home  stress strategies

Stress Management

There are 3 primary stress-management strategies:
Coping, Cooperating and Changing.

COPING STRATEGIES are basically self-management. They use your personal strength and self-awareness. They are personal ways to deal with stress, they are your first line of defense. Some examples are:

Eating well balanced meals.
Self-awareness.
Letting-go, relaxation techniques.
Vigorous, regular exercise.
Time management.
Setting your priorities.

COOPERATING STRATEGIES use support systems. The act of playing or working with others is usually supportive and rewarding. Your support system can be very close, personalized friends, or a larger social circle. Some examples are:

Alcoholics Anonymous et. al.
Civic organizations
Role models
Professional organizations
Family members
Friends
Recreational / social groups
Church groups
Clubs

CHANGING STRATEGIES have to do with taking a good look at your situation and doing something about it. These strategies require you to modify something about yourself in a major way. Some examples are:

Seeking professional help
Becoming assertive
Redefining what stress means to you
Expressing your feelings openly
Changing the situation
Changing your values, beliefs and/or attitudes
Expanding your life outside the job
Becoming a part-time worrier

You react to stress in 3 ways: psychological, physical and social.

PSYCHOLOGICAL: How you react to stress in this area depends on your personality, your environment, your support network and your previous experiences. Here's some common psychological reactions, broken down into two sub-categories: emotional and mental.

Common emotional reactions include: Depression, Fatigue, Anxiety, Panic, Frustration, Guilt, Anger, Apathy, Irritability

Common mental reactions include: Forgetfulness, Disorientation, Preoccupation with a particular fear, Inability to concentrate, Accident proneness, Difficulty getting work done or in getting around to things

PHYSICAL: How you react to stress in this area depends on your physical condition, your diet, your health, your nutrition and your biological makeup. Common PHYSICAL reactions include:

Headaches
migraine headaches
fatigue
increased awareness of minor aches and pains
Loss of appetite
increased appetite
ulcers, upset stomach
stiff muscles/joints

SOCIAL: How you react to stress in this area depends on your upbringing, your social and communication skills, the depths of your strongest relationships, your personality, your self-awareness, your environment and your previous experiences. Common SOCIAL reactions include:

Withdrawing: not wanting to see friends or meet new people
Denying there is a problem to others
Not wanting to stop and take a breather, unwilling to self-assess; being too busy, hoping that if it is ignored it will go away
Overreacting to little problems or situations with others
Developing a short temper with others
Not having balanced relationships with others, all give or all take

If you look closely at these lists, and you wanted to argue a point with me, you are very observant. The old 'which came first the chicken or the egg' syndrome can be found here. Did these symptoms come about because of stress, or where they life-style habits that brought about the stress? It's a wonderful gotcha, and shows how important it is to be aware of what we are discussing. It doesn't matter what caused what, because, once you are caught up in it, and don't take action to get out of it, you are in what seems to be an endless cycle. I don't really care which came first once I am stressed out. I want to end the discomfort of stress. I want to maximize the benefits it has for me. That's why I study the reactions and the causes, to see where there may be a link to break. Hey, if you have used the coping strategies and the cooperating strategies and some changing strategies and have not yet improved, the answer is simple (to an outsider): GET PROFESSIONAL HELP!

To look over your own reactions to stress, and how YOU have dealt with it in the past, that you may be better armed for it in the future, go to the next page.