Coping with Stress

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Coping with Stress

Introduction

Remember:stress is a normal part of life - it is only a problem when

it causes long-term disruption or illness. Normal stress levels can

energise and motivate us, directing our behaviour in useful ways.

However, in most modern lifestyles, the pressures on people are

immense and most people find themselves having to find ways of coping

with stressful situations in their everyday lives.

The two major components of stress shown in the diagram above, suggest

two ways to reduce stress: a biological approach or a psychological

approach.

A biological approach might involve drugs or biofeedback, for example.

A psychological approach involves psychotherapy to change cognitive

and emotional responses to situations.

It has been found that women tend to use more emotional strategies -

changing the way they think about a situation - to try to cope with

stress, while men tend to focus more on changing the situation they

see as a problem.

Coping with stress can be difficult. It takes time and effort to find

new strategies and it can be very hard to overcome the effects of past

experience - but a wide range of successful therapies for the

treatment of stress is now open to people.

On top of this, the problems of being overloaded at work and

stress-related illnesses are now far better understood.

Coping with stress - biological approaches

These methods of dealing with stress focus on ways to minimize and

control the body's alarm reactions by direct intervention in the

body's chemistry.

These methods are appropriate for people in acute stress states or

those who need rapid treatm...

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...ge numbers of employees in stressful jobs.

The approaches outlined above aim to reduce stress by reducing the gap

between the demands placed on a person and their perception of their

ability

By closing that gap, a person's confidence increases and the stress

they feel is reduced.

The diagram below gives a quick summary of the principles of the

cognitive-behavioural approach to dealing with stress.

In this type of therapy, the therapist helps the person to be

objective about the sources of stress and to develop new ways of

dealing with stressful situations.

Psychological approaches have also been applied in 'anger management'

courses since anger has been found to increase vulnerability to heart

disease. These courses challenge a person's views of themselves and

others.

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