Just about everyone who you talk to nowadays will complain about being “stressed out.”  Thirty years ago, no one ever even used this term.  Today, however, it is a staple in most conversations.  We often refer to ourselves as being “stressed out” when we discuss our careers as well as our personal lives. 

Recent studies indicate that even children are “stressed out.”  Little kids, who shouldn’t have a care in the world, are becoming “stressed” due to activities at home or at school.  In most cases, they are simply inheriting the stress from their parents.

Psychologists who deal with “stressed out” individuals blame the current situation on everything from the foods we eat to our society.  Most agree that people today attempt to do “too much” and end up getting burned out. 

We all experience stress during the course of our lives.  There is a difference, however, in being constantly stressed out and experiencing stress due to a certain situation.  Anything that dramatically disrupts our lives is a cause for stress.   Most people recover from the stressful situation after it has been resolved or over a period of time. 

Other people tend to get stressed out all the time.  In fact, their entire life appears to be one big stress factory.  This is unhealthy and is gradually taking its toll on our society.  Each year, billions of dollars are spent on symptoms of stress.  There are dozens of prescriptive medicines on the market today that address stress and anxiety.  Millions of people are on some sort of medication for “stress.”

What has happened in the past thirty years that has caused us to become such a nation of stressed out individuals?  Is society expecting too much from us or are we expecting too much from ourselves?  Why are so many people suffering from the following:

• Anxiety disorder
• Social anxiety disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Depression
• Panic attacks

Years ago, no one ever even heard of these conditions, now they are featured in every magazine you encounter.  There is a huge market to treat both depression and anxiety, which usually go hand in hand and are the offspring of stress.

Pharmaceutical companies are cranking out different anti-depressants all of the time.  These are said to be ‘better” than the other anti-depressants that they discovered a year prior.  Thirty years ago, no one ever even heard the term “anti-depressant.”  If you used that expression back then, people would think you were talking about something to do with your car. 

Today it seems as if every single person you encounter is “on something” for stress, depression or anxiety.  All of them can neatly be lumped into the same category and are caused by stress. 

Stress is usually at the root of all of the above psychological disorders.  It also affects us physically as well.  Stress has been linked to every disease known to man, including heart disease and cancer.  Clearly, it is not a good idea for people to be under stress.  But, as human beings, we are going to experience stressful situations.  There is no avoiding this fact.  Therefore, in order to really be able to help cure ourselves from being “stressed out” we need to know how to do the following:

• Identify stressors that affect our daily lives;
• Eliminate the stressors of which we can free ourselves;
• Learn to deal with stressful situations in a healthy way 

If you are one of the millions of people who are feeling stressed out, you must take a look at the reasons why you are stressed out and try to do what you can to eliminate as much stress as you can from your life.  If you continue to be “stressed out” you will most likely find yourself taking some sort of prescription drug for one of the above disorders.  Taking prescription drugs for stress does not mean that you are “crazy.”  This book will discuss alternative ways to deal with stress, but as a last resort, you are better off with the medications than allowing your body to be battered by stress.

Life is way too short to go through it being stressed out.  And chances are that you will shorten your lifespan significantly if you continue to be “stressed out “ through the daily course of your life.  This is especially true as many of the things over which you may be stressed are minor, but have been blown up in your mind to be worse than they actually are.  

Wouldn’t it be nice to actually be able to go through life without being “stressed out” over everything and without drugs or medications?  This book will teach you everything you wanted to know about stress and how you can avoid this scourge that seems to be plaguing millions of people.

Working requires long hours of concentration and complete dedication. You may feel compelled to finish work to achieve the deadline, meet client satisfaction, or attain quota. All these factors can be very stressful but they are inevitable since they motive people to strive harder.

Even at home stress is present. Your child may be failing in her studies, or you are getting late with your rent or bills. These can be stressful even to think about. If you cannot prioritize what is important, you may feel stress every single day. Sometimes, you have no choice but to remove yourself from a stressful situation and just break away from everything.

Hobbies You Enjoy The Most

Hobbies and pastimes are very good stress relievers. You can put your mind away from problems through concentrating on things that are enjoyable and fun. There are several activities that you can enjoy depending on what suits you best.

If you are into singing, go out with your friends and enjoy sing-a-long and karaoke bars. Even singing inside your bathroom is not a bad idea. You can enjoy singing almost anywhere as long as you are not bothering anyone. If you are not into singing but more into the artistic types, purchasing a sketchpad and a pencil or any art materials you want can help you relieve stress.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to hobbies. Other people like to tinker on things when they feel stressed. Find the things that you like doing the most and use it to keep yourself away from stress. Hobbies do not need long hours of attention and they can be done anywhere and are usually cheap.

