Stress Management
Stress Leaflet
What is stress?
When humans or animals are presented with some kind of threat, challenge or danger, the body prepares itself for two possible responses - to either confront and fight the source of threat or flee from it.
Stress can be defined as a physical and mental reaction to a situation and occurs when we face more challenges that we can cope with or when we have no challenges in our lives at all
The tell-tale signs of stress:
- Do you feel guilty when relaxing - uneasy if not "on the go"?
- Do you lie awake worrying about tomorrow?
- Are you tense. does your neck feel knotted up?
- Are you impatient or irritable - do you interrupt when others are talking?
- Do you feel you have a lot on your mind - have difficulty concentrating?
- Are you smoking or drinking more - do you eat in a hurry?
- Does life seem full of crises - are you always having rows?
- Do you find it difficult to make decisions?
- Do you feel frustrated when people don't do what you want?
- Do you frequently experience a butterfly stomach, a dry mouth, sweaty palms or a thumping heart?
- Tiredness and Irritability
- More reliant on alcohol, caffeine or drugs
- Low self esteem
- apathy and boredom
- Forgetfulness/inability to concentrate
- heightened anxiety and depression
- aggression (a more confrontational response)
If you answered "yes" to some of the questions 'The tell-tale signs of stress' there is a good chance that your stress level is a bit high. You are probably hard working, have a lot of drive and enjoy a challenge but you may need to take a more relaxed attitude to life and its problems.
By understanding what causes stress in our lives we can learn to deal with those situations although it is not always the situation that makes you feel stressed but he way you react to it!
List all the possible causes of stress in your life and sort them into categories of those that have a practical solution, those that will resolve themselves given time and those that you can do nothing to change.
What you cannot change, try to stop worrying about it. Your worrying will only cause anxiety in others around you. Where there are practical solutions make a list of these and try them out.
Assess your progress until you feel that you have reduced as many causes of stress as possible and that you feel in control of things.
Practical Steps to help yourself:
- Learn to relax.
- Get plenty of Sleep.
- Eat a sensible balanced diet.
- Take regular exercise.
- Talk to someone about your problems.
- Don't be afraid to ask for help.
- Keep things in perspective.
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Leaflet Produced by CSPt 2a and adapted for the Web by Webmaster
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