Stress is a reality for almost everyone. We all experience stress on the job and in our personal lives—at least from time to time. There are many factors that cause stress, including a heavy work load, personal and work challenges, and family and financial problems.

Today, we’re going to talk about what causes stress, how it impacts you, and what you can do to alleviate some of the stress in your life.

Session Objectives

The main objective of this session is to help you better manage the stress in your life. By the time this session is over, you should be able to:

• Identify the causes of stress;
• Recognize the different types of stress;
• Understand how stress affects you; and
• Manage stress effectively.

What Is Stress?

Let’s begin by defining stress.

• Stress is the tension, anxiety, worry, or fear that we all have about the unknown and about the things that we can’t control.
• The feeling of stress causes our bodies to naturally react both physically and emotionally to the challenge. We have all experienced the basic symptoms of stress, including sweaty palms, fast heartbeat, tension in the neck or abdomen, and so on.
• Although we usually think of stress in negative terms, it can be positive when it is kept in balance. Stress makes our bodies provide the adrenaline and energy we need to overcome challenging situations. In fact, whether stress is harmful or productive really comes down to how we react to it.

Think about how the stress in your life affects you physically and emotionally. How do you usually react to stress—positively or negatively?

Stress Factors

• There may be many different stress factors in your life. For example, personal problems often include worrying about finances, the illness of a family member or friend, struggles with children, or relationship problems with a spouse or other family members.
• Lifestyle changes also contribute stress and often include fear of the unknown. Common lifestyle changes that introduce stress into a person’s life include getting married, having a baby, starting a new job, the death of a loved one, or even moving to a new home or neighborhood.
• Job problems are usually a combination of fear of the unknown and worrying. New assignments, a new boss, added responsibilities, performance appraisals, relationships with co-workers, or even a promotion can add stress to your work life.
• Then there are the everyday hassles such as commuting to work, screaming children, crowded stores, cooking, cleaning, and getting the kids to their activities.

Let’s continue to the next slide now and discuss specific common stresses in most people’s lives—probably yours as well.

Common Stress Incidents

Here are just a few examples of the kinds of stress incidents that most of us experience daily, or at least from time to time. Can you relate to these stresses:

• Driving in a traffic jam when you’re late for an appointment?
• Tight deadlines and a heavy work load?
• Unplanned financial burdens—like your car breaks down?
• Doing something difficult for the first time—even something that’s just for fun?
• A new baby on the way?
• An unexpected illness or death in the family?

Think about all the things, large or small, that cause stress in your life. If you’re like most people these days, you could make a long list.

Types of Stress

Any of the things we’ve been talking about can cause stress in your life. But they can do so in different ways. In other words, there are different types of stress.

• There’s acute, or short-term, stress. For example, you have only a few hours to finish an important job, and you’re really feeling the pressure. But when the job’s done, the pressure’s off. Or you’re anticipating a really rough week next week because of a special project.
• Then there’s episodic, or perpetual, acute stress. People who suffer from this type of stress frequently feel under the gun. They seem to be always on the run, but they never seem to catch up. They’re always worried about something, even the small stuff.
• Finally, there’s the worst kind of stress—chronic, or long-term, stress. Episodic stress, if not properly managed, can lead to chronic stress. This is when you feel stressed out day and night. You can’t relax, and it starts to negatively affect every aspect of your life. Chronic stress can be very damaging, and it’s often difficult to treat.

Let’s look at each type of stress now in more detail, starting with acute, or short-term, stress.

Acute Stress

Acute stress is the most common form of stress.

• It is a reaction to the pressures and demands of the recent past or anticipated pressures and demands of the near future. As we’ll discuss in more detail later, acute stress can be beneficial. It can help pump you up to perform at your best.
• Acute stress can be thrilling or exciting in small doses. For example, the first roller coaster ride at the amusement park causes stress before you get on the ride due to anticipation of the unknown. As the roller coaster plummets down the first hill, you experience a thrilling type of stress as the adrenaline rushes through your bloodstream. Finally, when the ride is over, the worry or fear subsides. You feel relieved—and maybe excited about the experience, too.
• Acute stress can be exhausting, however. At the end of a stressful day, most of us are physically and emotionally drained.
• As we said earlier, we’ve all experienced the physical and psychological symptoms of acute, or short-term, stress.

