Managing Stress Now » Terminology

Holiday Stress

ManagingStressNow — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:04:55 +0000

Since the good old days, we have been associating holidays to a fun filled time with our nearest and dearest.

For some it may be still the same, but for many, holidays don’t come as a stress buster. Instead they contribute towards their already stressful life. But why have the holidays lost the charm and refreshment? Why do we suddenly have to talk about holiday stress? Why do we suddenly want to run way from something that we want very badly-we crave to have a break from our mundane and monotonous routine but when get holidays we feel stressed. But its not an inborn defect that holidays have but the stress is a bi product of our attitude towards the situation we are in. Do we want to be and remain upset or get over it? We need to look and probe at all the possibilities and not the restrictions.

The season of holidays has just begun and we either are capsized or at the verge of breaking. But what is stress and why is it poking its ugly face and ruining our holidays? Well! A person feels stressed when he fails to achieve a certain thing or finds himself incapable to respond appropriately. Holiday season revolves around 4Fs-Fantasies, family, finances and food.

The media give a world of fantasies to live and we tend to get engrossed in it. We sort of overload ourselves and in the process get out of touch with reality. This over expectation without a certain cause pulls us down in our thoughts; we think ourselves as failures and away hence drift. So the best option of managing it is accepting it as a friction. Just embrace it and not cling to it, we need to discover a blend of magical realism that helps us in balancing love, work and play.

With holidays, comes the family gathering which, believe it or not, is a cause of stress for some. Thus is because we are no longer mingling with a feeling of love and affection but have turned it into a competitive arena with sibling rivalries, desire to be the best and the urge to get recognized. Though its something in which you are not the only player, but you don’t have the responsibility to change everybody. If you think you are here for a reunion and not a competition, then let it be. You are not a competition anymore and hence no stress, right?

Festive season means dwindling finances. And as Russian novelist, Dostoyevsky said, “Consciousness is depression,” this monetary consciousness heightens the stress level. Overspending on gifts, travel, food and entertainment can cause stress as we may try to please everyone. And these efforts leave us with a feeling of hopelessness, sadness and helplessness.
So it’s good to take a practical approach rather than fighting with a financial crisis later. Presents are good but keep in mind presence comes before presents.

In the holidays, we are surrounded by sweets and treats which are not energy giving and makes us feel lethargic. When our bodies are not operating at peak efficiencies we feel stressed. As Gilles Khouri, nutritionist recommends, “Reprogram your thinking. Don’t think if some is good more is better.” Hence, keep it simple-eat an apple instead of a piece of an apple pie. Enjoy the people instead of the food.

You need to cope with stress and the best way is to be realistic and set your differences aside. Try to accept what is going around and avoid the urge to change everything around. Stick to your budget and go by the plans. Take a breather for yourself to relax and mediate and follow the path of healthy habits. You need to accept that failures and find ways to resolve. Don’t try to seek perfection and you would start enjoying. Last but not the least, don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed to seek professional help.
Now is the time to prevent holiday stress and enjoy your holiday to the fullest.

Models of Stress

ManagingStressNow — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:49:15 +0000

Productive and effective management of stress includes a set of ideal techniques and methods that enable an individual to cope up with the demands of his or her surroundings. These could be external or internal, physical or emotional, and even psychological triggers. Because stress is a product of a close interaction and balance between one’s ability to acclimate to a susceptible condition, it demands the testing of such skills each of the individuals’ possesses.

The effective management of stress, can be better understood in the terms of the following models:

The Transactional Model:
Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman have put forward their theory of stress as being seen to results from an imbalance between demands and the resources an individual possesses. Stress could present itself as a reaction when one’s ability to cope with a onerous condition is overpowered by a pressure situation. In other words, stress should rather be considered as a phenomenon that inculcates due to certain shortcomings or an insufficiency of one’s resources and not just a direct reaction to a stressor.
Developed on these lines is the principle of stress management which includes identifying the factors that are specific to a person and focused on controlling his/her stress features and symptoms along with the methods that could be used to target them in a personalized manner.

