Dealing With Stress

Dealing With Stress

Before we look at different methods of dealing with stress we must

first define stress and find out what causes stress. There are 3

definitions of stress:

1. The response definition: this is Selye's approach; it means that

any stimulus that causes a stress response is by definition, a

stressor.

2. The stimulus definition: This definition argues that we can agree

that certain events are stressful, so therefore any reaction they

provoke can be called a stress response. Unfortunately there are

individual differences and we cant assume that what one person is

stressed by everyone else is also stressed by.

3. The transactional model: This is the most popular approach to

studying stress today. It argues that the key to defining the

degree of stress experienced by an individual lies in their

perception of themselves and their world.

Many people try to manage stress and there are lots of methods

available. One method is to use drugs to treat stress. The most

commonly used drugs to combat stress are the benzodiazepine (BZ)

anti-anxiety agents and beta-blockers. BZ's such as Librium and Valium

are the most commonly prescribed drugs for psychological disorders and

have been proved to be very effective in combating stress and anxiety.

They appear to act by reducing activity of the brain neurotransmitter

seretonin. Beta-blockers don't actually enter the brain but reduce

activity in the pathways of the nervous system around the body. As

Sympathetic arousal is a key feature of the state of stress these can

be very effective against symptoms such as a raised heart rate ...

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... what happens in our lives.

The concept of Hardiness has been criticised, as the relative

importance of the three factors is unclear. Also kobasa'a studies

usually involve middle class white men and cannot be successfully

generalised to include women, other ethnicities and social classes.

Kobasa's work does draw attention to other factors that are important

in managing stress, social support and exercise.

All these factors do play an important part in managing stress but

taking into account all the criticism's and factors involved in

studies the drug related methods are probably the best ways of dealing

with stress in the short term, but other methods such as stress

inoculation training are the best methods for those people who have

enough time and money to devote themselves successfully to the

programs.