Introduction
Stress is a common experience in modern life. It is our emotional response to
demands that are made of us by others, by outside events, or even by
ourselves. Feeling over-burdened at work, reacting to a major life event or
coping with a difficult situation we were not expecting are some examples of
things people report as causing a high level of stress.
Humans are good at problem-solving, it is something we engage in without
even realising it and short-term ‘stress’ can be healthy as it can help us meet
daily challenges and motivate us to reach our goals. Some people are able to
accept the inevitability of stress in day-to-day life and resolve it as it arrives.
For other people stress is a continuous and intrusive problem and can
sometimes be out of proportion to the event. It can reach such high levels that
it interferes with everyday life and can disrupt relationships with others. Stress
can lead to a feeling of despair and can provoke a strong physical reaction
from the body. If stress is prolonged it may even lead to illness.
This manual is designed to help you develop a good understanding of stress.
It will explain how life style alterations and changing the way you think about
things can be used to reduce the stress reaction. It will also describe techniques
of relaxation that can be used to reduce the physical symptoms of stress.
Contents
Education about stress
Introduction
What Is stress?
Identifying the components of stress
Strategies to cope with stress
How to cope with daily hassles
Time management
Being assertive
Balancing competing tasks
Social support
Taking care of yourself
Relaxation
Summary
Section A
Section B
Section C
Page 3
Page 7
Page 31
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Section A: Education about stress
What is stress?
Stress has become a very widely used term, however not everyone agrees on
how to define it.
Stress consists of:
Negative stressful event
You may have a single major stressor. This could be a negative stressful event
such as receiving a large bill, or having a pressing deadline at work. This is an
objectively stressful event, however the way you see the event may have an
impact on how much stress it creates. You may perceive this event or situation
to be very overwhelming and outside of your control, which would increase
the amount of stress which it placed on you.
Number of smaller difficulties
You may have a number of smaller difficulties which all add up to a large
amount of stress. These could be concerns in different areas of your life, such
as your children having school difficulties at the same as you having trouble
maintaining a relationship. Other things which might build up your stress level
could be commuting to work; working/living in a noisy building; work taking
place outside your house or having visitors to stay. Stress can be measured to
some extent by the amount of changes that have taken place in your life
recently. How you react to these changes can have a big impact upon how
much stress they create. Stressful life events do not necessarily have to be
negative events.
Stressor
The life change or extra demand, which causes problems
Perception
How you view ‘the stressor’, and see it as relating to you
Response
The way your body, behaviour and thinking patterns change
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Some examples of potentially stressful life events are:
Getting married
•
Moving house
•
Christmas
•
Retirement
•
Starting a new job
•
When stress becomes a recurring problem in people’s lives other areas suffer as
well. With constant stress looking after your physical health becomes less of a
priority. Less time can be found to take regular exercise or enjoy sports and
activities that you may otherwise have become involved in. In an attempt to
reduce stress people often indulge in things such as alcohol, smoking, drinking
large amounts of coffee or eating fast foods; which can be bad for our health
and effect us physically.
When stress becomes such a large part of our lives it can change the way we
think about ourselves; the world in general and our future and we start to
view these three areas in a more negative way,. This in turn adds to our stress.
If the cause of our stress appears to be inescapable then our future can seem
very difficult and further stress will seem unavoidable and indeed, never
ending.
Having less physical and mental resources to draw upon due to the effects of
stress, means that your emotional state can become more erratic. You may find
that you become tearful when you would otherwise have been able to cope.
Emotional reactions to events and situations may be more extreme if you are
suffering from stress. Things that would have made you slightly anxious or
upset now seem to cause great anxiety or deep sadness.
Think about the past year, what were the three most stressful events in your
life? Make a note of these stressors in the box below and in the column record
whether they were major causes of stress, smaller repeated difficulties that
were adding to your stress, or a positive event that you also found stressful.
1.
2.
3.
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