Since stress, can affect anyone, it is not surprising that there are a range of techniques available to help each individual cope during stressful periods in their lifetimes, which help them to relieve the signs and symptoms of stress.
Some techniques are physiological. They try to decrease the fight and flight response which is internal and occurs inside a person’s body during times of stress. Allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to over-ride the sympathetic nervous system (the sympathetic nervous system is responsible for the fight or flight response). This combats the physiological response of stress, which in the long term can affect people’s health.
On the other hand there are psychological techniques which involve expressing your emotions and trying to put your feelings and the stressful situation which you are in, in perspective. Enabling people to cope during stressful times, and carry on with their daily lives. Stress can have a devastating effect on people’s lives.
Physiological techniques
Exercise
Exercise or doing any physical activity such as gardening, which involves physical movement and leaves you feeling slightly breathless in the process, is an ideal technique to use to help you cope during a stressful time in your life.
Exercise is a form of ‘cathartic release’. It allows you to take out frustration and anger, which might be pent up inside a person during times of stress, in a constructive manner.
During exercise the stress hormones such as adrenaline are channelled i.e. given a purpose in the body.
The body systems especially the muscles need extra energy to perform. So excess glucose and free fatty acids which are present in the blood stream (due to the release of hormones during periods of stress) are utilised for energy, therefore helping to prevent the furring of arteries i.e. atheroma and in the long term decreasing the risk of CHD (coronary heart disease) and stroke.
During exercise endorphins and serotonin are also released by the endocrine system. According to Stress Management Society (2010) “Just as fight or flight has a potentially negative physiological effect on the body, exercise has a positive one. It increases blood flow to the body and brain and stimulates the nervous system in positive ways. Most notably, exercise produces beta endorphins in the body which induces a natural high”. Due to this release of hormones during exercise, if someone exercises during periods of stress, they are less likely to suffer from depression (which is commonly linked with stress).
Although exercise has many benefits, and can help many people cope with stress, there are also negative sides to using exercise as a way to manage stress.
Exercise is not always possible to do when you are stressed for various reasons.
If you are stressed and feel like exercising, it is not always possible to take part in exercise. People have various commitments, and during work and whilst at home, it is not always possible to get up and do some form of exercise when you think you need to. Exercise is quite often referred to as a delayed mechanism to combat stress. We have to wait to take part in exercise to relieve signs of stress.
During periods of stress you may find it hard to exercise. There may be no motivation within in you, to get up and start moving around. You may also feel exhausted due to the affects of stress. This would mean that you physically have no energy to take part in any form of physical pursuit.
Some people are physically unable to take part in exercise; this could be due to a disability, so this means that this technique is not suitable for everyone.
Exercise needs to be performed correctly, whether you are at the gym or giving your house a spring clean from top to bottom. During periods of stress cognitive processes in the brain are disrupted, which means that you do not always think clearly, and this may lead to silly accidents occurring. These could be minor or major. Major accidents may leave you unable to exercise for periods of time; the accident itself can therefore become a stressor in your life making stress levels rise.
Exercise is often a challenge, some people will over do exercise sessions which may lead to physical exhaustion shortly after, or the next day. Feeling physically exhausted may lead to more stress in your life since you cannot perform as you normally would do. This can also lead to some types of neurosis (a mild form of mental illness) such as depression or anxiety.
Exercise can also become addictive. Just like any addiction this can be damaging to ones mental and physical well being.
Exercise is very much a personal choice. Some people will see exercise as their form of heaven whereas others view exercise as a form of living hell.
Controlled Deep Breathing
Controlled breathing is a fairly simple technique to use. Usually our breathing is an involuntary response. We do not have to think about it, it just happens. Unlike other involuntary systems in our body we can take conscious control of our breathing. We can do controlled deep breathing anytime of the day, anywhere we are; sat in an office, on the bus, at home. It is available to use as a stress management technique whenever you require it. It is not a delayed mechanism; you do not have to wait to do it whilst in a yoga class. It only takes a few minutes to achieve the results too.
Pausing for a moment, to take a few good deep breathes, allowing as much air into your lungs. This allows greater amounts of oxygen into our bodies, than during rest. NHS states (2008) “This will help to remove older oxygen from your lungs and replace it with fresh oxygen that will improve your circulation and alertness”.
Having more oxygen in your blood stream will be detected by a sensor (found near the heart). When this is detected the ANS (autonomic nervous system) will then stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. This over-rides the sympathetic nervous system and slows down the heart rate, blood pressure, ending the fight or flight response in the body. This also means that no more stress hormones will be produced by the endocrine system. This will help us to feel calmer, and less likely to suffer from the effects the hormones have on us. So we will be less irritable and anxious.
Taking physical control of our breathing helps us psychologically in other ways too, not just specific emotions. When suffering from stress we may feel everything is out of our control. By doing this one simple thing, this may help feel that we still have some type of control in our lives.
Scottish Government (2009) states “Paying attention to our breathing can be a good way to relax and focus our thoughts”. When are parasympathetic nervous system in control, we can feel physically and mentally able to cope with whatever type of pressure we are under.