Let’s look at those symptoms in the next slide.

Acute Stress Symptoms

Acute stress can manifest in different ways.

• Emotionally you may experience a combination of anger, irritability, anxiety, and depression.
• You might also experience muscular problems, including tension headaches, neck and back pain, and tightness in the jaw and abdomen.
• Your gastrointestinal system can also be affected. You might experience problems such as heartburn, stomach aches, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, or even irritable bowel syndrome.
• Short-term stress also causes a temporary over-arousal of nerves, which may lead to elevated blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, heart palpitations, dizziness, migraine headaches, cold hands or feet, shortness of breath, and chest pain.

How does your body react to stress? What kind of symptoms do you feel when you’re under stress? It’s important to recognize the symptoms so that you can do something positive to deal with your stress.

Episodic Acute Stress

• People who suffer from episodic acute stress often have lives that are disordered, even verging on the chaotic. They’re always in a rush, but they’re always late.
• Often, episodic acute stress is created by taking on too many responsibilities. These people just can’t seem to get organized or gain control over their busy schedules. They may also self-inflict demands and pressures that can’t be met.
• These people are often short tempered, irritable, anxious, tense, and have a lot of nervous energy. Since they are always in a hurry, interpersonal relationships suffer because they may be abrupt, irritable, and sometimes hostile.
• The workplace often becomes a very stressful place for them. They are often described as “worrywarts,” because they are often pessimistic and see a looming disaster in every situation.
• Symptoms of episodic acute stress include tension headaches, migraines, high blood pressure, chest pain, and even heart disease. The body begins to wear down under all the stress, which makes these people more susceptible to illness. Treatment often requires professional help because stress has become an ingrained part of the personality.

Chronic Stress

As we mentioned earlier, untreated episodic acute stress can lead to chronic stress.

• Chronic stress can also be caused by day after day, year after year stress resulting from situations such as dysfunctional families, chronic illness of a loved one, or feeling trapped in an abusive relationship.
• Chronic stress destroys the bodies and minds of its victims. Imagine experiencing symptoms of acute stress every day for years, with no relief. Over time, your body and mind would become wrecked by the havoc.
• Chronic stress often occurs when a person does not see a way out of a miserable situation. Eventually, the person will give up hope, stop searching for solutions, and sink into a deep depression. Finally, people become used to chronic stress and think that their physical and psychological distress is normal.
• Chronic stress often leads to mental or physical breakdown. These people may turn to suicide to end their pain. Or they might become violent and even kill someone they blame for their misery. Often they become the victims of heart attacks and strokes.

Benefits of Stress

Although we’ve been focusing on the negative aspects of stress, it’s important to realize that a little of the right kind of stress can actually be beneficial.

• If you play a sport, you know that most players feel stress before the game. Pre-game jitters can actually help you excel. That’s because stress causes your body to create adrenaline, which gives you the energy to meet challenges and get through stressful situations successfully.
• For example, you might discover that you focus and concentrate better when you’re under a little stress.
• Stress can also help improve your performance. When you care about the quality of your performance, it’s natural to feel some stress. But if you use that stress in a positive way, it can spur you on to do a better job.
• And when a stressful situation is over, your body relaxes and the tension disappears. You can relax and build up strength for the next event, and be proud of the way you handled the stressful situation. The next time may still be stressful, but your confidence will increase, so it will be easier. In other words, you’ve grown as a person as a result of handling a stressful situation successfully.

Think about situations where stress helped improve your performance.

Stress Facts: Definitions

• Stress—Tension, anxiety, worry, or fear of the unknown and things we can’t control.
• Acute Stress—Pressures and demands of the recent past and anticipated near future.
• Episodic—Suffering frequent acute stress.
• Chronic Stress—Long-term, day after day, year after year stress.

Stress Facts

Now it’s time to ask yourself if you understand the information that has been presented so far. Do you understand what we’ve discussed about:

• Stress factors?
• Types of stress?
• Symptoms of stress?
• Benefits of stress?

In order to effectively manage stress in your life, you need to understand its causes and how it affects you.

Let’s continue to the next slide and talk about your reactions to stress.

Control Your Reaction to Stress

Your reaction to stress plays a major role in how the stress will affect you physically and psychologically. Usually, stressful situations are beyond your control. All you can really do is control your reaction to the situation and the stress.

