Diagnosing Your Stress Reflex
June 27, 2010
There are some days that just go terribly wrong. Your schedule gets thrown off kilter, you get into spats with the people you love, and like Murphy’s Law – anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!
When these kinds of days occur, how do you normally react to the stress? The methods you automatically turn to in an effort to help you deal with the increased anxiety levels is known as your stress reflex.
Just as your knee jerks when the doctor taps it, there are certain things you do when stress gets the best of you. It may be that you head straight for the kitchen and drown your sorrows in a big bowl of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Or maybe you snap at the first person who crosses paths with you. Your stress reflex kicks in when the pot boils over. We like to refer to it as the straw that broke the camel’s back, but what it actually means is – you’ve had enough!
When stress levels get to this point, it’s too late to react with your emotions intact. You need to find ways of coping with stress as it builds, to diffuse the situation before it gets out of control.
Evaluate what your stress reflex is. You may not have ever thought about it before, preferring instead to not think about anything when stress takes its toll and sends you into a flurry of coping mechanisms.
One you have a finger on the pulse of how you manage stress when it tips the scales, you’ll be able to steer clear of detrimental behaviors and find an outlet that is healthier for you when this type of anxiety seeps into your life.
Your stress reflex may depend on many factors, such as whether you’re male or female. Men and women tend to react differently to stress. The benefit in pinpointing your stress reflex isn’t to turn off the anger switch forever.
In fact, getting mad to a certain degree can be healthy for you. Instead, you want to prevent damaging reactions that can affect your personal health or endanger others, such as the case where road rage occurs because a bad driver cut you off after a stress-filled day at the office.
The next time you feel stress beginning to boil over, watch to see how you react to the situation. Do you blow your lid like a pressure cooker, eat the entire contents of the kitchen, or get physically sick to your stomach? Keep a journal and then find ways to react differently.
So what’s your stress reflex?
Achieve and Maintain Mental Wellbeing
June 26, 2010
Achieving and maintaining mental wellbeing is very important, for both mind and body. However, around one in four people suffers from some kind of mental issue during their lifetime, but many do not seek the help they need to manage or overcome the problem.
Awareness of mental health problems is constantly rising, making it easier for people to recognize the signs and know what help is available. Counselling is regarded as an effective form of treatment for many mental health issues.
The initial decision to take the plunge and accept help is undoubtedly one of the hardest parts of the whole process. However after this decision had been taken, a whole new set of questions can arise with regards to actually finding the counselor.
There are numerous issues to consider – practical and otherwise. What about, for example, location? Despite counsellors’ assured complete confidentiality people may prefer to see a counsellor that is perhaps outside their local area, but still in surroundings they are comfortable in.
And what guarantees that the counsellor is the real deal? There are no laws in the UK that govern counselling, so what’s to stop anyone setting up shop to listen to people’s problems? There are qualifications and professional bodies, but these can often be confusing and over-whelming.
Counselling can take many different approaches – from person-based to psychoanalytic, and it’s important to choose a counsellor with an approach the person will be comfortable with and respond to well.
Counselling Directory was set up to provide a simple, easy, and most importantly un-daunting way of connecting people that need help with the people that provide it. A comprehensive searching tool, the site allows postcode, town and country searches, and produces a list of counsellors registered in this area. Each counsellor has a profile, listing a bit about themselves, their approaches, what areas they deal with, and all their training, qualification and experience and fees.
The site shows which counsellors are registered/accredited with a professional body, and full profiles are only displayed after insurance and qualification documents are checked or membership with a professional body has been verified.
The site has also become a huge information bank – there are articles written by the counsellors, as well as comprehensive information on all kinds of distress – from depression to eating disorders to abuse, to help people identify their problems and become informed, not scared.
