Self Help

During the holiday season - Christmas, Hanukkah and others - people will often experience elevated levels of stress. But it need not be so.

Being placed in situations that demand the impossible almost inevitably lead to stress. Unrealistic deadlines to meet useless goals, enforced by unreasonable managers - are an all too common scenario. But individuals who find themselves in such circumstances still have options.

The phrase ’stress at work’ has a dual meaning. On the one hand, it simply refers to stress experienced while on the job, usually because of some aspect of it. On the other hand, it can mean that stress is at work on you - stress is working on you, and usually in ways that are extremely unpleasant.

In the fast-paced world nearly everyone lives in today, stress is an ever-present possibility.

Though some of the effects of stress are still hotly debated within the medical and psychological communities, there are some that are broadly agreed on.

Whether you have a spouse, a domestic partner or just someone who is the current live-in love of your life, living with someone close can cause stress.

Contemporary society presents many circumstances that can encourage stress for teens. One of the chief potential stressors is often found right at home: parents.

As with raising children, dealing with pets can be stressful. But often the situation is exactly the reverse: having pets frequently provides one of the best stress relief mechanisms around.

Some effects believed to be linked to stress have not been borne out by research.

Few things in life can lead to chronic stress as readily as parenting.

Who hasn’t stressed over money? Some will reply: ‘those with a lot of it’. That’s an easy conclusion to draw when you are wondering how to make the mortgage payment. But the fact is that many people with large amounts often worry about it more.

Regular exercise is one great way to deal with the symptoms of stress. Combining a proper diet with that makes for a terrific, positive addition.

Exercise helps relieve stress. That’s a fairly common sense belief these days, but it is also one backed up by a lot of careful scientific research.

‘She drove me to drink’ used to be a popular phrase. Its essential meaning is that stress induces people to consume alcohol. While it’s true that stress can be an incentive to drink, it’s equally true that heavy alcohol consumption causes stress.

Short-term symptom relief and long-term cures for chronic stress are possible. But there are many common strategies employed that are counter-productive. There are a million ways to go wrong. Here are some of the more typical errors.

To deal effectively with chronic stress - the type that is severe and long-lived - it’s necessary to examine its twin roots.

No doubt it’s impractical to try to ‘cure’ stress in the sense of eliminating all occurrences. But there are several practical short-term and effective long-term strategies for minimizing it and its effects.

Many writers will offer suggestions about how to manage stress. But wouldn’t it be preferable to conquer it altogether? Here are a dozen things to try to do just that.

Stress is now being described as the 21st century syndrome. The high paced life and competition in every field are held responsible for stress. There is no cure for stress. However, there are numerous ways available for people to fight stress.

Stress and depression have a symbiotic relationship in most people. They plunge into a state of depression whenever negative stress manifests itself. This can happen to them at any time of their lives.

The best way to combat stress is to draw up a stress management plan. The plan should deal with the physical, mental and emotional aspects of stress and the disorders they cause.

Traditional methods like yoga, acupressure and body massages have been used for ages to relieve people of stress. These methods provide a more holistic form of treatment and do not produce side effects.

The symptoms of stress can be physical, emotional or relational. That is why each symptom calls for a different approach.

Stress has often been mistaken for general fatigue or tiredness. However, stress is a serious problem and often requires medical attention. Most medical experts describe stress as an excessive physical, mental or emotional pressure that an individual faces during the day.

Alternative therapy like Naturopathy, Aromatherapy, color therapy, Yoga, Acupressure etc. are gaining popularity as effective means to treat stress and related disorders. These therapies use natural ways to treat stress.

Most parents don’t realize that with time their child grows into a teenager and wants to live life in his own way. The hormonal changes that occur at this time makes the teenager more testy. His own expectations add to his stress.

The best way to treat stress and its related problems is to manage it effectively. There are numerous ways through which stress can be dealt with.

Job stress is a fall out of the industrial revolution. It has produced a work culture where people are forever struggling to stay ahead of others. This has created a situation of continuous exertion and stress – a situation that poses a threat to the physical and mental well being of an individual.

Stress affects our basic physical, mental and emotional capabilities, and makes us feel unhappy and dissatisfied with ourselves. Its effects can be felt both in the short term and over the long term.

Sometimes stress can be mistaken in children as childish behavior. This may not always be true for children too can be affected by stress. In fact negligence from the side of the parents can result in long term stress problems that a child will carry into adolescence and later in his adult life.

Stress is a commonly misunderstood subject. People have varied notions regarding the causes and symptoms of stress which are sometimes untrue. It is important to understand that the causes and symptoms responsible for stress are completely individualistic in nature.

Stress is caused when there is an energy imbalance in the body. It can be caused due to the day to day pressures of living or on account of a traumatic incident. This can be diagnosed in the form of emotional distress, abdominal disorders, cardiac ailments or migraine.

Yoga is an ancient Indian science which is very useful for relieving stress. It uses asanas (postures), dhyana (concentration) and pranayama (breathing exercises) to help an individual to get rid of stress. All these methods aim at balancing the body and mind together.

In several children the stress effect can be traced to physical abuse or emotional isolation in their early lives. Most of these children are unequipped to handle stress even when they become adults.

There are basically three types of stress that can be experienced by a person. They are: acute stress, episodic acute stress and chronic stress.

Almost every student leads a life of stress. This is a result of peer pressure, parental pressure and an individual’s own ambitions. All these combine to create a situation where a student may act irrationally at times.

Sound therapy, music, neuro linguistic programming, craniosacral therapy and walking are new methods that are being used to combat stress. These are all alternative techniques that have been scientifically tested, and work as effective tools in stress management.

The most common drugs that are used for treating stress are antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and anti-anxiety drugs. All these drugs stimulate the release of endorphins in our body that enhance the feel good factor. They make us feel more relaxed and in better control of our emotions.

Stress has an adverse affect on your health. Among other things, it can cause sleeplessness, anxiety and frustration. But these are only indicators of the things to come. In the long run, stress can cause chronic disorders that can affect your physical, emotional and mental well being.

Anyone who has just entered home after braving the peak hour traffic can tell you what road stress is. Blaring horns, traffic jams, careless motorists and casual pedestrians are few of the many causes of road stress.

Stress is part of the lives of all students. It starts with the high expectations that all parents have for their children. This can amount to great pressure and strain on the child who may find it impossible to meet the expectations of his parents.

Pets are a great company to have in our homes. They liven up the atmosphere with their exuberance and enthusiasm. Studies have revealed that pets can act as great stress busters and buffers as well.

Nature has equipped our body with stress hormones like cortisol to fight stress. These are released whenever the body faces a stressful situation, making the individual alert and focused, and better positioned to fight stress.

Identity crisis, workplace stress and the hyped up mid life crisis are the three major reasons for stress in men. Most of them find it difficult to cope with these crises. They especially find it difficult to come to terms with failure, and are more prone to depression and physical ailments like hypertension and insomnia.

Domestic responsibility, parenting a child, demanding work life, and menopause are few of the many causes of stress in women. This is not surprising. A woman is loaded with responsibilities.

The root cause of all stress related problems stems from problems in relationships. Almost any relationship can be a cause of stress. Marital conflicts and inconsistencies in official relationships are common causes of stress.

Your life each day can be viewed as a stream of connected events - some positive and some not so positive.

Psychological and physical disorders associated with stress are associated with chronic stress and exhaustion.

The following are some herbal suggestions for stress control and amelioration:

Simple as it may seem, there can be great value in sitting down, perhaps with a piece of paper for taking notes, and asking yourself some questions: Why am I uptight and stressed out? What, specifically, is causing my stress?