• A negative reaction or negative self-talk can aggravate the unpleasant physical and emotional feelings that may accompany stress. A negative reaction to stress can make you feel sick or tired, and you may feel angry or depressed.
• Positive thoughts and actions, however, can reduce the impact of the stress on your body and mind. The stress may be turned into a benefit that helps you overcome fear or worry in stressful situations generally.
• Remember that some stress may be self-imposed. For example, if you get stressed when you are a minute or two late, this is probably self-imposed stress.

Do you normally react to stress in a positive or negative way? Can you see how harmful a negative reaction can be?

Negative Stress Reactions

Negative reactions to stress usually just add to any physical pain or distressing emotional feelings that you are already experiencing as a result of being under stress.

• Getting angry, irritable, or even hostile is a common reaction to stress. But getting angry can not only add to physical pain, such as headaches, stomach aches, and back aches, but also make a stressful situation worse. For example, if stress causes you to blow up at a co-worker, your anger will only compound the difficulty you’re experiencing. Now you have to deal with a stressful situation and a co-worker with hurt or angry feelings.
• Another common negative reaction to stress is expecting things to get worse. Again, this just makes things even worse by adding a vicious cycle of tension, fear, and depression.

Negative Stress Reactions (cont.)

• Withdrawing or suffering stress in silence are also negative reactions to stress. Avoiding people or possibly stressful situations is usually impossible over the long term. And anyway, it doesn’t help you become more effective at handling stressful situations. In fact, you could get to the point where you can’t even handle minor stresses. Just the thought of preparing a job assignment or meeting a deadline triggers all the symptoms of stress, along with an overwhelming wish to procrastinate and avoid stressful tasks.
• Taking things personally, or feeling that you are under attack, when faced with stressful situations only increases anger and the feeling of things being out of control.

Think about a specific stressful situation in which you reacted in a negative way. What happened as a result of your negative reaction? Do you wish you had been able to respond in a positive way? What do you think might have happened if you had been able to do so?

Positive Stress Reactions

Although it’s easier said than done, responding positively to the stress in your life is always the best approach.

• A positive response to stress begins with recognizing the onset of stress symptoms. Once you recognize the symptoms, you can begin to take control of your reaction to the stress and manage it positively.
• You can use the adrenaline produced by stress to help you overcome your fear and worry, and give you the energy to confront the challenge.
• Positive thoughts and self-talk also help. They break the cycle of tension and self-doubt created by stress. For example, think about how you will benefit and grow into a better and stronger person by overcoming a stressful situation. Or think back to some of the things you were so worried about a year ago. Do they seem so important or threatening now? Probably not. So today’s problem probably isn’t the end of the world either. You’ll come through it one way or another, just as you always have in the past.
• Remember that every situation, no matter how tragic, has some humor or irony in it. Look for the silver lining to keep stress in check.

Think about situations in which you’ve responded positively to stress. Did they turn out better than when you responded negatively?

Stress Management

Now let’s talk about some other ways to reduce, eliminate, or otherwise manage stress. We’ll look at four general categories in the next few slides:

• Lifestyle management;
• Avoiding stress;
• Stress therapy; and
• Organization.

Lifestyle Management

Keeping your body and mind in good shape and well rested will help you more successfully manage the stressful situations that arise.

• Exercising or even basic stretching or yoga will give you the endurance and energy you need to get through stressful events. When your body is in good condition, you’re less likely to get sick, and limber muscles are less likely to become tense. Stretching and exercise are also great ways to release physical and emotional tension when you’re feeling stressed.
• Proper diet also contributes to successful stress management. Eating nutritious meals helps your body store energy and reduce the chance of illness during times of stress. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and excess sugar during stressful periods, since they tend to add to stress.
• And don’t forget about rest. Adequate sleep is essential for reducing stress. Rest gives your body and mind a chance to recover from stress and prepares you to meet the new day’s challenges. Not sleeping during a period of stress will only contribute to the effects stress has on you physically and psychologically.

Do you use these lifestyle strategies to manage your stress?

Avoiding Stress

Another way to manage stress is to avoid unnecessary stress.

