Mental Health Musings

Explore

Mental Health Musings

Mental Health Musings

Ep. 2: Stress Management

Stress Management Techniques

COPING WITH A STRESSOR

⁠

Types of coping mechanisms:

Task-oriented coping: Finding successful ways of coping

Emotion-focused coping: Managing your feelings and/or accepting the stressful situation

Women tend to use emotion-focused coping more than men.

To engage in either coping mechanism requires an appraisal of the demand.

COMPETENCIES TO MANAGE STRESS EFFECTIVELY

⁠

Source management: Reducing or eliminating the source of stress

Relaxation: Techniques such as meditation or diaphragmatic breathing

Thought management: Reinterpreting stressful thoughts to be less stressful

Prevention: Planning to avoid stressors

LIFE-SITUATION INTERVENTIONS

⁠

INTRAPERSONAL INTERVENTIONS

⁠

NUTRITION

Eat a balanced diet.

Limit the amount of saturated fats and increase the amount of fiber.

Add vegetables to your diet.

Limit the amount of alcohol you ingest.

Be more realistic about your weight.

Limit intake of caffeine, and don’t smoke.

Supplement your diet with vitamins during particularly stressful times.

Limit foods containing sugar.

Don’t skip meals.

Limit intake of processed flour and sodium.

NOISE AND STRESS

Noise can raise blood pressure, increase heart rate, and lead to muscle tension.

Noise is related to job dissatisfaction and results in irritation, anxiety, sleep disturbance, headaches, and hypertension.

You can take greater control of your life by limiting disturbing noises and seeking out relaxing sounds.

SUCCESS ANALYSIS

Success will lead to improved self-esteem.

Lack of success (failure) will lead to diminished self-esteem, resulting in a very significant stressor.

Success is multifaceted and in the eyes of the beholder.

INTERPERSONAL INTERVENTIONS

⁠

ASSERTING YOURSELF

Nonassertive behavior: Denying your own wishes to satisfy someone else’s

Unsatisfied needs will become stressors.

Aggressive behavior: Seeking to dominate or get your own way at the expense of others

If you meet your needs at the expense of your relationships, those poor interpersonal relationships will become stressors.

Assertive body language and nonverbal expression:

Stand straight, remain steady, and directly face the people you’re speaking to while maintaining eye contact.

Speak in a clear, steady voice—loud enough to be heard.

Speak fluently without hesitation and with assurance and confidence.

DESC formula for assertive verbal expression:

Describe. Paint a verbal picture of the other person’s behavior or the situation to which you are reacting.

Express. Express your feelings regarding the other person’s behavior or the situation by using “I” statements.

Specify. Be specific by identifying several ways you would like the other person’s behavior or the situation to change.

Consequence. Select the consequences you have decided to apply to the behavior/situation.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Barriers to conflict resolution:

Lack of listening

Attempt at winning

Inability to demonstrate understanding

Rigidity that prevents you from considering alternative solutions

Procedure to resolve interpersonal conflict:

Active listening (reflective listening): Requires the listener to paraphrase the speaker’s words so that the speaker knows that their meaning has been received and requires the listener to go beyond the speaker’s words to paraphrase the feelings left unspoken

Identifying your position: Stating your thoughts and feelings about the situation

Exploring alternative solutions: Brainstorming other possibilities

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

From a place of awareness, look to the message of your emotional reaction to understand what is causing it; then, once you understand the message of the emotion, choose a response—how or whether to act.

Because neural circuits need to be modified to extend deep into the nonverbal parts of the brain, emotional intelligence training must be experiential.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Assess how you spend your time:

Divide your day into 15-minute segments.

Record what you are doing every 15 minutes.

Review this time diary and total the time spent on each activity throughout the day.

Evaluate that use of time.

Decide on an adjustment but make it specific.

Set goals.

Prioritize:

A list: Activities that must get done—so important that not to do them would be very undesirable

B list: Activities you’d like to do and that need to be done but won’t result in you feeling terrible if they don’t get done

C list: Activities you’d like to do if you get A and B activities done

Make a list of things not to do.

