Stress Relief Help » Determining Your Stress Level

Can Stress Be Good?

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:37:42 +0000

Normally we all automatically associate the word “stress” with “bad”. But in actuality, we all need stress to grow and become all that we can be. It’s that management of the fine line between “good” and “bad” that becomes the hard part.

Good stress is also known as eustress. The prefix “eu” means “good”. (Contrast that to “dis”, as in distress, being “bad”.)

For instance, let’s say that you are getting ready to make an important speech. All eyes will be on you and you want to do well. The stress accompanying this task causes you to focus on the speech and nothing else. As a result, you practice until you are comfortable with the words and relax to be able to deliver it.

The same goes for a big competition. Your nervousness leads to more intense practice sessions to get you ready. Your pulse quickens but it strengthens your resolve to do your best.

Any time that stress is related to physical activity it produces endorphins. Those who are involved in practices and big sporting competitions reap the reward of good feeling endorphins from the physical exertion. The endorphins make us want more of the same to keep us in that feel good mode.

Have you heard of the fight or flight response? It is what happens when we are scared or confronted by someone who may want to hurt us. Adrenalin is released. Our senses become more acute as the body prepares to hit the ground running or stand and fight.

In those moments, our basic instincts take over and we are primed for the best response in the situation. You hear about extraordinary situations where people have lifted cars off of their loved ones who were hurt in an accident. Or, someone thinks to use their cell phone to call from the trunk of a car when they’ve been kidnapped.

People wonder how someone can think of those things but it is the fight or flight response that occurs when we are in the midst of those harrowing experiences. This response extends to people like hostage negotiators who talk a kidnapper into releasing his hostages or the doctor who is performing emergency surgery to save a person’s life.

Good stressors abound in our lives but often go unnoticed in favor of the unhealthy stress. A dose of good stress can save our lives. Cultivate good stress in your life.

Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:39:44 +0000

The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory is a tool developed from research that concluded that stressful life events had a direct impact on health. In 1967 psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe conducted a study utilizing 5,000 patients. These patients were asked to indicate how many of 43 possible life events had been experienced by them. By comparing their responses to these life events to their medical history, Holmes and Rahe were able to determine that these life events were linked to health.

Originally published as the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, the life stress inventory they developed is now known as the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale. Subsequent studies have confirmed the validity of the linkage between stressful life events and health.

Your Personal Life Stress Inventory

In order to determine your own level of stress to life events, read each of the events listed below, and check the box next to any event which has occurred in your life in the last 12 months. There are no right or wrong answers. The aim is to identify which of these events you have experienced lately. When you’ve gone through the entire list, the total should be automatically calculated by clicking on the “Calculate Results” button. You may also click “Reset” to take the inventory again at any time. A results box will also be shown that will indicate whether the total number of points calculated indicate a potential for health issues in the near future.

LIFE STRESS INVENTORY

Life Events	Change Units
Death of spouse	100
Divorce	73
Marital separation	65
Jail term	63
Death of close family member	63
Personal injury or illness	53
Marriage	50
Fired at work	47
Marital reconciliation	45
Retirement	45
Change in health of a family member	44
Pregnancy	40
Sex Difficulties	39
Gain of new family member	39
Business readjustment	39
Change in financial state	38
Death of close friend	37
Change to different line of work	36
Change in number of arguments with spouse	35
Mortgage over $100,000	31
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan	30
Change in responsibilities at work	29
Son or daughter leaving home	29
Trouble with in-laws	29
Outstanding personal achievement	28
Wife begins or stops work	26
Begin or end school	26
Change in living conditions	25
Revision in personal habits	24
Trouble with boss	23
Change in work hours or conditions	20
Change in residence	20
Change in schools	20
Change in recreation	19
Change in church activities	19
Change in social activities	18
Mortgage or loan less than $30,000	17
Change in sleeping habits	16
Change in number of family get-togethers	15
Change in eating habits	15
Vacation	13
Christmas alone	12
Minor violations of the law	11

Your score is:

Adapted from Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, (1967). Vol. 11, pp. 213-218.

ABC Model Analysis

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:14:04 +0000

Albert Ellis developed the ABC Model as a way of examining the causes of stress and anxiety in our lives. With this information, we are better armed to not only understand what causes us to be stressed, but also to start taking action to reduce or eliminate that stress altogether. Let’s examine each component of the ABC Model to understand how you can take action to reduce stress in your life.

A Is For Activating Event

An activating event is one that has the potential to cause you stress. The following is an example list of a number of potential stress-causing events:

Speaking in public
Waiting in line
Driving in traffic
Being affected by rude people
Overcoming job pressures
Handling financial problems
Taking tests/examinations/certifications
Trying something new for the first time
Meeting new people
Dealing with children/family/parents/teachers/bosses/spouses
Meeting a deadline
Going through airport security
Signing a contract
Navigating customer service voicemail menus
Filing your taxes
Insisting on good work/refund/exchange/payment

and many, many more. What is important to note is that not every activating event affects everyone the same way. Only you can determine what your activating events are.

In order to understand what stresses you out, begin to make a list of the activating events in your life. Keep a list somewhere convenient and take note of each time you feel stressed. What activating event caused it? Write it down. Over a period of time, you’ll get a good idea of what events are causing you stress as well as how many times those events keep occurring.

B Is For Beliefs

Your beliefs encompass how you view those activating events in your life. This is the “self talk” that you hear when you are in a circumstance that makes you uncomfortable. For example, if you will be meeting some new people for the first time, you may be stressed about the situation. This may be because in your head you’re thinking that these people won’t find you charming or that you don’t look or dress very well. These are your beliefs about the situation and in reality it is these beliefs that cause you stress.

Review the list you made of the activating events in your life. Can you identify the beliefs (the “self talk”) you have regarding each of those events? Write those down for each event. If you have trouble coming up with a belief, think about your childhood or your upbringing. Many times, we inherit beliefs from significant others in our lives and we don’t even know that we embraced them as our own. Did anyone important to you have beliefs about those events that you witnessed or were aware of? For example, if you’re nervous about signing a contract were you around to hear about how much your father/mother worried about what signing a contract meant to them? Perhaps you absorbed this belief without really thinking it through.

C Is For Consequences

Consequences mean the stress or the actual toll an activating event has taken in our lives. Typically this will mean mental, physical, or behavioral effects.

Again, take your list of activating events and beliefs and add a third column, this time for consequences. Do you typically react the same way for each activating event? Can your reaction be classified as mental, physical, or behavioral?

Knowing how you react to certain circumstances will allow you to understand the full implication of the ABC Model in your life.

Putting It All Together

With your list of activating events, your beliefs about those events, and the consequences the two of those have on your life, you are now in a position to analyze what changes can be made to reduce or eliminate stress.

The following diagram shows the relationships among the three elements of the ABC Model:

By now, you should have come to the realization that B (beliefs) is the easiest component to modify. We can’t always totally avoid all the activating events in our lives. Once we have identified them, we can certainly take steps to minimize them or avoid them if we can. But that’s not really possible. We can take steps, internally, to identify, modify, and to reinforce changes in the way we think about these activating events. We can replace negative “self talk” with positive “self talk”. We can rehearse stressful situations in our minds with the outlook that only good things will occur as a result.

Finally, we can certainly take steps to minimize the adverse consequences of our activating events and beliefs. Relaxing, breathing deeply, listening to soothing music, exercising, getting some fresh air, are all ways to help relieve the stress once we have it.

Remember the ABC Model Analysis and the next time you feel stressed, use it to determine what underlying belief needs to be adjusted.