Lazarus and Folkman thus devised their stress model based on the interactions of people and their environment and the management techniques that are more specifically targeted to such pertaining factors. Effective techniques for managing stress according to their model, implies that an individual can escape stress if he is capable and certain of his abilities to deal a situation. However, ideally such a pressure could in turn become a potential stressor.

Which brings us to our 2nd model, which is the Health Realization Model.
This model, which is also referred to as an innate health model, is based on a strong assumption that stress may not be necessarily associated with a potential stressor. Instead, this model emphasizes on a person’s thinking process which determines the response to any external stimuli. So as opposed to concentrating on an individual’s cognizance of stress, relative to his or her coping abilities, the health realization model suggests that the nature of thought is the crucial player in exacting a person’s stress levels.

According to this model, stress can be considered as a by-product of an individual’s assessment of oneself through mental state in accordance with vulnerability along with a negative approach. The model states that a healthy mind at peace, is a result of inner self and prudence.

This model which is rather more widely accepted, puts forward the proposition that helping an individual understand the significance of positive thinking could enable them to be equipped in handling a pressure situation in a better way.

Psychophysiology of Stress

ManagingStressNow — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:39:23 +0000

A labyrinth of mediators and a complex interaction between multiple players, defines the concept of stress, which has now become a common feature of our everyday lives. Though surprising, it is true that stress also has numerous psychophysiological components of it. Brain or our nervous system are the central organs that determine the true origin and magnitude of stress. For any external stimuli to be perceived as pressure, stress or an unusual situation, the brain has to receive the external stimuli and recognize it as a condition of stress of unusual condition, in order to evoke an appropriate response. The sensory system works in coordination with the motor and neuron functions to provide necessary stimuli which are further processed. These stressors could be of varied origins such as physical, biological, psychological, sociological or philosophical and to be perceived by the brain, they undergo a cognitive processing.

The intriguing nature of the process is that brain of each unique individual function differently and in some cases the signal might not be a true stressor, but is rather understood by the neuronal cells to be as a signal of distress. Similarly it is also possible that a particular event or a condition is associated to be a stress condition by any individual while it is just a normal scenario for another.

This may be demonstrated using a simple experiment. For instance, a group of ten students are blindfolded and are made to sit in a circle. A heavy object is now dropped in the middle, which creates a big noise and vibration. As an effect of this, it is most likely to observe that the reaction by all the students in the room would be similar, yet quite different. While the input of the signal provided in this case is the same in all the cases, it is evident that the manner, in which it is perceived by the brain and processed in the form of a response, will vary from person to person. While some of them could be startled with a jerk, some might even scream as a reflex reaction to it. It might not be surprising to spot a fraction of the group which might not be even moved by this change or loud impact. This is the extent to which a response can vary on exposure to a stress stimuli which is discernable from the usual surroundings. Also, the time of recovery for each individual could be different. While some students would subsequently show greater anticipation with the fear of occurrence of an unknown phenomenon, the rest might get back to the original state in no time.

Similar observations in unrelated scenarios has led to the understanding that stress perception and stress response are a result of a complex interplay between a person’s unique psychology along with his physiological make up.

Different Types of Stress

ManagingStressNow — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:34:17 +0000

Stress – Explored further beyond

In today’s world wherein competition to reach the top is in its most magnified form, it is not very surprising that people of all ages are subjected to some form of stress at some point of time or the other. While a high school student might be stressed out with having to cope up with too many assignments, a business executive might be facing stressful situations while having to meet deadlines with presentations and so on. It therefore becomes evident that there are many types of stress related conditions and therefore, an equal number of stress management methods. All these methods are completely subjective to the types of situations that come across.

One such method is the basic instinctive “fight your way out”. This has been researched upon and found to be an instinctive process. The works in this area have proven that when under a shock or some form of threat, the body releases some kind of hormones that help it to survive the impact. These hormones further increase the heart rate and blood pressure, delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to power important muscles. They also increase sweating in an effort to cool these muscles, and help them stay efficient.

A second method, which is more intentional than intuitive, is the adaptation syndrome. This has been found to be a longer-term solution than the afore mentioned. Vast research in different situations have revealed that when subjected to stress, there are 3 phases of reactions – an alarm phase, the intuitive combat phase and finally followed by a burn-out or exhaustion phase. All the three stages are consecutive, with the later ones arising only when the earlier ones fail.