Set a schedule:

Schedule your priority activities into your day.

Don’t forget to schedule some relaxation and recreation as well.

Maximize your rewards.

Say no.

Delegate:

When possible, get others to do those things that need to be done but that do not need your personal attention.

Do not hesitate to seek help when you are short on time and are overloaded.

Help others only when they really need help and when you have the time available.

SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORKING

Forms of social support:

Tangible support (e.g., money)

Emotional support (e.g., love or caring concern)

Informational support (e.g., facts or aadvice)

Ways in which social support helps manage stress:

Direct effect theory: Views social support as a means of preventing stressors from occurring in the first place

Stress-buffering theory: States that social support helps after a stressor is encountered to help prevent that stressor from resulting in negative consequences

Stress in a group has less potent effects than in situations that must be confronted alone (e.g., solitary confinement).

Loss of social support is related to poor quality of life.

Benefits of social support:

The strongest predictor of life satisfaction

Helps people adjust to their illness

Improves the immune system’s effectiveness

Associated with healthier neuroendocrine functioning

Decreases cortisol secretion during stress

Forgiveness can be a non-stressful, healthy behavior.

PERCEPTION INTERVENTIONS

⁠

THE FOUR As

⁠

Because everyone has a unique response to stress, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to managing it.

Experiment with different techniques and strategies.

AVOID UNNECESSARY STRESS.

Learn how to say no. Refuse to accept added responsibilities when you’re close to reaching them.

Avoid people who stress you out. If someone consistently causes stress in your life and you can’t turn the relationship around, limit the amount of time you spend with that person, or end the relationship entirely.

Take control of your environment. Example: If the evening news makes you anxious, turn the TV off.

Avoid hot-button topics. If you get upset over religion or politics, cross them off your conversation list. If you repeatedly argue about the same subject with the same people, stop bringing it up, or excuse yourself when it’s the topic of discussion.

Pare down your to-do list. If you’ve got too much on your plate, distinguish between the shoulds and the musts. Drop tasks that aren’t truly necessary to the bottom of the list, or eliminate them entirely.

ALTER THE SITUATION.

⁠

Express your feelings instead of bottling them up. If someone or something is bothering you, communicate your concerns in an open and respectful way.

Be willing to compromise. When you ask someone to change their behavior, be willing to do the same.

Be more assertive. Deal with problems head on, doing your best to anticipate and prevent them.

Manage your time better. If you plan ahead and make sure that you don’t overextend yourself, you can alter the amount of stress you’re under.

ADAPT TO THE STRESSOR.

⁠

Reframe problems. Try to view stressful situations from a more positive perspective.

Look at the big picture. Ask yourself how important the stressful situation will be in the long run. If the answer is no, focus your time and energy elsewhere.

Adjust your standards. Stop setting yourself up for failure by demanding perfection. Set reasonable standards for yourself and others and learn to be okay with being good enough.

Focus on the positive. When stress is getting you down, take a moment to reflect on all the things you appreciate in your life, including your own positive qualities and gifts.

Eliminate absolutist thinking (always, never, should, and must). If you see good things about yourself, you are more likely to feel good; the reverse is also true.

ACCEPT THE THINGS YOU CAN’T CHANGE.

⁠

Don’t try to control the uncontrollable. Focus on the things you can control, such as the way you choose to react to problems.

Look for the upside. When facing major challenges, try to look at them as opportunities for personal growth. If your own poor choices contributed to a stressful situation, reflect on them and learn from your mistakes.

Share your feelings. Expressing what you’re going through can be very cathartic, even if there’s nothing you can do to alter the stressful situation.

Learn to forgive. Accept the fact that we live in an imperfect world and that people make mistakes. Let go of anger and resentments. Free yourself from negative energy by forgiving and moving on.

SELECTIVE AWARENESS

⁠

USING HUMOR

⁠

Humor has been shown to be an effective means of coping with stress by defusing stressful situations or feelings.