Going Outdoors or Indoors

Sports are not only good for stress but also to your body. They require both physical and mental ability. If you feel that you need to break away from all the problems you have, invite a friend or group of friends to have a friendly outdoor game. There are many activities that you can engage yourself into. There is basketball, volleyball, badminton etc. All of these activities do not require long attention and is a sure way to change your focus. Sweating releases the tension in the body and provides long lasting relief.

There are also many indoor sports that you can try. Table tennis only takes up a small amount of space and can be played by many. Board games like scrabble, word factory and bridge are also sports. The only difference is they require you to use your brain. Keep those brain cells alive by getting your hands on board games.

Take A Break

Long hours of work or monthly monotonous activities can get you stressed. Having a vacation and breaking yourself away from your work is absolutely not a bad idea. If you think you deserve the break, ask for a vacation leave and go to somewhere where there are things not related to your work. A change of scenery can keep you from getting all stressed up.

Vacations offer a lot of things that you can try. There is fishing, kayaking, even rock climbing if you are the extreme type. But if you are not into serene or quiet hideaways and like bright lights and partying then you can take your vacation on places that includes casino strips or long nights of partying. You can take your vacation anywhere and they can always relieve you of your stress.

Have you experience aches and pains while you work, or feel tired all of a sudden even before you start with one? Well, this is practically the effect of stress in your body. Most medicals experts agree that stress can be a profound influence in the decline of your normal body functions – tight muscles, migraine, drowsiness, and so on.

Most medical experts agree that a healthy bout of physical exercise can improve your health despite everyday bout of stress due to career, personal or social problems. It’s advisable that you should take some time off from work, or an early good night sleep and wake up early in the morning to engage in some physical exercise.

Physical exercise for stress management

Physical exercise can improve your body’s adaptability to stress. This involves routine movements that will improve your cardiovascular functions and strengthen your heart. This in turn improves the circulation of your blood and other bio-chemicals which your body needs to maintain a good health.

When your muscles are well supplied with oxygen, this will improve muscle integrity which will improve endurance, stamina and flexibility. Also when engaging in physical exercise, you can find an outlet for your mental stress – release your depression, anxiety, anger, fear, and so on by focusing on your workout and sweat it out.

Exercise tips

You must follow certain physical regime for your exercise to have the desired result, simply jogging around the block or lifting some weight will not provide the overall effect of a complete workout. Here are some tips that will start you of in releasing stress through physical exercise:

1. Time. Before indulging your body to some serious sweating, you must set some time so that you can have an uninterrupted workout. Early morning is the best time for an exercise since the fresh air will help your body get the clean oxygen that it needs to recover from those accumulated stress.

2. Warm-up exercise. It is very important to engage in light exercise to warm your body up before engaging in heavy-duty workout. By doing some light maneuvers from your feet to head will avoid cramps that will plague you for days.
Start off with some minor stretching. Start of with your ankles, legs, hips, arms and neck. Make sure you do it slow and with set time intervals so your body won’t react negatively. The purpose of the warm-up is to let your body adapt to the work-out that will follow afterwards.

3. Tools of the trade. If you plan to forgo going to the gym and do your exercise at home, then it is necessary to be prepared for it. Try to purchase some health books that features exercise routines for different parts of your body. If you want to make a habit out of this then you might need to purchase support equipments that will improve your body’s performance.

4. Proper Diet. Practically the most important facet of the physical exercise regime is your food intake. Make sure that you eat enough so that you’re body won’t get tired from the physical exercise, but not too much to give you those unwanted cholesterols and calories. Stay away from fast food goodies and junk food and stick with healthy fruits and veggies that start you off.

Aside from improving your muscles, you also need to make sure that your organs are in full working order for a perfect stress management.

Some people think that it’s almost impossible to find an outlet while under stress. Most stressed individuals think that doing fun activities will not reduce the effect of problems that they tackle under career, social or personal pressure – which is a very poor way to get cope or rid them of it.

Therapist around the world agree that certain activities like games, sports and art can great affect a stressed persons physical and behavioral problems. Some of them are even employed in stress management clinics and is part of the routine treatment in helping individuals cope with their stress issue.

Mind games

Since stress will first affect the mental functions of an individual, it is very important to teach the person focus his mind on positive thoughts rather than dwelling on negative ones. Mind games offer an alternative which will allow a stress person to divert this thought patterns to something more productive. These clinics encourage their patients to tackle crossword puzzles and sudoku to help them cope with stress.

