Tactics for Coping with Stress
Coping with stress can be hard at times.
As a member of modern society, you have available to you a variety of methods to cope with the negative effects of stress. Doctors can treat your stress-related symptoms and diseases. Over-the-counter remedies can reduce your pain, help you sleep, keep you awake, enable you to relax, and counter your acid indigestion and nervous bowels. You can consume food, alcohol, and recreational drugs to help block feelings of discomfort. You have diversions such as TV, movies, hobbies, and sports. You can withdraw from the world into your home and avoid all but the most necessary contact with the stressful world around you.
Our society rewards people who deal with stress by working harder and faster to produce more in a shorter time. Such people are referred to as “type A” personalities. The type A person has a strong sense of time urgency, is highly competitive, and is easily angered when he doesn’t get his way. Although type A personalities may be very successful, they have a significantly higher rate of cardiovascular disease than type B personalities. Unlike their hard-driving, aggressive counterparts, type Bs don’t suffer from chronic time urgency. They can play and relax without guilt and are not hostile or excessively competitive. Type Bs can be just as ambitious as Type As and often are more successful. Presidents of companies are sometimes clever type Bs who employ type As to do their work for them.
In contrast to anxious, chronically stressed people, certain individuals are less vulnerable to stress, according to University of Chicago research psychologist Suzanne Kobasa. These “stress-hardy” individuals have a lower frequency of illness and work absenteeism. They view stressors as challenges and chances for new opportunities and personal growth rather than as threats. They feel in control of their life circumstances, and they perceive that they have the resources to make choices and influence events around them. They also have a sense of commitment to their homes, families, and work that makes it easier for them to be involved with other people in other activities. According to Herbert Benson and Eileen Steward, authors of The Wellness Book, the incidence of illness is even lower in individuals who have these stress-hardy characteristics and who also have a good social support system, exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet.
