge range of social commitments, senior citizens are stressed as they deal with medical conditions and economic worries.

There's a lot of stress around, and the strange thing is that not many people actually realize what stress is. Commonly, stress is thought to be a sort of emotion, where a person feels under pressure large or great due to life circumstances.

The actual definition of stress is at once both broader and more specific than this common definition, however. In the strictest sense, stress is considered to be the failure of a living organism to respond appropriately to any kind of threat. These threats can be emotional or physical, real or imagined. Obviously, this definition is somewhat subjective in nature, as appropriateness of response depends on the measure applied by the observer.

What does unite stress is not so much the common definition, but the commonalities of reactions to stress, in both humans and in animals. Experiments have shown that when exposed to harmful stimuli, animals react in three stages, known collectively as General Adaptation Syndrome. The stages include Alarm (recognition, in which adrenaline is triggered), Resistance (in which the subject tries to cope with the stress) and Exhaustion (the body can no longer maintain normal physical function, due to extreme resistance).

Obviously, the stage of most concern to people is the third stage, exhaustion. It is in this stage that the most harm to humans and those around them may occur, through long term symptoms as well as degenerative diseases.

The problem with stress, of course, is that it is an inevitable part of our lives. When a person is startled, what they are feeling is a stress reaction. At any point where a person comes under pressure, stress is likely to start building up. This means that in any job, marriage, relationship, or activity in which a person does not feel they have total control, the brain is likely to trigger a stress reaction.

That means it is important for everyone to understand the best ways to reduce the intensity of our bodies' reactions to stress, and one good place to start is by identifying the most common stressors in our lives. Again, it's important to note that for regular human beings, most if not all of these stressors will be impossible to avoid over the course of a lifetime, or even on a daily basis.

. Sensory: Sensory stress applies to any pressure felt due to the perceptions of the five senses touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound. Any intense input to the brain from the organs which operate these senses will be seen as abnormal and trigger a stress reaction. This can be as simple as a light which is too bright, or complex, as in reactions to a deprivation of freedom.

. Social issues: This group includes stressors brought about through the interaction between individuals. Deaths, marriage, conflict, and reactions to unendorsed behavior (being lied to) are all found in this category.

. Life experiences: Here we find the stresses which come from employment, study, poverty, depression, and so on.

As you can see from our short list above, no one can truly avoid the most common stressors. Even those who choose to isolate themselves somewhere will face the basic stressors of sensory input. The key, then, is to control both the most extreme stressors in one's life as well as enhance the ability of your body and mind to respond to stress.

Eliminating Extreme Stressors

While there may be some stressors impossible for a person to mitigate (the category of social issues containing most of these) there may be ways to tone down the stress you feel from them in your life. Talking through problems with an individual, trying a different approach in child raising, seeking new employment, and changing your living conditions are all potential ways to reduce the extreme stressors within your life, and therefore increase your body's ability to cope.

Stress Management

Precisely because few stressors can ever really be controlled by the individual under stress without just trading stress, and because stress situations are inevitable, many people opt for stress management. This term includes all practices used to decrease the reaction of the body and mind to stress, and may include any and all of the following:

. Discussion: In practical terms, this means discussing stresses with an individual apart from the situation. It may be a friend, spouse, parent, or counselor. In many situations advice will be offered, but more often than not the relief of stress occurs simply from the freedom to discuss the stressor.

. Distraction: Distraction allows an individual under stress to focus on something outside of the stressor. Taking up a hobby, exercise and meditation, music and music therapy, and cognitive therapy all fall under this category.

. Direct contact: For many, stress can be relieved through some form of direct physical contact. This is a complex approach, because not a lot is understood about why manipulating certain parts of the body results in stress reduction. Massage, acupuncture, medicine both natural and prescribed, and even sex have all been shown to reduce stress and at the same time increase a person's ability to cope with future stressors.

Stress is a natural physical reaction common to humans of all ages, in virtually all walks of life. The key to stress is understanding what it is, where it comes from, and how to increase your body's ability to deal with it.

Take these Stress Tests to find out your level of stress:

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