Stress Management

How do we understand stress?

Stress to most of us is a fact of life and many of us understand that there is healthy stress and unhealthy stress. Each person’s stress thermometer is different and some people have a lower resilience to stressful events than others. Stress begins with perception – how you perceive and appraise a situation.

You first assess how difficult a situation is and what resources you have to cope with it. Bad stress occurs when the resources are perceived to be less than what is required to cope with the situation. Stress can also be further either internalized or externalized.

Internalised = When we carry on regardless of the level of stress we are feeling, often not tackling it or feeling that it is beyond us being able to help it so ignoring it. We may even be aware of physical symptoms but continue having to “remain strong” for others so ignore our own needs. People who internalize stress are often quite unaware that they are feeling stressed, it is often others that notice it.

Externalised = When we become highly irritable and start deflecting our stress onto outside situations such as road rage, arguing with service providers, or over trivial issues. We become fairly difficult with people at times and will experience outbursts of anger.

In general, stress can come at you from a number of sources and stress is related to how we feel we function.

It is also related to many instances of ill health. Stress can contribute to health conditions, it can interfere with sleep and it can impact relationships.

It is possible to manage your stress and to develop strategies for enhanced coping. Some of these strategies include:

• Learning mindfulness
• Relaxation techniques
• Meditation training
• Learning how to assess your thought patterns and perceptions to create a different, more resilient perspective.

Making a booking

Medicare rebates are available if you are referred to Elise by a GP for psychology on a Mental Health Plan. Alternatively Private Health with extras can be accessed.