Stress causes self management

STRESS: CAUSES, SELF-MANAGEMENT

Different kinds of problems and different kinds of adverse circumstances all play their part in producing stress. There are the major practical difficulties that beset us in our passage through life. Because of the pressing nature of these major problems we are inclined to think that they are the sole cause of our stress. We tend to forget that they operate on a continuing background of lesser problems all of which are contributing their share of disturbing impulses to our brain. But more important, much more important, the pressing nature of the major problem tends to make us forget that this problem only produces stress if our own inner resources of coping are not up to the mark in bringing our brain to sort out the flood of disturbing impulses. And, of course, it follows from this that we forget that we have the means within us to help our brain. The basis, the all-important basis, for helping our brain to sort things out is to learn to let it run smoothly so that it can integrate more effectively the flood of impulses.
In considering these matters, we must remember that it is not necessary for the major problem to go away for us to be free of stress. Many of the great problems of life - a deformed child, love that is not returned - are matters that are with us and will not go away. Yet we are not under stress if our inner resources are sufficient to integrate the disturbing impulses that tend to produce disharmony of our brain function with consequent anxiety and depression.
In fact anxiety plays a crucial role in stress. Perhaps the easiest way to understand anxiety is to consider it in relation to fear. Basically, both are biologically evolved defence mechanisms. Both have a mental and bodily component. In the case of fear, we perceive some danger, we feel afraid, and we want to run away. This is obviously a life-saving protective reaction. At the same time, as we experience fear our heart rate is raised, and the output of blood from our heart is increased so that we may run away so much the better. In the case of anxiety we are not afraid of some external danger, but rather we are threatened with another kind of danger. We have the feeling that something is t wrong, but we are not quite sure what it is. In fact it is really a feeling that something is wrong within ourselves. A danger within. And we experience it as a feeling of apprehension. So both fear and anxiety are warnings of danger, but of different nature. In the past, in the hundreds of generations of our evolution, our body became accustomed to reacting as if all danger were physical danger. This was an appropriate reaction in times past when danger was likely to come from an attack from our enemies. But this old and out-of-date reaction, which in times past prepared us to meet physical danger by fight or flight, has persisted. But it is inappropriate for helping us with the inner danger of which anxiety warns us, and which has been brought about by the disharmony of brain function causing stress.
The advent of anxiety, and our body's inappropriate reaction to it, adds further disturbing impulses to our brain, and so makes things worse, and adds to our stress.
We have been considering the major problem causing stress as if it were some significant adverse situation in the practical affairs of our life. This need not be so. The major problem contributing to our stress may arise from some area of disordered physiology within our body. The disturbing impulses reaching our brain when we are incubating 'flu or some other infectious illness may produce stress in just the same way as do impulses arising from problems of daily life.
Furthermore, the significant problem may arise in our mind itself. Guilt about some sexual indiscretion, worry about dismissing an employee, worry about breaking off a love relationship or doubts about our religious beliefs may become matters which initiate stress just in the same way as do the more practical problems of life.
The self-management of stress is in no way a technique for avoiding our problems. There are plenty of problems, both those of our practical life and those of our conscience, which cannot be avoided. Nor does the self-management of stress rest on a resolution of our problems. Not only are fundamental problems, such as ultimate death, beyond our resolution, but so also are many matters of our everyday living. The central element in the self-management of stress is our ability to face these matters in a practical way that is consistent with our conscience and without disharmony of our brain function.     *2/98/5*

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