Learning to Identify Causes of Stress

Life is full of minor stresses. Your son spills a glass of milk. Your daughter can’t find her shoes. The dog throws up on the carpet. The mailman delivers another bill. Your husband announces he can’t make it home to coach the soccer team. The car won’t start. You’re going to be late. You already have a headache — and you haven’t even left for work!

Juggling the demands of home, family and career is a constant challenge. No wonder people feel stressed. What most of us fail to realize is that we are in control of our lives. By taking charge of our lives, we can manage stress  and create a better balance between family, work and fun. But it may take a little digging to determine the true source of your stress. Sometimes the real source of stress hides in our thoughts, feelings or behaviors. For example, the stress you feel about meeting job deadlines may have more to do with your procrastination than actual work volume.

Before you can successfully decrease stress, you have to accept responsibility for your part in creating it. Keeping a stress journal can help you and your psychiatrist identify stressors and discover patterns in your response to stress. It’s the first step to learning how to effectively manage stress.

• Every day note stressful situations or episodes and their cause.
• Write down how the incident made you feel physically and emotionally.
• Note  how your response. 
• Record anything you did that made you feel better. 

Periodically review your stress journal for patterns that indicate coping strategies, including smoking or drinking, over- or under-eating, spending hours on the computer or watching TV, withdrawing, using pills or drugs to relax, sleeping too much, procrastinating, over-scheduling to avoid dealing with problems, or taking your stress out on others.

Once you and your psychiatrist identify your stress triggers and responses, you can work to either change the situation by avoiding or altering the stressor or change your reaction to it by adapting to or accepting the stressor. Try to determine and employ the stress control strategy that makes you feel calmest and most in control.

Next time: Stress management strategies you can use