Stress And Therapy

Easy techniques that get fast results

What is Stress?

Stress is anything which impacts upon the individuals mental or physical well-being. A certain amount of stress is essential to well being as too little can also have a negative impact on life. The key is finding a balance point where the individual is challenged but does not find this overwhelming.

If you imagine a metal bar where pressure is being applied in the center of that bar. The bar will easily be able to endure a certain level of pressure with no resultant damage. If you increase that pressure there will come a point where the bar will snap. This is a simple way to visualize the effect of accumulative stress on the body. The more and more stress/ pressure that is applied simply overwhelms the body.

Thus untreated over time, stress can have a serious impact on the health. The psychological symptoms are easily identifiable, but physical health can also suffer.

Types of Therapy

The type and length of treatment offered for stress management can vary greatly depending on the health practitioner or therapist you consult.

Some therapists use techniques which merely are coping strategies. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be classed under this description. It requires a high level of conscious effort to use techniques such as thought stopping, and substitution of negative thoughts.

Others therapists use an approach that deals with the roots of the problem. Dealing with these can eliminate negative feelings, which in turn have a direct affect on the thoughts. This bypasses the need to substitute negative thoughts because the thoughts have automatically changed and no longer require effort.

An good example of dealing with the roots of an issue can be found in the case history a swimming phobia, exasperated by depression. Although it had been several years since the client had left her first husband she was still experiencing stress due to the break-up and the resultant low self esteem that had resulted from this experience. Techniques were used to help the client remove the negative feelings and beliefs that had accumulated during this period of her life and were still affecting her now. Since the effects of stress are accumulative, this substantially reduced the total overall load on her body. Since the body can easily deal with a certain level of stress, the key here would be to eliminate any incident or event that was still affecting the client until a level is reached which does not overwhelm the bodies capabilities. The client in this case was able to notice an instant effect on how she felt. Note, there are probably still many other stressful events from the clients life that are still affecting her, but these events are not of sufficient magnitude to overpower her natural stress defense mechanism.

The Mechanics of Stress On The Body

• Certain changes occur within the body when it is under stress
• Cortisol Hormone----------Increased Levels
• Adrenaline Hormone-------Increased Levels

These hormones affect the heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism and influences any physical activity required for the fight or flight response. This is a normal body reaction. Problems begin to occur when more and more stress begins to build up. The hormones are released more and more frequently, this results in the body being in a continual state of preparedness for danger. The bodies stress coping mechanisms begin to function less effectively. This can result in several problems, which can include: anxiety, depression. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the name given to a high anxiety problem which can often be a result of one or multiple traumatic incident/s, such as a car accident or war.

What are the Common Causes of Stress?

There are a variety of different events which can trigger feelings of stress. Listed below are just a few.

• Bereavement
• Change of Job
• Moving house
• Illness in the family
• New baby in the family
• Losing a job
• Break up of a relationship
• Boredom

Stress In The Workplace

Surveys have also concluded certain job related factors conducive to a high stress environment, these are:

• Lack of recognition
• Unrealistic workloads
• Lack of Communication
• Disorganization
• Interruptions
• Lack of clear directions
• Personality Conflicts

On-Going and Past Stressors

There are two different types of stress, these are: on-going, such as the stress resultant from having to deal with an ex-partner about child visitation or financial issues. The other type being from events which are over, such as a car accident in which no permanent physical damage occurred.

Events such as the car accident can often be dealt with very quickly and permanently, by a variety of different techniques such as the NLP Quick Phobia Cure (highly effective in dealing with traumatic events), EFT™, TAT™ etc.

On-going stress requires on going effort to eliminate any new stressor that may occur, such as friction at work. All of the above techniques are equally effective as stress management techniques. Hypnosis is a very gentle technique that can be used to rebalance the bodies stress management mechanism. If used on a daily basis, the effects are accumulative and become more powerful enabling the individual to deal much more effectively with stressful situations.

What Are The Common Signs Of Stress?

Stress can manifest itself in a multitude of ways,

• Behavioral Symptoms
• Fidgeting
• Missing Work
• Incessant Talking
• Increased Smoking
• Isolating Self From Others
• Loss of Sex Drive
  

Psychological Symptoms

• Difficulty Concentrating
• Lack of Self-Confidence
• Poor Memory
• Feeling Under Pressure
• Easily Upset
• Loss of Sense of Humor
• Mood Swings
• Aggressive Behavior
• Unexplained Fatigue
• Becoming Highly Negative
  

Physical symptoms:

• Poor Quality of Sleep
• Headaches
• High Blood Pressure
• Tension In The Muscles
• Feeling Of Nausea Or Knots In The Stomach
• Unusual Weight Loss or Gain
• Chronic Indigestion

Chronic muscular tension can be a result of stress. This can lead to a variety of conditions including:

• Bruxism
• Cramping
• Chest Pain
• Tremors
• Back Pain
• Facial or Jaw Pain

Left untreated stress can begin can begin to have a high detrimental effect on the physical health of the individual. There are many medical conditions that have been linked to the accumulative effects of stress. These include:

• Strokes
• Arrhythmias
• Heart Disease

Stress is commonly felt in the stomach area. It can affect the production of acid in your stomach and affect the contractions of the muscles in the gastrointestinal tract which can lead to:

• Constipation
• Gas
• Bloating
• Weight Loss

Effective Techniques For Dealing With Stress

There are many techniques for dealing with stress. TAT™, EFT™, BSFF™, NLP and hypnotherapy are some of the most effective and fast.

All of these approaches can deal with the underlying issues. They can also be used to help deal with on-going stress.