Stress Management Revisited

Introduction
Let’s face it. No other single force is more responsible for the worldwide epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse than hypertension, or excessive stress.

What do we see in the world around us? Overcrowding. Interpersonal conflicts. Economic uncertainty. International strife. Uncertainty about the future. A gnawing sense of helplessness.

These factor add up to create what Alvin Toffler described as future shock- a vague, continuous feeling of anxiety. It’s a condition that can only be described as the disease of change.


Escaping Reality
More and more people are seeking to dull the pain of this 21st century “disease” by using alcohol and drugs. But the supposed cure has itself created an epidemic. Organizational development consultant Karl Albrecht aptly summarizes today’s state of mind in these words:
“The use of mood-altering chemicals in America, and to some extent in other developed countries, has run completely wild.
“Cultures we are pleased to label ‘primitive’ all without exception reserve the use of tobacco, drugs and intoxicants for special occasions such as celebration and rituals. Only in the so- called advance cultures do we use these chemically induced altered states of awareness as routine means for escaping reality.”

Stress is not necessarily a negative force. Stress is not, after all, just what happens to us, but how we react to what happens to us. And how we react is controlled by our mind and emotions.

Role of stress
To be alive is to be under a certain amount of stress. As endocrinologist Hans Selye, one of the world’s foremost authorities on stress, says: “Most people who want to accomplish something, who are ambitious, live on stress. They need it.” The right amount of stress can push us to perform at our very best.

Stress also serves to protect us in hazardous situations. If we are driving along in fast traffic and another car swerves into our lane in front of us, a lot of things immediately happen in our bodies- in the brain, heart, and muscular system. The body marshals inner forces and rises to meet the crises, producing the positive effect of avoiding a collision.

But if the crises and pressures around us become so frequent and so intense that we are constantly calling upon inner resources to respond so dramatically, the stress becomes debilitating. The body simply cannot meet such demands.
Say’s health educator Leo R. Vandolson: “ When individuals are repeatedly forced to… accept continual change, especially changes involving conflict and uncertainty, an adaptive reaction occurs that draws upon the hormones, causing chemical reactions throughout the body that damage it’s reserves of energy.”

Having too much stress, which Dr. Selye refers to as hyperstress, can be destructive to both our physical and emotional well-being. Many turn to alcohol or drugs to anesthetize the stress produce by emotionally upsetting events or situations: marital quarrels, poverty, fear, loneliness, job tensions.

These individuals fail to realize, however, that using alcohol or drugs to cope with stress is contributing to a vicious and harmful cycle in a person’s life. Using alcohol or drugs is not an effective measure for coping with pressures.

The Cost of Stress Epidemic
Stress is epidemic in the western world. Over two-thirds of office visits to physicians are for stress related illness. Stress is a major contributing factor either directly or indirectly, to coronary artery disease, cancer, respiratory disorders, accidental injuries, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide; the six leading causes of death in the United States. Stress aggravates other conditions such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, herpes, mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse, and family discord and violence.

The stress epidemic is an extremely costly one. The medical costs alone have been estimated in the United States at well over 1 Billion dollars per year. Stress costs industry approximately 150 billion dollars per year in increased health insurance outlays, burnout, absenteeism, reduced productivity, costly mistakes in the office and on the shop floor, poor morale, high employee turnover, as well as family, alcohol and drug related problems.

Stress and Our Emotion
Stress is a state of tension that is created when a person responds to the demands and pressures that come from work, family and other external sources, as well as those that are internally generated from self imposed demands, obligations and self-criticism.

Stress is both additive and cumulative. It adds up over time until a state of crisis is reached and symptoms appear. These symptoms may manifest themselves psychologically as irritability, anxiety, impaired concentration, mental confusion, poor judgment, frustration and anger. They may appear as physical symptoms. Common physical symptoms of stress include: muscle tension, headaches, low back pain, insomnia and high blood pressure. Untreated, these symptoms may lead to physical illness and sometimes death.