Control del estrés

Un entorno desordenado y con demasiadas tareas pendientes puede conducir al estrés.

El término control de estrés hace referencia a un conjunto de técnicas que tienen la finalidad de equipar a una persona de mecanismos eficaces para afrontar el estrés, definiendo estrés como la respuesta fisiológica de una persona a un estímulo interno o externo que desencadena la reacción de lucha o huida. El control de estrés es eficaz cuando una persona utiliza estrategias de afrontamiento o cambio de situaciones estresantes.

Para vencer el estrés, la clave está en enfocarte en tu propio proceso y tareas, y que no te distraiga el resultado potencial o el desempeño de los demás. Recordemos que los momentos de estrés son también momentos de crecimiento. Si usamos las adversidades de forma correcta, podremos crecer a través de ellas.

Historia

En sus trabajos pioneros, Walter Cannon y Hans Selye usaron animales para establecer las bases científicas tempranas en el estudio del estrés y extrapolar a seres humanos los resultados observados. Midieron las respuestas fisiológicas de animales sometidos a presiones externas, cambios abruptos de temperatura, calor y frío prolongados y procedimientos quirúrgicos.​​

Referencias

Subsequent studies of stress in humans by Richard Rahe and others established the view that stress is caused by distinct, measureable life stressors, and further, that these life stressors can be ranked by the median degree of stress they produce (leading to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale). Thus, stress was traditionally conceptualized to be a result of external insults beyond the control of those experiencing the stress. More recently, however, it has been argued that external circumstances do not have any intrinsic capacity to produce stress, but instead their effect is mediated by the individual's perceptions, capacities, and understanding.

Models of stress management

Transactional model

Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman suggested in 1984 that stress can be thought of as resulting from an “imbalance between demands and resources” or as occurring when “pressure exceeds one's perceived ability to cope”. Stress management was developed and premised on the idea that stress is not a direct response to a stressor but rather one's resources and ability to cope mediate the stress response and are amenable to change, thus allowing stress to be controllable.​

In order to develop an effective stress management programme it is first necessary to identify the factors that are central to a person controlling his/her stress, and to identify the intervention methods which effectively target these factors. Lazarus and Folkman's interpretation of stress focuses on the transaction between people and their external environment (known as the Transactional Model). The model conceptualizes stress as a result of how a stressor is appraised and how a person appraises his/her resources to cope with the stressor. The model breaks the stressor-stress link by proposing that if stressors are perceived as positive or challenging rather than a threat, and if the stressed person is confident that he/she possesses adequate rather than deficient coping strategies, stress may not necessarily follow the presence of a potential stressor. The model proposes that stress can be reduced by helping stressed people change their perceptions of stressors, providing them with strategies to help them cope and improving their confidence in their ability to do so.

Health realization/innate health model

The health realization/innate health model of stress is also founded on the idea that stress does not necessarily follow the presence of a potential stressor. Instead of focusing on the individual's appraisal of so-called stressors in relation to his or her own coping skills (as the transactional model does), the health realization model focuses on the nature of thought, stating that it is ultimately a person's thought processes that determine the response to potentially stressful external circumstances. In this model, stress results from appraising oneself and one's circumstances through a mental filter of insecurity and negativity, whereas a feeling of well-being results from approaching the world with a "quiet mind," "inner wisdom," and "common sense".​​

This model proposes that helping stressed individuals understand the nature of thought--especially providing them with the ability to recognize when they are in the grip of insecure thinking, disengage from it, and access natural positive feelings--will reduce their stress.

Techniques of stress management

There are several ways of coping with stress. Some techniques of time management may help a person to control stress. In the face of high demands, effective stress management involves learning to set limits and to say "No" to some demands that others make. Techniques of stress management will vary according to the theoretical paradigm adhered to, but may include some of the following:​

• Autogenic training
• Cognitive therapy
• Conflict resolution
• Exercise
• Masturbation
• Getting a hobby
• Meditation
• Deep breathing
• Nootropic
• Relaxation techniques
• expressing it in art
  • Fractional relaxation
  • Progressive relaxation
  • Stress balls
• Natural medicine
• Clinically validated alternative treatments​
• Time management
• Listening to certain types of relaxing music,​ particularly:
  • New Age music
  • Classical music

Measuring stress

Levels of stress can be measured. One way is through the use of the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale to rate stressful life events. Changes in blood pressure and galvanic skin response can also be measured to test stress levels, and changes in stress levels. A digital thermometer can be used to evaluate changes in skin temperature, which can indicate activation of the fight or flight response drawing blood away from the extremities.

Stress management has physiological and immune benefit effects.​

Effectiveness of stress management

Positive outcomes are observed using a combination of non-drug interventions:​

• treatment of anger or hostility,
• autogenic training
• talking therapy (around relationship or existential issues)
• biofeedback
• cognitive therapy for anxiety or clinical depression

See also

• Biofeedback
• Distress
• Eustress
• Psychological resilience
• Relaxation technique
• Best of Stress Management
• Cannabis smoking

Referencias

• Ogden, J. (2000). Health Psychology (3rd Edition). Open University Press: Buckingham.

Enlaces externos

• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA):
  • "Research on Work-Related Stress",
  • "Working on Stress"
• Q&A on stress management by Robert Sapolsky (Stanford University)

• Datos: Q1404268
• Multimedia: Stress management / Q1404268