• Although you might not be able to eliminate all stress from your life, you can probably do something about some of the minor annoyances like traffic jams, crowds, and household chores. For example, maybe taking an alternate route to work or leaving a few minutes earlier could mean you miss the traffic. Perhaps you could do more shopping, banking, and so forth online, instead of waiting in line. And what about those chores? Maybe it’s time that some of the other members of your family pitched in to relieve you of some of your stress.
• When it comes to the big stresses, try to pace major lifestyle changes so that one storm dies down before taking on another stressful project.
• Cooperation is less stressful than confrontation. So if you want to avoid some stress in your life, focus more on working with others at work and at home. Communicate your needs and feelings and be prepared to listen to what others have to say. Getting your own way all the time isn’t always the best way. It can be stressful to fight for every inch.
• And finally, understand your limits. Accept that some things are— and may always be—out of your control. Try not to be a perfectionist. Work within your capacity. You may be surprised to find you can be successful and more relaxed at the same time.

Stress Therapy

When you can’t avoid stress, you can still take good care of yourself to minimize it’s impact.

• For example, remember that laughter is the best medicine when it comes to stress. Try to maintain a sense of humor about stressful situations. A year from now, you’ll probably look back and smile at how stressed you got over so many little things.
• Also try to make some time each day for relaxation. Relaxing doesn’t necessarily mean stretching out in the recliner. It could just mean some quiet time doing something you enjoy. For some people it’s reading. For others it’s tinkering in the workshop or doing some gardening. Some people like to meditate or go for a walk alone. It doesn’t matter as long as your body and mind have time to relax.
• Talking over the things that stress you with someone you trust and respect, like a best friend or family member, can also be a big relief. You can share your fears, doubts, and anxieties in a safe environment and get them off your chest. Often, you’ll hear a different perspective that can set you on a more positive track for dealing with a stressful situation.
• And though it may sound a little silly, pleasant thoughts can also help relieve stress. Take a few moments to remember a pleasant experience such as a vacation, or think about your favorite place or person.

Organization

The last strategy for managing stress more successfully is to get—and stay—organized. Organization will help give you a better sense of control, and that can diminish the impact of stress on your life. As we said earlier, people who are always stressed often have disordered lives.

• So don’t let chaos take over your life. Set priorities. Not everything is equally important. If you try to do everything at once, you’ll be running around like crazy all day and accomplishing very little— and that will just increase your stress level.
• Develop a basic routine for your life. That way, waking up each day won’t be so stressful because you already have a framework for what you’ll be doing. Divide your day into sections and order your tasks appropriately into the different sections. Most of us thrive on structure, and creating good habits helps us keep focused and feeling secure.
• Also, maintain a calendar to organize the events in your life. Forgetting an appointment or obligation can be very stressful. Develop the habit of using a calendar or personal organizer to note down everything you have to do each day. That way you can always plan ahead and leave enough time to get each thing done without worrying about being late or forgetting something important.
• Finally, remember to be flexible. The best laid plans will often need to be changed due to any number of reasons. Try to have a “plan B” or even a “plan C” for those hectic days.

Stress Management: True or False?

Now it’s time for a short true/false test to see how much you remember about stress management. You have to decide if each statement on the screen is true or false. Let’s begin.

• Keeping your body in good shape can help reduce stress. The correct answer is true. Exercise, good diet, and enough sleep can all help you better manage stress.
• It’s less stressful to make a lot of big changes in your life all at once. The correct answer is false. It’s usually less stressful to pace major lifestyle changes.
• Talking about the things that stress you just makes you feel more stressed. The correct answer is false. Talking normally helps relieve some of the stress. A friend might also give you a different perspective on the problem that can help you minimize or eliminate stress.
• People who are well organized are usually less stressed. The correct answer is true. They’ve developed priorities, habits, and routines that help them cope better with stress than disorganized people.

How did you do? Did you get all the answers right?

Stress Management

Let’s take a moment now to make sure you understand all the information presented in the previous slides. Do you understand what we’ve said about:

• Positive and negative reactions to stress?
• Lifestyle management?
• Stress avoidance?
• Stress therapy?
• Organization as a stress-reduction tool?

All of this information will help you to better manage the stress in your life.

Now let’s conclude the session with some key points to remember.

Key Points To Remember

Here are the main points to remember from this session on stress management:

• Try to identify the stress factors in your life;
• Examine your reactions to stress;
• Learn to react positively to stress; and
• Practice stress management techniques to minimize stress.

This concludes the training session on stress management.