Notes About Health

For some time my wife and I were involved in research on student with reading disabilities. Our interest was to determine the relationship between reading disabilities and stress. Using a self-report pencil and paper test, we measured the stress of a group of nine-year-old students. To our great relief, there was no significant relationship between stress levels and reading disability. So there was no need for us to worry about stress relief programs.

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.

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.

Typical questions when testing stress include references to feeling worried and upset, noting changes in sleeping or eating, responding to questions about feeling refreshed after sleep, being able to relax, feeling physically ill, being inattentive and unproductive and having mood swings. These responses can be grouped under four main headings: Physiological and Physical Responses; emotional responses, inter-personal responses; and cognitive responses.

It is important to understand your levels of stress. Stress relief therapy is much more effective when people are able to track and measure their stress responses. Stress is a silent killer and the enemy of well-being. High stress levels, burnout, and being overstressed are all counter-productive emotional states. When stress is constant and severe it is very disabling. If one wants to have an effective stress relief program, one needs to know how to measure and respond to stress. My stress relief therapy incorporates 15 effective strategies. What makes the exercise challenging is choosing the most effective stress relief strategies. Neither me nor my patients want to have lives are characterized by excessive stress.

Relationships are the first thing to suffer when an individual demonstration elevated stress. The pity of this is that social support from loved ones is the best way to ameliorate stress. We can relieve stress effectively when we talk with friends and share our feelings. This is free therapy. Stress relief is afforded through sharing our worries. There are occasions when the stress is too high to be relieved through social support. The current problems with home foreclosures is a serious stress. This requires professional help.

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.