12 Tips to Success: Recognizing & Controlling Stress

12 Tips to Success:

Recognizing and Controlling Stress

By Hoda Nassef

We all suffer a bit of stress, once in a while, and each person to a different degree, depending on his capability to cope with stress. Stress could be something new to you, triggered by worries of the recent war in Iraq, the political situation in the Middle East in general, or the skyrocketing inflation in prices of consumer goods. There could be a million other reasons to stress you out.

According to my computer ‘Thesaurus’ (or lexicon, vocabulary, word list, etc.) the word ‘stress’ has at least two meanings: the first common one means “emphasis” or “to emphasize” such as stressing a point.

The second meaning of ‘stress’ had a long list of synonyms underneath: pressure, anxiety, constant worry, nervous tension, tension, trauma, hassle. Each word, in turn, had another list of words, culminating in the following:

· Pressure: force, weight, heaviness
· Anxiety: nervousness, worry, concern, unease, apprehension, disquiet, fretfulness, angst, fear
· Worry: be anxious, fret, concerned, troubled, agonize, lose sleep, be bothered
· Nervous Tension: strain, stress, anxiety, pressure, tension, mental strain
· Tension: worry, nervousness, anxiety, stress strain, apprehension
· Trauma: shock, upset, disturbance, strain, distress, damage
· Hassle: harass, irritate, annoy, bother, get on your nerves, aggravate, disturb, stress out, agitate

How to recognise that you are under stress:

While a certain level of stress is necessary to avoid boredom, high levels of stress over a sustained period can damage your health. Reducing stress as soon as possible is important because stress is unavoidable in everyday life.

Stress can hit without warning, or can simmer for some time and erupt out of proportion, and the long-term consequences of unmanaged stress can be serious. From minor health problems, if neglected, or unrecognized, it could lead to serious and chronic health problems.

Stress is the "wear and tear" our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment, and everyday life incidents; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative feelings.

As a positive influence, stress can help compel us to action; it can result in a new awareness and an exciting new perspective.

As a negative influence, it can result in feelings of distrust, rejection, anger, and depression, which in turn can lead to health problems such as headaches, backaches, upset stomach, rashes, insomnia, ulcers, high blood pressure, heart disease, a weakened immune system, brain stroke, and cancer.

Chemical and food stressors:

The food you eat may contribute to the stresses you experience. Examples of stressors you may not be aware of are:

· Caffeine: This raises your levels of stress hormones, makes it more difficult to sleep, and can make you more irritable.

· Bursts of sugar from sweets or chocolate: These can make you feel more energetic in the short term. However, your body reacts to stabilise abnormally high sugar levels by releasing too much insulin. This causes a serious energy dip shortly after the sugar high.

· Too much salt: This raises your blood pressure and puts your body under chemical stress.

Sometimes bad eating habits can indirectly cause stress, if you eat an unbalanced or unhealthy diet, skip meals or eat too much. You may find that some dietary deficiency or excess food causes discomfort and illness, which generates stress. If you are obese, then this causes physical stress on your internal organs and emotional stress as your view of yourself declines. Outside appearance is an important stress factor, such as viewing yourself as obese or too skinny, which may be an exaggerated view triggered by lack of self-esteem.

Short Term Physical Symptoms: Survival Stress

These mainly occur as your body adapts to perceived physical threat, and are caused by release of adrenaline. Although you may perceive these as unpleasant and negative, they are signs that your body is ready for the explosive action that assists survival or high performance:

· Faster heart beat
· Increased sweating
· Cool skin
· Cold hands and feet
· Feelings of nausea, or 'butterflies in my stomach'
· Rapid Breathing
· Tense Muscles
· Dry Mouth
· A desire to urinate
· Diarrhoea

Long Term Physical Symptoms: Danger Warnings

These occur where your body has been exposed to adrenaline over a long period. One of the ways adrenaline prepares you for action is by diverting resources to the muscles from the areas of the body that carry out body maintenance. This means that if you are exposed to adrenaline for a sustained period, then your health may start to deteriorate. This may show up in the following ways:

· Change in appetite
· Frequent colds
· Illnesses (such as asthma, back pain, rashes or skin eruptions, headaches, digestive problems)
· Sexual disorders
· Aches and pains
· Feelings of intense and long-term tiredness (fatigue)

Internal Symptoms of Long Term Stress:

When you are under stress or have been tired for a long period of time, you may find that you are less able to think clearly and rationally about problems. This can lead to the following internal emotional 'upsets':

· Worry or anxiety
· Confusion, and an inability to concentrate or make decisions
· Feeling ill
· Feeling out of control or overwhelmed by events
· Difficulty sleeping
· Mood changes (such as depression, frustration, hostility, helplessness, impatience, irritability, restlessness)
· Being more lethargic
· Drinking more alcohol and/or smoking more
· Changing eating habits
· Reduced sex drive
· Relying more on medication

If you can’t control your stress, then learn to moderate your physical reactions to it, by the following 12 tips:

1. Slow, deep breathing will bring your heart rate and respiration back to normal. Do this whenever you feel angry or tense.
2. Relaxation techniques can reduce muscle tension. A clinic or professional gymnasium can help you gain voluntary control over such things as muscle tension, heart rate, and blood pressure.
3. Medications, when prescribed by a physician, can help in the short term in moderating your physical reactions. However, they alone are not the answer. Learning to moderate these reactions on your own is a preferable long-term solution.
4. Exercise for cardiovascular fitness daily for half to one hour, or at least three to four times a week. Moderate, prolonged rhythmic exercise is best, such as walking, swimming, cycling, or jogging.
5. Eat well-balanced, nutritious meals and try to reach or maintain your ideal weight.
6. Have a good cry (ladies). Crying is a natural body-toxic cleanser. And, laugh a lot. Go to a funny movie, read your computer jokes, or go out with cheerful people. Leave your problems at home, or in the office, for a while.
7. Avoid nicotine, excessive caffeine, too much tea, too many cokes, too many chocolate bars or cocoa, and other stimulants.
8. Mix leisure with work, or at least organize your work to be more enjoyable. If music relaxes and calms you, take your Walkman to work. Clean up your desk and add something personal. Take breaks and get away when you can. If you really hate your job, then try finding another one that you love, even if it means less pay.
9. Get enough sleep. Be as consistent with your sleep schedule as possible.
10. Develop some mutually supportive friendships/relationships. Avoid irritating people.
11. Pursue realistic goals, which are meaningful to you, rather than goals others have for you that you do not share. That means to also expect some frustrations, failures, and sorrows occasionally.
12. Love and be kind to yourself. You may be the only one to take care of yourself alone one day. Be your own friend.

H.N.