Stress
and Burnout
By Dr.
Carolyn Ross
Continued
from Part 1
Psychological Counseling
A psychologist or psychotherapist can help you deal with the emotional
and behavioral aspects of stress. They can evaluate symptoms based
on your self-report, their observation, life-events scale and a genogram.
A genogram is a tool similar to doing a family tree with questions
asked that reveal conflicts and issues between family members. Treatment
may include educational material to clarify the difference between
stress, burnout and tedium, and strategies to deal with stress. Individual
therapy may include self-hypnosis, supportive therapy, assertiveness
training and homework assignments. Cognitive therapy helps you change
the way you think about people or situations. Couples or family counseling
may be appropriate to assist in making changes in relationships to
decrease symptoms.
Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM)
A TCM practitioner aims to restore balance to the body. When the body's
energy is flowing properly to all tissues of the body, a person is
better able to deal with stress and its effects. The TCM practitioner
will diagnose the effects of stress on the different body systems.
They may recommend an herbal medicine if necessary or acupuncture
one to two times per week.
Chiropractic
Care & Therapeutic Massage
A spine that is properly aligned enhances functioning of the nervous
system to help it manage the stress response better. When stress does
occur, tense, tight muscles create pain and biomechanical problems.
Chiropractic care can provide symptomatic relief and treatment.
Therapeutic
massage increases circulation, relieves muscle tension, and relaxes
and elongates tight muscles. It also stimulates production of the
'feel good' brain chemicals, serotonin and endorphins, and decreases
production of stress hormones. It thus invokes the relaxation response
so desirable in managing stress.
Nutrition
and Exercise
The family of B vitamins features prominently in managing the body's
stress response. Chronic stress can thus deplete these vitamins, which
must be replaced daily since they are not stored in the body. Also,
the very foods which are often used to deal with stress tend to heighten
its symptoms: fat, sugar, caffeine and alcohol. Try to stay clear
of these in favor of more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes
complemented by some lean protein. In addition, you may wish to take
a multiple vitamin containing the B vitamins.
Regular
exercise can help to make you more stress hardy and aids in the elimination
of the stress hormones. Aerobic exercise sessions of at least 20 minutes
in duration at a moderate level of intensity will serve you best.
The ideal would be to get some exercise most days, but try not to
drop below three days per week.
Meditation
Learning to meditate can provide you with a very powerful tool in
coping with stress. Meditation calms the mind and body, enhancing
production of the parasympathetic relaxation hormones. Research has
also shown that certain types of meditation, when regularly practiced,
produce lower incidence of disease, reduced physiological aging, improved
brain functioning, better rest, and improved job satisfaction and
relationships.
Continued
. . .
>
Psychological Counseling
> Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM)
> Chiropractic Care & Therapeutic
Massage
> Nutrition and Exercise
> Meditation
> Self-Help Techniques
Self-help Techniques
Begin by paying attention to your body's communication system. Try
taking your 'stress temperature'. On a scale of one to ten (with
ten being the most intense), what number stress do you feel? When
you identify that your number is greater than a five, it's time
to employ one of the following techniques:
Deep breathing: Execute a full, deep inhalation through your nostrils.
Relax your belly muscles to allow your lungs to fill fully. Then
slowly exhale through your mouth, letting your stomach and chest
collapse. Repeat until you are feeling calmer. (Try breathing in
to the count of 4 and out to the count of 8.)
Sensory
focus: Use your senses to tune in to what is going on
around you (thus directing the focus outside yourself). Pay attention
to a leaf for a few moments, listen to the sounds that exist right
now, notice the smells, touch your cheeks as you would a baby, and
so on.
Affirmations:
Make short, positive statements such as "I can handle this"
when you are confronted with an unexpected event. Or, if you are
already feeling anxious, try "I am relaxed" or "I
am calm."
Focusing:
Sit upright in a comfortable position holding a small, sentimental
object in the palm of your hand. Focus only on that object, allowing
no outside thoughts as you breathe deeply for one to two minutes.
Notice that your breathing has slowed and you feel calmer.
Progressive
muscle relaxation: Sitting or lying comfortably, take
a few deep breaths. Then tense and relax the following body parts,
in order: face, shoulders, back, abdomen, pelvis, thighs, calves
and feet. Then shake your hands and imagine any remaining tension
flowing out through your fingertips.
Blow
some bubbles: Go to the store and buy yourself a bottle
of bubbles to carry with you. When you notice that you are feeling
stress, take out your bubbles and blow them, focusing more on the
'out' breath. The out breath is the relaxation, the letting go response.
Symbolically bubbles represent your troubles floating away.
Author
of Miracles
in Healing
Contributors
to Stress/Burnout
Carolyn Coker Ross, MD, MPH; Barbara Whiteside, RN, CNP; Johanna
Appel, DC; Julie Martin, MS; Dorothy Miller, RN; Connie Saindon,
MA, MFCC; Jacqueline Zhang, LAc, MD (China)
