I would like to explain as simply as possible

• What stress is
• Who is affected by it
• The causes of stress
• The types of stress
• The symptoms of stress
• How to manage stress.

Stress is a common reaction when our basic needs are not met. They can be either physical, psychological or emotional. Stress is felt by everybody at some time or the other and does not discriminate between different personality types.

There are many causes of stress. When we have a need of something and are unable to satisfy that need, will most probably cause stress. For example if it was a very hot day and I was very thirsty but unable to get a drink anywhere, I would most likely start to feel stress. That is a very simple analogy. Stress can come from within ourselves or from external sources. High levels of stress could be caused by say the death of a spouse, divorce, separation, retirement, severe ill health down to a lower level of stress such as changing your place of residence.

A single stressor upon several different people will cause different levels of stress in each person. For example if the boss in an office makes an announcement at the beginning of the day that a few of the staff will be laid off. Most probably each person in that office will reach a different level of stress.

There are different classifications of stress namely, external stress, internal stress, acute stress and chronic stress. Depending upon the strength of the stressors upon different individuals will cause differing levels of emotional stress, physical stress, psychological or mental stress.

External stress as the name implies comes from an outside source. They are factors, influences or expectations in our environment that seem to be in conflict with our perceptions of how it should be. Most of those stressors would be outside our control and the only way to relieve the stress symptoms is in many cases to leave that particular environment. An example of that could be that at work you and your supervisor don’t get along and he continually harasses you. You may want to quit your job and seek employment elsewhere.

Again internal stress as the name implies emanates from the inside. It could be caused by a conflict of our personality needs and attitudes or maybe between a clash of new and old attitudes which causes us confusion and discomfort. An example could be that your belief in a certain theory for most of your life has been proved incorrect and false. Worry or low self-esteem whether acute or chronic is an internal stress.

Acute stress is a very sharp and sudden form of stress that most probably was not expected and could cause a painful period of time. It could cause you to be short of breath, tremble and sweat. An example of acute stress could be that if you were crossing a road and all of a sudden you hear a blast of a horn and the screeching of brakes close by, that may cause you to suffer acute stress which should subside after a short period of time.

Chronic stress is a long term stress which can come from an outside source or internal. In some cases chronic stress may go on for many years. A person who is unhappy in a work situation would most probably suffer chronic stress. Just imagine that your body is a beaker with a tap on the top that is continually dripping. If your body is incapable of dissipating the stress that you have and there is a continual dripping of stress hormones and it keeps on accumulating, it will cause your liver to work harder and it will eventually wear you down. If your body, the beaker overflows, it is a stress breakdown and most probably you would not be able to get back to where you were.

Chronic stress symptoms can manifest itself physically such as broken sleep, dizziness, headaches, poor digestion, sweating and many more. It can also affect us emotionally such as being easily upset, having low self-esteem, being suddenly angry and having undue anxiety and fear. The psychological symtoms could be abnormal ‘after the event’ thoughts, disorientation, memory lapses, undue daydreaming and many more.

There are many different levels of stress and on a scale of zero to ten where zero is no stress, one is extremely low stress and ten is an extremely high stress level. We all have to have a certain amount of stress and the person with zero level would most probably be dead. Levels one and two are very low and the person exhibiting these levels would most probably be listless, bored and unable to improve their situation. For example, go through a nursing home and see what their patients are doing. On about levels 3 to 5 is what is known as eustress, which is a good positive and healthy stress and is opposite to a word we all know, distress, which is negative stress. The right amount of stress can be very invigorating and inspiring and is an excellent form of motivation. Levels 6 and 7 would be high stress. Going back to our beaker analogy, when acute stress attacks us, our stress level rises. If our body cannot cope with it, we remain at a higher level of stress. If it can cope we return to our positive level. In cases of extreme stress and our body, the beaker is still relatively full of stress hormones, it overflows and we may find that we cannot digest our food and are likely to void our stomachs and or bowels.

There is another group of stress symptoms which is very severe and is known as the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are many causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and they fall into three categories, namely:

• Natural disasters such as fire, famine earthquakes floods etc.
• Deliberate human acts as in murder, rape, torture etc.
• Unintentional human-caused trauma such as car accidents, plane crashes, building collapses eg., Westgate Bridge-- The Voyager disaster.

There are many different physiological symptoms of stress that are detrimental to health such as:- allergies - asthma - angina -atherosclerosis - back problems - coronary heart disease - high blood pressure - migraine - thrombosis - ulcers and many others. Emotional symptoms can be that a person is easily upset, have low self-esteem, suffer undue anxiety and fear and many others. On the psychological side we can have abnormal ‘after the event’ thoughts, disorientation, memory lapses, slow thinking and many others.

Let us look at stress from a different angle. There is a theory that for every cause there is an effect. Let’s replace the word cause by the word stress and the word effect by the word response. So now we have for every stress symptom there is a response. Should the response be negative we can introduce a mediator. So we now have cognitive behaviour as our mediating response thereby creating a different response or result.

There are many effective ways to manage stress and they fall into four distinct areas where corrective management could take place. We try to control the outside factors as best we can and order our live-style management accordingly. We have to take care of our physical health and wellbeing and we can develop our interpersonal relationships.

The actual methods that we can use to relieve stress could be to move to a lower stimulus environment, take on a physical activity such as a sport, listen to relaxation tapes, have some time-out, review your language - in other words don’t speak negatively, anticipate stress and take precautions against it. An excellent method is to use your mind to visualise positive outcomes, rehearse before-hand what you will say and do in a fore-seeable event and use affirmations to re-inforce an attitude for the good of your well-being.

Milton Sofoulis Sr, Dip.B.S., Dip.Min(Hon), Dip. Prof.Couns., is a professional counsellor based in Deniliquin, NSW, who specialises in relationship counselling, stress management, self esteem, and counselling for general personal issues.

He is available for personal counselling, group counselling, interactive discussion groups, corporate presentations, and presentations for special interest groups.

Phone/Fax: (03) 5881 2581. Mobile: 0438 812 581. .