Stress Management – Start Here!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
A lot of research has been conducted into stress over the last hundred years.
Some of the theories behind it are now settled and accepted; others are still being researched and debated.
During this time, there seems to have been something approaching open warfare between competing theories and definitions: Views have been passionately held and aggressively defended.
What complicates this is that intuitively we all feel that we know what stress is, as it is something we have all experienced. A definition should therefore be obvious... except that it is not.
Definitions
Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view in 1956 was that "stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental." Selye believed that the biochemical effects of stress would be experienced irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative.
Since then, a great deal of further research has been conducted, and ideas have moved on. Stress is now viewed as a "bad thing", with a range of harmful biochemical and long-term effects. These effects have rarely been observed in positive situations.
The most commonly accepted definition of stress (mainly attributed to Richard S Lazarus) is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that "demands exceed the
personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." In short, it's what we feel when we think we've lost control of events.
This is the main definition used by this section of Mind Tools, although we also recognize that there is an intertwined instinctive stress response to unexpected events. The stress response inside us is therefore part instinct and part to do with the way we think.
Fight-or-Flight
Some of the early research on stress (conducted by Walter Cannon in
1932) established the existence of the well-known "fight-or-flight"
response. His work showed that when an organism experiences a shock
or perceives a threat, it quickly releases hormones that help it to
survive.
In humans, as in other animals, these hormones help us to run faster
and fight harder. They increase heart rate and blood pressure,
delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to power important muscles.
They increase sweating in an effort to cool these muscles, and help
them stay efficient. They divert blood away from the skin to the
core of our bodies, reducing blood loss if we are damaged. As well
as this, these hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the
exclusion of everything else. All of this significantly improves our
ability to survive life-threatening events.
Not only life-threatening events trigger this reaction: We
experience it almost any time we come across something unexpected or
something that frustrates our goals. When the threat is small, our
response is small and we often do not notice it among the many other
distractions of a stressful situation.
Unfortunately, this mobilization of the body for survival also has
negative consequences. In this state, we are excitable, anxious,
jumpy and irritable. This actually reduces our ability to work
effectively with other people. With trembling and a pounding heart,
we can find it difficult to execute precise, controlled skills. The
intensity of our focus on survival interferes with our ability to
make fine judgments by drawing information from many sources. We
find ourselves more accident-prone and less able to make good
decisions.
There are very few situations in modern working life where this
response is useful. Most situations benefit from a calm, rational,
controlled and socially sensitive approach.
In the short term, we need to keep this fight-or-flight response
under control to be effective in our jobs. In the long term we need
to keep it under control to avoid problems of poor health and
burnout.
Introducing Stress Management
There are very many proven skills that we can use to manage stress.
These help us to remain calm and effective in high pressure
situations, and help us avoid the problems of long term stress.
The first of these articles shows you how to keep a stress diary –
an important technique for undertsanding the most important sources
of stress in your life. To read this, click 'Next article' below.
Warning: Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme
cases, can cause death. While these stress management techniques
have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they
are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of
suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns
over stress-related illnesses or if stress is causing significant or
persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be
consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.
Tags:
Skills, Stress Management
Some of the theories behind it are now settled and accepted; others are still being researched and debated.
During this time, there seems to have been something approaching open warfare between competing theories and definitions: Views have been passionately held and aggressively defended.
What complicates this is that intuitively we all feel that we know what stress is, as it is something we have all experienced. A definition should therefore be obvious... except that it is not.
Definitions
Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view in 1956 was that "stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental." Selye believed that the biochemical effects of stress would be experienced irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative.
Since then, a great deal of further research has been conducted, and ideas have moved on. Stress is now viewed as a "bad thing", with a range of harmful biochemical and long-term effects. These effects have rarely been observed in positive situations.
The most commonly accepted definition of stress (mainly attributed to Richard S Lazarus) is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that "demands exceed the
personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." In short, it's what we feel when we think we've lost control of events.
This is the main definition used by this section of Mind Tools, although we also recognize that there is an intertwined instinctive stress response to unexpected events. The stress response inside us is therefore part instinct and part to do with the way we think.
Fight-or-Flight
Some of the early research on stress (conducted by Walter Cannon in
1932) established the existence of the well-known "fight-or-flight"
response. His work showed that when an organism experiences a shock
or perceives a threat, it quickly releases hormones that help it to
survive.
In humans, as in other animals, these hormones help us to run faster
and fight harder. They increase heart rate and blood pressure,
delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to power important muscles.
They increase sweating in an effort to cool these muscles, and help
them stay efficient. They divert blood away from the skin to the
core of our bodies, reducing blood loss if we are damaged. As well
as this, these hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the
exclusion of everything else. All of this significantly improves our
ability to survive life-threatening events.
Not only life-threatening events trigger this reaction: We
experience it almost any time we come across something unexpected or
something that frustrates our goals. When the threat is small, our
response is small and we often do not notice it among the many other
distractions of a stressful situation.
Unfortunately, this mobilization of the body for survival also has
negative consequences. In this state, we are excitable, anxious,
jumpy and irritable. This actually reduces our ability to work
effectively with other people. With trembling and a pounding heart,
we can find it difficult to execute precise, controlled skills. The
intensity of our focus on survival interferes with our ability to
make fine judgments by drawing information from many sources. We
find ourselves more accident-prone and less able to make good
decisions.
There are very few situations in modern working life where this
response is useful. Most situations benefit from a calm, rational,
controlled and socially sensitive approach.
In the short term, we need to keep this fight-or-flight response
under control to be effective in our jobs. In the long term we need
to keep it under control to avoid problems of poor health and
burnout.
Introducing Stress Management
There are very many proven skills that we can use to manage stress.
These help us to remain calm and effective in high pressure
situations, and help us avoid the problems of long term stress.
The first of these articles shows you how to keep a stress diary –
an important technique for undertsanding the most important sources
of stress in your life. To read this, click 'Next article' below.
Warning: Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme
cases, can cause death. While these stress management techniques
have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they
are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of
suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns
over stress-related illnesses or if stress is causing significant or
persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be
consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.