Humor prevents negative life events from resulting in mood disturbances.

Psychological effects of humor:

Relief of anxiety, stress, and tension

Outlet for hostility and anger

Escape from reality

Means of tolerating crises, tragedy, and chronic illnesses/disabilities

Physiological effects of humor:

Improves functioning of the immune system

Increases tolerance of pain

Decreases the stress response

Humor can also be used inappropriately and can actually cause distress.

DECREASING TYPE A BEHAVIORS

⁠

Type B behavior pattern: Behavior pattern that is not excessively competitive—with no free-floating hostility and no sense of time urgency

Type As tend to experience more job stress.

Type As initially respond physiologically similarly to stressful events, but it takes them longer to recover to baseline levels.

Ways to decrease Type A behavior:

Separate things that have to get done from things you only wish to get done. Ask yourself if you will judge these tasks important a year from now; if not, focus on the more significant activities.

Maintain a journal, listing things that anger and frustrate you. Identify triggers and plan to react differently next time.

Slow down. Doing things well is better than doing them fast.

Engage in relaxation exercises and physical activities.

Focus on the thing you’re doing rather than multitasking.

IMPROVING SELF-ESTEEM

⁠

Self-esteem is learned.

Expect your successes to improve your self-esteem and your failures to diminish it.

ENHANCING SELF-EFFICACY

⁠

Self-efficacy is related to recovery from PTSD, occupational stress, and depression, as well as academic success, life satisfaction, and less stress and burnout.

Ways to increase self-efficacy:

Performance attainment: Successfully carry out an activity.

Vicarious experience: Observe other people.

Verbal persuasion: Have people encourage you to make changes in your health practices.

Physiological state: Learn to relax to reduce stress.

Goal-setting theory: A conceptualization of how one successfully achieves goals

Variables associated with successful achievement of goals:

The highest level of effort occurs when the goal is moderately difficult.

Proximal and distal goals should be established.

Proximal goals: Steps to be achieved along the way to the distal goal

Distal goals: Long-range goals

People with high self-efficacy set higher goals than people with lower self-efficacy, are more committed to achieving the goal, use more effective strategies, and respond to negative feedback better.

Self-efficacy and the importance ascribed to attaining that goal are related to successfully achieving the goal.

BALANCING LOCUS OF CONTROL

⁠

External locus of control: The perception that one has little control over events that affect one’s life

Internal locus of control: The perception that one has control over events that affect one’s life

Externals are less likely to take action to control their lives.

Cocreator perception deficiency: The belief that one is either the victim of circumstances or the master of circumstances—each of which is erroneous

Internals accept responsibility for their successes and their failures.

ANXIETY MANAGEMENT

⁠

Relaxation techniques (e.g., autogenic training and progressive relaxation) are effective in managing the somatic component of anxiety.

Anxiety management techniques:

Cognitive restructuring: A method of coping with anxiety that involves thinking about an anxiety-provoking event as less threatening

Environmental planning: Adjusting the environment to avoid the anxiety-provoking stimulus or to be better able to confront it

Relabeling: Giving the anxiety-provoking stimulus that will make you less anxious

Self-talk: Making statements to yourself that focus on the positive aspects of a potentially anxiety-provoking event

Thought stopping: Recognizing when you experience an anxious thought and then redirecting your attention elsewhere

Systematic desensitization: Imagining or experiencing an anxiety-provoking scene stepwise (in small steps) and engaging in a relaxation exercise when able to do so

BUILDING RESILIENCE

⁠

Protective factors (developmental assets): Resilient characteristics (e.g., happiness, optimism, self-determination, creativity, sense of morality and self-control, gratitude, forgiveness, and humility)

How resilient we are in the face of stressors has a lot to do with how we assess or perceive and subsequently cope with life events.

