Managing Stress
Positive stress can add exhilaration and joy to life. We have certain amounts of stress that we thrive on. Contests, deadlines, confrontations, and frustrations add a depth to our life. We don’t need to cut out stress; we need to learn how to manage the stress we have. If we have too much stress, we can feel swamped and not be able to do our best. An ideal solution would be to find a middle ground where we haven enough stress to motivate, but not enough to overwhelm us.
You already know you have stress in your life. You know that it is harming your physical and emotional health, what do you do about it? The general guideline for treating stress may be found in the Serenity Prayer. “Grant me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Learning to control stress is a lifelong learning process. Controlling stress will contribute to better physical health and help you meet your goals. What do you do when you find you are unable to cope with stress on your own? You may have already tried over-the-counter cures for stress related physical problems.
There isn’t a set formula of how much stress you can handle in your life. We are different and one person’s stress may rejuvenate them and keep them motivated. Another person with the same stress may feel overwhelmed and have a feeling of despair and hopelessness.
How can you manage stress? It is going to be as individual as each person. You should first decide what your stressors are and how they affect you. Pay attention to your stress. Find out what events are distressing you. Notice how you are responding to the stressful events, both physically and mentally. Do you feel sick, do you begin shaking, or have headaches?
Headaches can be treated with ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or aspirin. Stomach upsets can be treated with anti-gas aids, anti-diarrhoea medications, or mild laxatives. Over-the-counter treatments may work for the short-term, but you will probably find you will need a method that will reduce stress over the long-term. A health care professional should treat any symptoms that are out of the ordinary, wake you in the night, or get worse. A mental health professional should treat acute stress, depression, and severe anxiety.
Recognize those stressors that you can change. You won’t be able to change or remove everything that stresses you. You may be able to do something to lessen the intensity, or reduce the effect it has on your body. Maybe you could take a break, walk away from the stressful situation and find a way to release the stress and tension in your body.
A doctor should be consulted if physical problems are severe or if there are any other symptoms of depression or anxiety. Reducing stress guidelines are tailored to each individual. Stress may be so much a part of the patient’s life; it may take a trained therapist to find where the stress came from and the methods to treat it.
Most mental health professionals will use a combined therapy approach to reducing stress. You may need to remove yourself from the stressful situation. It may mean changing jobs or careers or moving out of an abusive relationship. If you want to control stress, you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary to start you on the road to recovery.
Each treatment must be designed for the individual. A treatment that works for one may not work for another person. Normally, a combination of approaches to stress is recommended. Relaxation therapy, exercise, and changing your diet may be a key to easing stress and stress-related conditions.
Your guidelines to reducing stress are as individual as you. What works for one, won’t always work for another patient. You and your medical professional can decide what therapy you need to control the stress in your life.
Managing Stress In The News
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Have you looked at how big bank stocks have done in the past few months? If so, you can be forgiven if you break into a cold sweat and start worrying about a repeat of the fall of 2008.