However, controlled deep breathing may require practice to achieve these results. Usually when we breathe, we only take shallow breaths. To breathe deeply, and get an adequate supply of oxygen into our blood stream is not as easy as it sounds. It can be quite hard to inflate our lungs to a high capacity to allow maximum amount of air into our lungs. We need good posture to fully achieve this and unfortunately, with modern living, many people’s posture is poor and does not easily allow for full inflation of the lungs. So, the level of response to controlled deep breathing varies for each person.
During periods of stress, taking physical control of your breathing may be hard to do. Especially when you feel like you cannot control anything else in your life, even if you do try. This technique may be unsuccessful.
Mood changes and erratic emotions that you may experience during times of stress, may mean that you are unwilling even to attempt this technique. In fact, if someone else tells you try to breathe in this way, this could increase tension within you adding to your stress levels.
Some people would love to use this technique but are physically unable to do so, due to specific respiratory tract conditions such as asthma. This means this technique is not suitable for everyone
Psychological techniques
Image: www.moonsinger.com/meditationLotus.jpg Talking to Others
During times of stress we can have racing thoughts running through our heads all the time. These often, lead to making the stress worse and can lead to neurosis.
Talking to others allows us to express ourselves, so we do not bottle up these thoughts and feelings which we have.
Bottling up feelings and thoughts can overwhelm us. Speaking to others about these can help us put things into perspective.
Talking through things is a form of release. As the old saying goes ‘A problem shared is a problem halved’. According to Scottish Government (2009) “Sharing a problem can ease stress, even if you can’t find an answer straight away”.
Sometimes talking to someone, you just need them there to listen and show they support you by being empathetic. Other times it is helpful if they can help by giving you their opinions and feedback to what is being said. This can be so beneficial since it releases you from isolation, which can occur during periods of stress. Allowing you to see a different perspective on matters, can help you take a more rounded look at your situation.
Logical thought processes are often interrupted during times of stress, having someone to reason for you can be a great help.
However talking to others to help manage stress is not always an easy thing to do. Scottish Government states (2009) “Lots of us find it hard to start talking about difficult problems. Sometimes it’s embarrassing to talk about feelings- and sometimes we don’t actually know what is wrong.” So the person we choose to talk to must be the right person. Someone we can trust. Being open, can leave us vulnerable. Vulnerability may heighten stress dependant on the individual. The right person may be a partner, family member, close friend or even someone we do not know that well such as a counsellor. Finding the right person might be a struggle. People all have busy lives and finding that time to talk may not always be convenient for them or yourself.
When someone is stressed, no matter how much they want to talk about it and express emotion this may be difficult. People cannot always find the right words to us and end up saying incoherent words or sentences. This is due to our logical thought process being disrupted during stress, because of the fight or flight response. Our body is working in survival mode, speech is not needed. Even though the person you choose talk to may know you extremely well even they may find it hard to comprehend what you are saying. This can be extremely frustration, another negative emotion that does not help stress levels.
Meditation
Meditation conjures up in most people’s mind a person sitting in a darkened room, sitting in the lotus position chanting ‘ohmmmmm’ ‘ohmmmmm’, over and over again. Meditation is not just this. It is having some time alone, in peaceful surroundings distraction free from the trial and tribulations of everyday life. Meditation can be done anywhere where this can be achieved even whilst out walking, if the surroundings where you walk are not distracting.
Being alone and thinking about the here and now, and not about the past and the future, can evoke a relaxation response. Segal et al (2008) “You can’t avoid all stress, but you can counteract its negative effects by learning how to evoke the relaxation response, a state of deep rest that is the polar opposite of the stress response”. During this time, you can forget about the situation which you are in.
When you relax, the parasympathetic nervous system has turned off the fight or flight response. The heart rate lowers and the endocrine system stops producing hormones. This allows logical thought processes to return. You then are able to reflect on your situation, and put things more into perspective whilst alone in this state of meditation.
The problem with meditation is that it requires time by yourself with no responsibilities. Most people have a vast amount of responsibilities in their lives and find it hard to have any time too alone with no responsibilities’. Due to this fact, meditation just like exercise is useful as a delayed mechanism of coping with stress.
Whilst feeling stressed, people often find it hard to get into the ‘zone’ of being relaxed, just thinking about the here and now. It’s very hard to focus on this at the time. People have racing thoughts running through their heads. Being alone and not being able to fully relax, gives people time to dwell on matters. They also can over analyse things. This can make people’s worries and fears escalate. This could lead to a person ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’. This would just become another stressor in a person’s life.
These are just a few techniques for dealing with stress. There are many more available to all. They each have their own benefits, and they all have downsides depending on the individual. Since stress can affect people both physically and mentally it would be ideal to use at a coping method that helps with the physiological response of stress and simultaneously during times of stress use a technique to help with psychological effects of stress. This will help to tackle the signs and the symptoms of stress. So that a person can cope during periods of stress, and are enable to go about their daily lives.
