Stress is a normal part of life. Psychologist Richard S. Lazarus proposed the idea that all humans need a manageable amount of stress in their lives to develop a healthy psyche.
But when our stress response becomes prolonged, or constantly triggered, things start to become problematic.
What is stress?
Stress is a natural human response to situations or factors which are perceived to be threatening or difficult to manage. Stress can be caused by internal or external ‘stressors’:
- Internal stressors include our feelings and expectations.
- External stressors arise from the environment and events taking place around us.
A healthy stress response develops quickly when required, in proportion to the provocation, and then fades away when no longer required. When stress is triggered in this way, it can be helpful for our survival and serves to enhance motivation and productivity.
What types of stress are there?
1) Acute stress
Acute stress is the most common. It is usually related to events which have occurred in the recent past, or that you anticipate will happen shortly. Examples of acute stress may include being involved in a recent altercation, or a deadline at work you are expecting.
An isolated episode of acute stress may lead to muscle tension, headaches or an upset stomach. But if you regularly experience acute stress, things can quickly become much more serious.
2) Episodic acute stress
If you regularly experience episodes of acute stress, this is known as episodic acute stress.
The causes of episodic acute stress may be internal or external stressors:
For example, you may have a job or life which regularly throws threatening or stressful situations at you (external). Or you may perceive yourself as having insufficient time or energy to handle recent or upcoming events (internal).
For some of us experiencing this type of stress, it can become a serious threat to our health in the form of high blood pressure or heart disease.
3) Chronic stress
Chronic stress occurs when we experience long-term, ongoing stress. This is usually the kind of stress we feel we cannot escape from. It may be caused by an early-life traumatic event. Or it may arise later in life, following an event we perceive to be life-threatening. This kind of stress includes PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as experienced by soldiers and other survivors of combat, disasters, serious accidents or physical and emotional abuse.
Chronic stress is so powerful that it can permanently alter our personality, leading to heart attacks, strokes, and even episodes of violence and suicide attempts.
How to deal with stress
When it comes to dealing with stress, it is best to focus on the things that we can control. This means targeting our internal stressors, to reduce the impact they can have on any external stressors that are occurring in our lives.
Reducing the way we cope with internal stressors is not an easy process but here are some stress-relieving strategies that can help:
- Concentrate on solutions rather than problems: Focussing on how insurmountable a problem is will almost always make you feel worse. Instead, concentrate on solutions to the problem rather than the challenges themselves.
- Keep a positive state of mind: The more negative you are, the more negative everything seems to be. How we perceive the world around us dictates how we feel and studies have demonstrated the power of positive thinking in stressful situations.
- Look into stress relief: There are several stress relieving products available today, from pocket therapists and relaxing soundtracks to more advanced technology including neurofeedback and brain entrainment devices.
- Consider meditation, yoga or Pilates: Many different approaches can teach you appropriate relaxation and body awareness skills. With practice, these disciplines can help you bring your stress levels under control.
- Consider talking therapies – there are support groups available or 121 with various online or face-to-face local therapists – Walnut Grove can help direct you to some local practitioners.
- Acupuncture, Osteopathy, Homeopathy and Holistic therapies such as reflexology can help with the symptoms of stress from blood pressure to musculoskeletal problems or just help you to relax to be able to deal with situations more positively.
No matter the cause of your stress, deciding to act is the first step on your way to living a happier life. Whatever you do, don’t just sit there and suffer in silence.
