 |
|
|
|
|
|
A physical reaction to threat, danger, and demands Physical: Muscle tension, higher blood pressure, more rapid heart rate, adrenaline rush, headaches, nervous habits, fatigue. Emotional: depression, feeling keyed up or overwhelmed, sleep changes, alcohol use, loss of self-esteem.
• What reactions to stress have you observed?
A life demand, threat, or change which is experienced as too difficult to handle or as requiring a large amount of readjustment. That condition leads to feelings of threat, lack of contr ol of one's situation, and physical and emotional changes known as STRESS. Note the distinction between outside events [STRESSORS] and the internal response [STRESS]. What happened in our lives is not the stress. Stress is what we do with those changes.
- • What STRESSORS are most common among?
- • When would a person feel a lack of control of a life situation?
- • When people says they are under stress, what to they mean?
Life CHANGES can be positive, such as a promotion, marriage, a new baby, or a move. CHANGE can be negative, such as a loss, divorce, deadline pressures, conflict with others. Either way, change requires readjustment, that is, change takes time to adjust to and requires inner resources and outside supports. Too much change—even positive change—personality, good COPING skills, and an adequate SUPPORT SYSTEM can turn change into EUSTRESS.
Resilience is a personality trait which permits people to handle even the most difficult of life changes in a positive way. The qualities which research suggests help people maintain resilience in the face of change are commitment, sense of humor, framing problems as challenges, focus, sense of control, and determination to overcome troubles and to find new ways to do things. RESILIENT people often have come through many negative life changes and stressors, but they turn these stressors into EUSTRESS.
• Who is the most resilient person you know? What are his/her characteristics?
Techniques for developing positive coping skills and practicing or training for change so that when potential STRESSORS occur, we are prepared with POSITIVE COPING SKILLS and we have developed a strong SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM—to experience EUSTRESS, not DISTRESS. The main techniques are: learning to positively reframe, developing an exercise routine, becoming free of addictive chemicals, learning to meditate or relax, training and practice, learning from how we handled past changes, learning from how others handle change well.
Techniques and skills for (a) keeping life changes to a manageable level and (b) making sure potential stressors are the source of eustress rather than distress.
Challenge—Learn to view change as a challenge, to plan and anticipate it, brainstorm solutions, rehearse potential solutions, engage with change and get started on making things different.
Reframing—Learn to see the silver lining in every situation, see how the change can be beneficial.
Humor—We know that a sense of humor and time spent in laughter is healing.
Planning—Develop a game plan which breaks down the steps toward a difficult objective. Take time—Maintain hobbies and interests, exercise and balanced diet, even in the midst of change and major tasks to accomplish.
Commitment—Jump into your plan with energy and focus, believe in yourself, your goals, and what you are doing.
In the know—Acquire the knowledge and skill's you need to handle the task, persistence and practice pay off.
In the now—Don't worry about negative expectations for the future or a negative way of looking at the past, in fact, don t get bogged down by worry at all, but concentrate on ri ght now; odds are, today is okay.
Support—Get the Right support from people who can help with problem solving.
De-Awfulize—Sort out your thinking. Does it remove the stressor or is it adding stress. Look at the irrational thinking list. Ask, what is the advantage/result of thinking the way I think?
Relaxation—People do best when they take breaks, relax completely, get enough rest.
Limit chemicals—Increased nicotine, alcohol, tranquilizers, and even caffeine paradoxically only mask our distress, do not produce quality relaxation and do not truly refresh us, but further weaken our sense of being able to manage ourselves; they actually strengthen poor coping skills! Biochemically, these substances may intensify stress reactions.
Deep breathing—Shallow rapid breat hing often accompanies anxiety, so l earn to consciously deep breathe.
Visualization—Top athletes mentally rehearse their performances; that's a good plan for everyone. Mentally go through the steps required to accomplish a goal. Use COPING IMAGERY.
This is what most people equate with the term stress. It means feeling stressed out, burned out, nervous, overwhelmed, helpless, hassled, helpless, life is unmanageable, unable to handle a task. DISTRESS often includes physical illness or injury, depressed or anxious mood, preoccupation and rumination, loss of control of anger, thoughts of self-harm, negativity, or hostility. DISTRESS occurs when STRESSORS in our lives interact with COPING SKILLS that are not able to handle the situation and a lack of SOCIAL SUPPORTS. COPING SKILLS which lead us to feel like the VICTIM OF CHANGE are projection, denial, blame, criticism, self-reproach, worry, deception, defiance, defensiveness, crisis-proneness, boredom, procrastination, impulsivity or acting out, escalating interpersonal differences into conflicts, micromanaging, irrational thinking styles.
• Give examples of the coping skills you noticed when you experienced distress.
• What are some of the common coping styles you see in distressed people?
EUSTRESS [pronounced you-stress, it means good stress ] Stress is a fact of life. All change has the potential to create a stress reaction. EUSTRESS occurs when we have good COPING SKILLS and adequate SOCIAL SUPPORT. EUSTRESS is the state in which change occurs and we can handle it well. Then we feel at peace, a sense of accomplishment, and in control; we experience personal growth and an increased sense of selfrespect.
Some people thrive on change; these RESILIENT people tend to have a sense of responsibility, a feeling of sincere commitment to goals, maintaining a feeling of challenge rather than struggle, the ability to focus their energy on goals, and a feeling of control in their lives. Some COPING SKILLS which help us be the MASTER OF CHANGE are positive reframing, commitment, feelings of control, openness to experience, planning, taking things as they come, breaking things down into smaller tasks and getting started on them, sense of humor, delegating, taking responsibility, rational thinking styles.
• Give examples of the coping skills you noticed when you experienced eustress?
IRRATIONAL THINKING STYLE
People have common irrational ways of thinking. Poor thinking leads to depressed and anxious feelings. Some of these ways of t hinking are:
ALL OR NONE THINKING—if I can t do/have it all, then I've done/accomplished nothing, and that s terri ble, rather than enjoying what has been accom plished and looking for ward to doing better next time.
BLACK AND WHITE THINKING—there are only two ways to look at it, two sides, two alternatives, someone has to win and someone else lose, someone is right and someone is wrong, rather than viewing the situation as complex with shades of gray and multiple ways of viewing it and diverse perspectives are needed.
BLAMING—if something doesn't go right someone is to blame [most often ourselves], rather than that the outcome is a product of many factors.
CATASTROPHIZING—whenever a negative outcome occurs or might occur, that is a disaster rather than just a manageable outcome.
MINIMIZING—rationalizing and excusing our behavior or denying its consequences. "I was only trying to...", or "No one was hurt so what's the big deal?" rather than realistically appraising the situation and accepting responsibility.
NEGATIVE FORECASTING—looking into the future, but only seeing bad outcomes which could occur, then worrying, rather than seeing all the alternatives and rather than just concentrating on right now PERSONALIZING—whenever something is a problem, seeing it as a negative reflection of self RUMINATION-OBSESSION—dwelling on the problem, unable t o clear one's mind of it, even when it's time to sleep, rather than realizing that worry and obsession do not solve problems.
SELECTIVE ATTENTION—only paying attention to negative information, negative memories of a past situation, negative information coming it, rather than balancing all the information.
SELF-JUSTIFICATION—going to lengths to support one's actions rather than accepting responsibility or seeing it from another's point of view? Can you identify thinking errors you may use?
|
