Overcoming Stress

Vivienne Dench

Psycho-social Occupational Therapist
Counsellor and Psychotherapist
Perth Western Australia

What is stress?

In general, we experience stress when we perceive a situation as potentially difficult, when we think that the outcome is important and when we may have a strong feeling of doubt about our capability. We are concerned that we may not have the inner resources to deal with the upsetting or difficult issues in our lives.

Continual stress can be anxiety provoking and can lead to feelings of helplessness and being unable to cope. As well as feeling unpleasant, continual stress can be part of the cause of ill health. Similarly, both specific illnesses and general ill health can exacerbate stress. Because of this interaction between stress and ill health addressing our stress can assist us in managing our health and wellbeing.

The first important step in maintaining physical and psychological health is to notice when our stress levels have become uncomfortably high. Here are just a few examples of what a person could be experiencing that could indicate a high level of stress.
They could:

• have more difficulty focusing their thoughts and making decisions, or make hasty decisions which they later regret;
• be less able to concentrate and be berating themselves for not being able to achieve as much as they think they should be able to;
• be feeling tense and anxious and find that their jaw or fists are clenched;
• be more irritable with people, more cynical, suspicious or feeling under attack;
• be overwhelmed by the demands of a new job or task and thinking that they should be able to manage it; and
• be over-eating, or eating much less than usual.

What to do about it

Once we recognize that we are overloaded there is a range of stress management strategies that we can begin to implement. Some of them focus on reducing the external stressors in our lives and others build up our internal coping capacity. An effective coping strategy is one which protects against emotional upset and contributes to solving the problem.

Identifying stressors

Identifying the situations that are making us stressed can assist us to see how we can begin to make change. Small changes can make a big difference.

Reviewing priorities

Reviewing our priorities can help us use our time and energy more effectively and to know that we are putting our time and energy into what matters to us. We need enough time to rest, relax, and exercise in the ways we enjoy.

Sometimes, thinking in a different way about the issues that cause us stress may help us to understand how they came about. We can learn to accept differences between people, learn to accept our own mistakes, and allow ourselves to be in a more relaxed state of mind.

Healthy lifestyle

Regular physical exercise can relieve the tension in our muscles, relax our minds and help us sleep well. Most of us find that talking to a friend or someone who is able to listen to us helps to relieve our stress. Planning to do things we enjoy or planning for pockets of mental or physical rest in our day can ease stress and provide us with something to look forward to in the course of the day. At the end of the day, reviewing what we enjoyed and our part in it increases our confidence and knowledge of how to reduce our experience of stress.

Relaxation techniques

It is physically impossible to be stressed and relaxed at the same time. The relaxation response that we can develop by practicing relaxation replaces the stress response.

Breathing slowly, regularly and comfortably (about 10-12 breaths a minute) helps us to reduce tension and to develop a pattern of breathing we can rely on to calm and relax ourselves.

We can close our eyes and imagine a pleasant and relaxing place, maybe a place that brings back good memories. As we narrow our focus to this one task we take our attention away from the myriad other distractions in our minds and bodies.

These are just two of the ways that we can relax and calm our busy minds.

Thinking style

Thinking plays an important role in our response to stress. Our beliefs and thoughts influence what we feel as well as the intensity of these feelings when faced with a stressful event. It is often not an event in itself that causes anxiety but our interpretation of that event or negative anticipation of the event. For example, have you ever been stressed in anticipation of a phone call you have to make and you anticipate could be difficult, but when you make the call you get what you need quickly and easily.

Each of us has our habitual ways of responding to people and our environment. A therapist can assist us to discover other ways of responding to stressful situations and to integrate these new behaviors, so that they become an important part of us that we can rely on to support our ongoing sense of wellbeing.

As we build up our skills for effectively responding to stress we increase our self-confidence and knowledge that difficult situations can be managed, which in turn leads to overall reduced stress reactions.

If you would like to learn more about overcoming stress you can contact Vivienne by telephone or email.

Telephone: 0408 755 700
Email:

Vivienne Dench
Psycho-social Occupational Therapist
Counsellor and Psychotherapist
Mt Lawley Counselling
13 Alvan Street
Mount Lawley Western Australia 6050

(Main sources: www.arcvic.com.au/disorders/stress.html
www.mentalhealth.asn.au/images/pdf/Illness/Stress_Kit.pdf)

Click here to go to Vivienne Dench's page

Click here to go back to the main page