A third method is a psychological one, wherein the way a person thinks affects the amount of stress he undergoes. Towards encountering stress, each person usually follows a two-point stage: Firstly, they feel threatened and intimidated at the situation, and secondly, they begin to doubt their capabilities to combat the situation. In short, how stressed a person can be depends hugely on psychological aspects and how they understand the resources that beat them.

Quite obviously, all the three methods mentioned above are related and a matter of consequence. Leading by an example, if the psychological stress mentioned is sustained beyond a point for a long time, it eventually leads to exhaustion or burn out. So, the food for thought at this stage is in figuring out if being stressed is a matter completely in the mindset! And remember, if you don’t want to be stressed with too much thinking, you already know the answer!

There are four main types of stress that people experience.

Eustress

This stress is positive in nature, its a short term stress that gives us with immediate strength, like an
athlete before a competition. This kind of stress arises with increased physical activity or with increased
creativity. Its generally associated with arising when the person requires motivation or inspiration.

Distress

This is a negative type of stress and is bought by a change in routine. This type of stress generally creates
feelings of unfamiliarity or in some cases discomfort. These are of two types, acute and chronic. Acute as the
name suggests lasts for a very short time period, whereas chronic lasts for weeks or months.

Hyperstress

When someone is pushed beyond what that person can handle, it gives rise to hyperstress. This generally is
common in overworked people. People under hyperstress trigger to any situation very emotionally.

Hypostress

This is the exact opposite of the previous kind, this generally happens when the person is bored or has no work.
This may also occur in people who aren’t challenged on a daily basis. For example a worker who does a repeated sort of job might get disinterested and may experience Hypostress.

Scientific and conservative definition of stress

ManagingStressNow — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:33:41 +0000

Regardless of how we may perceive it, “Stress” is an inevitable part of our lives. It is a necessary evil, which can be both, good or bad depending upon how we resolve past it in the end. While a slight stir up might keep us on track, a superfluous magnitude of stress exposure can result in complete and multi-step failure of the body’s machinery.
Coping up with stress is never an easy task as it involves managing the mental, physical, and emotional as well as the psychological aspects of it. Measuring or defining stress is thus a difficult task and over the years it has still remained an enigma in the research fraternity.

Closest to our understanding, stress remains to be seen as a closely-knit interaction between the body and the environmental factors influencing it. None of us would have an expertise in reacting to all possible demanding situations. As a human, everyone reacts with his environment, which not only involves places like home, work but also the community, country or the globe on a bigger prospective.
One may come across a myriad of situations and opportunities, which could test our dexterity. It is this unique exposure for each identity along with his or her personality that determines what mettle they are made of and how they use it in a situation.

This also determines whether the body can deal with them on ordinary terms, or it may require an auxiliary support system to come to terms with them. The impact could be varied. While one could have a mild mood swing or develop some health problems. At the same time, a similar precursor could fail to have any noticeable impact on another individual. While the response and interplay of the relationship, remains poorly understood, the conventional theory fails to take into account that small amounts of stress may have a positive effect on an individual, which could direct them towards their goals.

The scientific community, therefore views the concept of stress as a condition, rather than a cause or an effect. It is the condition in which a person discerns that the demands of the situation exceed the resources at a personal level. In this interplay of the stress factors, if the body perceives the demands as too much in excess to be able to deal it in an ordinary manner, it presents itself with a pressure response. However, if the demands are not too much in excess, the perception might act as a motivator and trigger a stimuli with enhanced virility. In the former case, the net impact, could appear in a variety of forms such as mental, physical or emotional stress. It could also in turn lead to behavioral and psychological deficiencies.
Though it may seem to be simple and evident, but the fact that makes this jigsaw puzzle further more complicated is that there are no scientific evidences till date to establish a concrete relationship between stress and its symptoms. Stress is magnanimously believed to be associated with overall deterioration of health, but the fact that there are no tests to support that, leaves it to be an assumption that is becoming more and more widely accepted.