Logical functions are put to the test by introducing the Rubik’s Cube, Scrabble, and Bridge, into their curriculum. If you have no plans of visiting these centers to deal with stress, you can easily incorporate these games into your daily routine to give your mind some diversion from problems.

Sports

Engaging in sports is a great way to relieve stress. The physical exercise that your body needs to balance biological and muscular functions can rejuvenate those muscles that are tight due to the effects of stress. Playing sports can also provide an outlet for emotional problems like anxiety, depression, irritation, anger, and so on.

There are two kinds of sports a person can engage on his or her own free time. They can opt for team sports like basketball, soccer or volleyball which provides socializing functions and exercise. Individual sports like badminton, golf and tennis can also be a great help in focusing your mind to win the game rather than feeling useless under all the extra problems.

Workout

A visit to the gym may prove to be beneficial to your emotional, mental and physical health when under the influence of stress. The routine exercise your gym instructor will give you can help your mind focus on the tasks at hand. The strenuous activities can develop your muscles which improves your body’s coping mechanism to stress, and allows the body to release chemicals and hormones that is beneficial to your physiological well-being.

Cardiovascular workout can improve your heart and strengthen it to avoid stress related problems like strokes, high-blood pressure, chest pains and rapid heart beat. Due to the steady circulation in your system will benefit your muscles because of the fresh oxygen supply provided by these hearty fluids.

Note however that working out at the gym needs proper diet as well since your physical attributes will be worked to the limit to help fight off stress. Fresh fruits and vegetables are necessary improves digestion and supplies the body with the required nutrients it needs. Red meat devoid of fat can give your muscles proteins that will strengthen muscle tissues for added flexibility.

A healthy dose of mental activities, physical exercise coupled with a balance diet can help a person avoid the signs and symptom of stress and will be on the road to recovery to a stress free life.

As we go through this information, I want you to understand that this section is of importance to those trying to help another person who is experiencing, or dealing with, Anxiety on a daily basis. How you provide support to them may help them to control their Anxiety to some degree.

First thing is first. NEVER belittle or try to downplay someone’s Anxiety Disorder. This is a REAL disorder and should be respected as such. Don’t just dismiss their episode as a one time event, or try and ’solve’ their problem through rationalization.

You have to understand that when a person is actually going through an Anxiety attack rationality is not something they are concentrating on. Or listening to. This is an extremely frightening experience and no matter how much you’d want to, you CANNOT MAKE THIS EXPERIENCE GO AWAY. Only the individual who is HAVING the attack has the power to do this. Not YOU.

The absolute WORST thing you can do is to act as if they are LYING or ACTING to get attention. This is simply not the case. While you may BELIEVE this to be true because you have never yourself experienced the unrelenting terror of an Anxiety attack, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening to someone you care about.

Imagine for a second that you had witnessed a “physical” accident that your loved one or dear friend was a part of. Something you could SEE the outcome from. Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to help them?

What if they were trapped inside a car that was on fire? What if they were trapped underwater and were drowning? You would want to aid them, wouldn’t you? What if they had stopped breathing? Would you just stand around watching them pass away? Or would you do everything you could to administer CPR to them, even if you weren’t sure you were doing it correctly?

While the above examples are extreme, sometimes, to an Anxiety sufferer, it absolutely feels like the end of their world. As if they are drowning in a sea of chaos and disparity,unable to pull themselves out.

Also, by attempting to in effect ignore the Anxiety attack, you are probably contributing to another disorder that goes hand in hand with Anxiety. . .Depression.

Instead of holding them down ‘under water’, try throwing them a life preserver the next time they have an attack.

How can you do that? Just BE there for them. Let them know that while you may not understand what they are going through, you are there for them and will stay until they feel better.
Do NOT try and force someone out of an Anxiety attack. It could make the attack that much worse for them. Just let the attack happen naturally, and in most, if not all, cases, their bodies will help them come out of the ‘hot’ zone all on it’s own. And if it doesn’t, get them to the nearest emergency room as soon as you can. Or call an emergency squad to take them.

Also, NEVER try and give someone suffering from an Anxiety attack any type of prescription drugs that have not been prescribed by their family physician. Seems like common sense, but when you see a loved one going through such a painful event, you really want to help them. Believe me, THIS WILL NOT HELP THEM. Getting them to a professional source, such as an emergency room or their own family physician, for help WILL.