STRESS

     Modern life is full of hassles, frustrations and demands. Nowadays, when living in the world full of challenges one requires both emotionally and physically strength in order to survive. For many people, dealing with kind of situation from day to day is quite tired and sometimes they will experienced some weird yet discomfort feeling. That feeling is called "stress". The question that always crossed in our mind is what is the meaning of stress actually?

     Basically, stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. In medical definition, stress may be considered as any physical, chemical, or emotional factors that causes bodily or mental unrest and that may be a factor in causing disease. Physical and chemical factors that can cause stress include trauma, infections, toxins, illnesses and injuries of any sort. There are many example of stress such as life stress and work stress.

     It has been known that there are 2 factors that causes stress which are external factors and internal factors. Even though that most of the stress are caused by external factors but of course not all stress is caused by external factors. Stress can also be self-generated, for example, when you worry excessively about something that may be not happen, or have irrational, pessimistic thoughts about life. What causes stress depends, at least in part, on your perception of it. Something that's stressful to you may not faze someone else; they may even enjoy it. For example, your morning commute may make you anxious and tense because you worry that traffic will make you late. Others, however may find trip relaxing because they allow more than enough time and enjoy listening to music while they drive. The example of external causes of stress are major life changes, work or school, relationship difficulties, financial problems, being too busy and children or family. Moreover, the example of internal causes of stress are chronic worry, pessimism, negative self-talk, unrealistic expectations, rigid thinking and all-or-nothing attitude.

     Medical studies show that there are various symptoms of stress. The 3 most common symptoms of stress are psychological, emotional and physical. Studies showed that everyone reacts stress in different ways. However, there are some common symptoms to look out for. Psychological symptoms can include constant worrying, an inability to concentrate, poor judgement, seeing only the negative, anxious thoughts and memory problems. You can also get emotional symptoms, including mood swings, an inability to relax, feeling overwhelmed, a sense of loneliness and depressiion. You may also get physical symptoms which include aces and pain, diarrhoea and constipation, chest pains, nausea or dizziness, and frequent colds

    How to deal with stress? There are three broad methods we can follow to treat stress, they include self-help, self-management and medication.

Self help for treating stress:

Exercise - exercise has been proven to have beneficial effect on person's mental and physical state. For many people exercise is an extremely effective stress buster.
Division of labor - try to delegate your responsibilities at work, or share them. If you make yourself indispensable the likelihood of your feeling highly stresses is significantly greater.
Assertiveness - don't say yes to everything. If you can't do something well, or if something is not your responsibility, try to seek ways of not agreeing to do them.
Caffeine -  if your consumption of coffee and other drinks which contain caffeine is high, cut down.
Nutrition - eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. Make sure you have a healthy and balanced diet.
Seek professional help - if stress is affecting the way you function; go and see your doctor. Heightened stress prolonged periods can be bad for your physical and mental health.
Relaxation techniques - meditation, massage, or yoga have been known to greatly help people with stress.

Self-management:
Stress management can help you to either remove or change the source of stresses alter you a view stressful event, lower the impact that stress might have on your body, and teach you alternative way of coping. Stress management techniques can be gained if you read self-help books, or attend a stress management course. You can also seek the help of a counselor or physiotherapist for personal development or therapy sessions. Many therapies which help you relax, such as aromatherapy, or reflexology, may have a beneficial effect.

Medicine

Doctors will not usually prescribe medications for coping with stress, unless the patient has an underlying illness, such as depression or some type of anxiety. If that is the case, the doctor is actually treating mental illness. In such cases, an antidepressant may be prescribed. Bear in mind that there is a risk that all the medication will do mask in stress, rather than help you deal and cope it.