Know Your Stress Levels so You can Reduce Stress
Several years ago my wife and I were concerned that students who had significant reading disabilities might show undetected but high levels of stress. We were worried that no one seemed to have done any research on the impact of a reading disability on emotional well-being, specifically stress. We identified a cohort of fourth graders who had a serious reading disability and we measured their stress levels using a ’self-report’ system, that is, a pencil and paper survey. We were delighted to find that at least in this sample of boys in this particular school that while the boys were significant underachievers in reading, their stress levels were normal and no stress relief program was necessary.
Many people ask me to measure their levels of stress to provide stress relief. There is no difficulty in measuring levels of stress. The simplest way is to report your level of stress, depression and anxiety to a psychologist. Self-report is the usual method for explaining your levels of stress. If you are self aware, you can be very accurate in describing your symptoms, feelings and behavior.
If you did want a relatively objective measure of your stress you could ask a medical professional to do a urine analysis. Blood analysis is also another way of measuring the cortisol in your system. There seems to be substantial evidence that cortisol levels increase with psychological stress. There is little doubt that as your stress levels rise, there are increases in physiological responses too. These include elevated heart rate, blood pressure, flushing, skin changes and so on. For many people there are also headaches and even migraines and associated aura.
There are many online testing program to help you work out your levels of stress. Of course, you don’t know if these tests are reliable. I rely on a structured interview and a self report scale to measure elevated stress. By repeated measures over a period of months I can get a feeling for how stress levels increase with my patients. As I provide stress relief therapy, I need evidence that we are reducing stress.
When some people are stressed, they report that they can’t sleep, have wild mood swings, feel physically ill, upset, worried and distracted. If you looked carefully at their emotional and physical reactions you can see they fit into four different patterns. These are physiological and physical responses, cognitive or thinking changes, interpersonal variations, and emotional responses.
You need to know how stressed you are. If you have some idea of your stress levels, you can respond better to stress relief programs. I always says that stress is a silent killer and that is the enemy in terms of our feelings of security and emotional comfort. No one needs the emotional challenges of high stress, burnout, and constant feelings of being stressed out. There is very little of value to an individual who experiences high levels of stress. For a stress relief program to be effective, the patient needs to be able to know and understand their stress levels. I have 15 strategies for stress relief. For me, the stress relief challenge is to set the best strategy to the individual patient. I do not want my patients to have miserable, stressed lives.
When we are stressed, our relationships suffer. The danger of relationship breakdowns is that we lose the capacity to seek social support from our loved ones, one of the most effective stress relief interventions. Talking with others and sharing feelings is great for stress relief. Social support equals free therapy. Sharing worries and concerns reduces the stress. Some people are so worried that social support does not provide stress relief. One good example is mortgage stress and impending foreclosures. Professional help is essential in these cases.
There is a lot written about stress but I hope that my particular view about stress relief and stress management is helpful. I really want to be able to help people manage their stress. If you can engage in effective stress relief programs, even if you run them yourself, you will have a happier and more successful life.