Spirituality: Includes a purpose of life, an internal locus of control, and belief in a higher power; an important variable used by resilient people to overcome adversity

HARDINESS

⁠

Benefits of hardiness:

Helps manage chronic illness

Prevents work stress

Increases job satisfaction

Prevents burnout

Diminishes feelings of depression

Decreases grief symptoms

Helps prevent sleep problems

MEDITATION

⁠

2 approaches to meditation:

Opening up of attention (allowing all in the environment to enter your consciousness)

Focusing of attention on one specific object

Positive psychological effects of meditation:

Internal locus of control

Greater self-actualization

More positive feelings after encountering a stressor

Improvement in sleep behavior

Decreased cigarette smoking

Headache relief

Increased attention

Meditators are more psychologically stable than nonmeditators.

Tips in practicing meditation:

Find a quiet place.

With your eyes closed, repeat a relaxing word (mantra) in your mind each time you exhale.

Repeat the mantra for approximately 20 minutes twice a day.

Do not meditate after ingesting a stimulant.

Meditate before meals.

Limit distractions.

Let your head do whatever is comfortable.

Don’t try to rush through the 20 minutes.

Assume a passive attitude—that is, don’t try to relax.

Allow whatever sensations are experienced to occur without evaluating or taking note of them.

RELAXATION

⁠

Outcomes of eliciting the relaxation response:

Activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which facilitates renewal and hearing

Internal locus of control

Easy switching of the mind from a racing, worried state to using the whole brain

When we are relaxed and centered, we are better able to manage our emotions.

Individuals who are relaxing experience peripheral vasodilation, warming of the skin, a decrease in heart rate, and an overwhelming sense of well-being only when this can occur in a safe and trusted environment.

Relaxation, meditation, and other spiritual exercises that incorporate some sort of relaxation exercise make the brain work more effectively, in parts, by improving neurobiological plasticity, functional resilience, and flexibility, which also includes stress resistance.

RELAXATION TECHNIQUES

⁠

Autogenic training: A relaxation technique that involves a sensation of heaviness, warmth, and tingling in the limbs

Progressive relaxation (neuromuscular relaxation): A relaxation technique that involves contracting and relaxing muscle groups throughout the body to eliminate unnecessary muscular tension

Diaphragmatic breathing: Deep breathing that expands the belly rather than just the chest

Diaphragmatic breathing is basic to all forms of relaxation.

Body scanning: A relaxation technique that searches for relaxed body parts and transports that sensation to less relaxed areas

MINDFULNESS

⁠

When we are mindful, we shift to gamma wave connections in the right brain hemisphere and are able to tap into more insight and better actions.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction results in changes in gray matter of the brain that is associated with learning and memory, emotion regulation, and perception.

Because stress is often caused by a preoccupation with the past or the future, mindfulness can help manage stress.

MUSIC

⁠

Slow-tempo music synchronizes brain waves, thereby resulting in a lower respiratory rate, a slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, less muscle tension, and enhanced effectiveness of the immune system.

PETS

⁠

Pets allow us to focus on their care and away from our own concerns.

Pets provide social support in the form of companionship, and they can provide entertainment.

EXERCISE

⁠

Benefits of exercise on psychological health:

More self-esteem due to feeling fit and feeling good about your body

Positive perceptions by others

Alertness

Better work performance and better attitude toward work

Decreased feelings of depression and anxiety

Decreased stress-related behaviors

Endorphins: Brain neurotransmitters that decrease pain and produce feelings of well-being

STRATEGIES FOR DECREASING STRESSFUL BEHAVIORS

⁠

Self-monitoring: The process of observing and recording behavior to increase awareness of behavior

Tailoring: Making a behavior change program specific to one’s life

Material reinforcement: Rewarding a behavior with a tangible object

Social reinforcement: Rewarding a behavior with social approval by someone else

Self-contracting: Making a contract with oneself to change a behavior via the if-then rule

Shaping: Changing a behavior a little bit at a time

Self-help groups: Joining a group with similar interest in performing a behavior, which will encourage the adoption of a desired behavior

Gallery

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.