HOW DO PEOPLE NORMALLY DEAL WITH STRESS?

Most people think they are good at dealing with stress, but really they are only good at managing or suppressing the immediate symptoms. They ignore it (until it gets too great), find a quick release, sublimate it or, worse, they allow it to build up like a pressure cooker, with negative consequences.

In my experience, even when they know they are stressed the most common reaction from people is a variant of ‘if I can just get past this point then the stress will be over’. It usually sounds like: ‘I’ll just hang on until my vacation in a few weeks’ time’ or ‘If I can just get through till after reporting period then it will be OK’, or ‘This is just a tough week it will be fine next week’.

Some of the common ways of coping with stress are cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, sex, avoidance and procrastination, going on vacation or living till the weekend. When we begin to use these activities as coping mechanisms, we are not dealing with the problem – we are merely masking it. Anything that creates a high can be used to temporarily deal with stress. That’s why cigarettes, drugs and sex work. Unfortunately they can become addictions. The problem with these mechanisms is that the stress might be relieved temporarily but they never solve the underlying problem.

Alcohol

Many people turn to alcohol to reduce stress, which is fine in moderation and under normal circumstances. Alcohol definitely makes most people feel better temporarily. However, it also increases blood sugar levels and hinders the body’s absorption of vitamin B and zinc, which are nutrients that help keep us calm. Invariably, the ‘high’ we feel while drinking alcohol is followed by a ‘low’ of lethargy when our blood sugar drops to low levels. Low blood sugar prevents us from getting a good night’s sleep. In addition alcohol is a sort of ‘poison’ to the body so your body needs to work to eliminate it

Vacations

Everyone loves vacations. They are certainly great opportunities to unwind, but many people will go for weeks at a time, accumulating stress, with the promise of a vacation in the future. This is fine if you go every weekend and if the thought of a vacation actually relaxes your mind. But if you are subjecting yourself to stress for weeks at a time, with the promise of a vacation as your reward for all the hard work you’re putting in, then you are sacrificing your long-term health for the sake of a week or so of relaxation.

Your body may get some temporary relief and start to recover during your time off, but a week of recovery won’t make up for weeks of stress. In addition, by the time you get back to work, your job seems even worse than before and you’re straight back into the stress. If you live in the ‘I can’t wait to go on holiday’ or ‘I’ll feel much better after my next vacation’ mode then it is time to start looking at the stress in your current situation. It is time to implement stress elimination techniques. They’ll be much cheaper and you’ll be able to enjoy every day, not just those two weeks in August.

Procrastination

This is a huge problem for many. Procrastinating provides temporary relief to stress, a respite from the stressful feelings, only to have them come back in profusion as there is now less time to deal with the issue that is causing the stress. The stress–procrastination loop becomes an addictive pattern. The brain gets the same effect as from a chemical addiction.