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Mental Health Matters
COPING WITH STRESS
By Mary Styles, MC, CCC, Mental Health Therapist
We often talk about stress without being really sure what it means. This is because stress comes from all of our experiences – both good and bad. Our bodies actually need stress in order to function. If we did not feel any stress, we would not be alive! Stress becomes a problem when we are not sure how to handle an event or a situation. Then worry sets in and we feel “stressed,” or even, “stressed out!”
The things that cause stress for you may not be a problem for some one else, and things that bring stress to others may not worry you at all. It is how you think about and react to certain events that determine whether you find them stressful or fairly easy to deal with. Your reaction to stress can affect your mental and physical health, so it is important to learn how to deal effectively with stress as it occurs.
Dr. Sonia J. Lupien, Director of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress at McGill University, suggests the following coping strategies to help develop resilience in response to the stress:
- Be positive. Look at each obstacle you encounter as a learning experience.
- Make the choice not to over-react to stressors and deal with them one at a time. Breathe deeply using your diaphragm to reduce the stress response.
- Take an objective view of your stressor.
- Communicate. Don’t ruminate or bottle up your emotions, as this will lead to an explosion later on.
- Accept yourself (and others). No one is perfect and we all make mistakes
- Make connections with people. Social support is key!
- Deal effectively with mistakes. Learn from your mistakes and apply them to future decision-making.
- Deal effectively with successes, too. This will build on your competence.
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