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.

Do you think it would be reasonable for you to measure your stress levels? You want to relieve your stress? Do you think your results would be accurate using a self-report instrument? The answer is - ‘Yes’. You can measure your own stress levels just as easily and reliably as you can tell a psychologist how well you feel, your level of depression and anxiety and so on. When people start to understand themselves and become attuned to the variations in their ‘wellness’, they CAN report reliably. After all, emotional well-being is a person and subjective business, isn’t it?

Apart from self-report, you can also measure stress through an analysis of a urine specimen. Blood analysis continues as levels of cortisol which is a market for stress levels. Cortisol increases as your stress increases. As well as cortisol changes, there are other physical changes as well. Flushing, skin blotching, increases in heart rate and blood pressure are other signs of high levels of stress. Some people experience what is called an aura and they might also have headaches and migraines.

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.

The emotions that I explore include instances of feeling worried, uneasy, upset, tired, nauseous and variable in mood. You can characterise stress behaviour in four different groups. Some people have cognitive or thinking changes, others have interpersonal difficulties, some have physiological and physical responses, and most had changes in emotional well-being.

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.

Many people write about stress relief programs so I hope my particular insights are valuable. Obviously, short articles cover only some of the issues. My intent is to provide sufficient information for you to engage in your own stress relief programs and to increase your ability to be able to manage stress effectively so that you have happy, fulfilled lives.

Tags: Life & Happiness

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 1:35 am and is filed under Life & Happiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.