Stress There are many definitions of stress dependant upon such things as which book you read or which discipline one works under ie. Engineer, Physicist, Psychologist etc. Because Stress can come in so many guises,it can be caused by many different things and can manifest itself in a myriad of ways, we are using the following definition for the context of this Web site:
"The emotional, physiological & psychological effects caused by a build up of either internally or externally generated mental pressure".
Mental pressure When considering what causes the mental pressure, we find that there are such a wide range of differing reasons for the varied levels of pressure build up in different character types.
Each person will react in a different way to the same set of pressure stimulants. These reactions will in some part be result of things that have happened in the past (often a result of childhood influences) and the individual character types.
Accept stress as a fact It is a fact that we do need stress - to give meaning to our lives. There can be no highs in life without some lows, life without highs and lows would be a flat line ! We all need to accept stress as a fact in our daily lives. Nobody can take your stress away from you, its your stress and there is only one person that can deal with it.
How many of these signs do you recognise?
Minor health problems (upset stomach, headache, cold, flu, pains, rashes)
Missed menstrual periods
Loss of confidence or feeling of low self esteem
Depression, feeling of hopelessness
Feeling of intense fatigue, even after sleep
Indigestion, eating disorders
Self blame, guilt, cynicism, sense of total failure
Anger and resentment at nothing in particular
Lowered sex drive
Extreme reluctance to go to work
Greater dependency on alcohol, caffeine, nicotine or drugs
Loss of appetite or eating binges
Origins of stress The origins of stress are as old as time itself - it is a function of part of our primitive brain. If we look at the times of early cave man and consider him walking across a clearing with a club over his shoulder, relaxed and happy. Just then, around the corner comes a prehistoric wild beast. As you would expect our cave man would instantly register danger and signals would be sent to the brain which we generally refer to as FIGHT or FLIGHT. That's all very well, but we no longer come face to face with wild animals and of course our "stressors" come in different guises.
What happens when stress and pressures occur? In these modern & relatively safe times, most of our stress responses are set off by our own thoughts, but it is widely accepted that we all think and imagine in one of three ways : Seeing, hearing & feeling (emotion). There are further triggers, which can come from within that consciously have no known origin and tend to manifest themselves in anxiety or panic. This is named free-floating anxiety. Once stress is triggered responses come in two forms - Chemical & Physical:
Taking positive control of stress A person who is stressed is like a car running on high tick over - we need to examine the cause(s) of the problem(s) and take a positive control of the situation and reduce that "tick over" to an acceptable level. This is done over several separate sessions in surgery on an individual basis.
