Stress

1. Stress Management
Dr Vishal Patel
Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Dr MKSMCRC, Ahmedabad

2.  Stress can be defined as any type of
change that causes physical, or
psychological strain- WHO
 Stress is the body’s automatic
response to any physical or mental
demand placed on it.
What is Stress?

3. Is All Stress Bad?

4. STRESS!!!
 Eustress: Good Stress
– Attend class
– To motivate for
work/exam deadlines

5. DISTRESS !!!
Stress level exceed our ability to
cope
– Difficult work environment
– Prolong Exam stress
– Threat of failure /loss
– Loss of loved ones
– Traumatic life events

7. Stress Affects Us in Many Ways
Our thoughts
and feelings.
Our bodies.
Our behavior
and interactions.
Photo
by
®Thinkstock
Photo
by
®Thinkstock
Photo
by
®Thinkstock

8. Short Term Physical
Stress Symptoms
– Dry mouth
– Cold hands and feet
– Increased sweating
– Rapid breathing
– Faster heart rate
– Tense muscles
– Feelings of nausea
– Butterflies in your stomach
– Diarrhea
– A desire to urinate

9. Long Term Physical
Stress Symptoms
– Insomnia
– Change in Appetite
– Concentration
problems
– Aches and pains
– Feelings of intense and
long-term tiredness
– Frequent colds
– Prone to illness

10. BEHAVIORAL STRESS
SYMPTOMS
 Yawning
 Nail biting
 Grinding teeth
 Defensive
 Irritability
 Irrational
 Angry
 Over reacting
 Restlessness
behavior
 Forgetfulness
 Poor judgments
 Absenteeism
 Make more mistakes
 Increased
smoking/alcohol use

11. High amount of Chronic stress can
lead to
Major depression

13. Identifying Stressors
Place, Person, Situations, activities,
and relationships that cause ‘trauma’
to one’s physical, emotional, or
psychological self

14. Stressors
•College/exam
•Living Situation
•Work environment
•Family
•Relationships
•Legal
•Finances
•Health/illness

15. Tackling the problem
 Look out for unhelpful thoughts and
think of new solutions to them
 Physical fitness- healthy lifestyle,
adequate sleep, balanced diet,
regular exercise
 Mental fitness- self instruction, self
control

17. Diet
 eat enough
nutritious food to fuel
all your body's systems.

18. Ditch the caffeine

caffeine activates our HPA axis, making
you feel more anxious
 coffee, caffeinated tea (like green and
black teas) and energy drinks.

19. Progressive muscle
relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation involves
tensing a group of muscles as you
breathe in and quickly
releasing tension as you breathe out.

20. Exercise
low-intensity exercise
like walking,
swimming or
yoga-asana

21. Breathing exercises
deep breathing activate the
parasympathetic nervous system

22. Meditation
mediation can decrease cortisol in the
context of stressful situations

23. Find opportunities to be
kind to others
 Expressing positivity towards others,
with compassion, gratitude can
buffer us against stress.
 So finding ways to be kind may
indeed be a good stress reducer.

24. Daily routine and time
management
 Fix the daily routine
 Time management- no hurry, no
worry

25. Mindfulness

26. Cold water dunk

feeling stressed, jump in a cold shower
to tamp down your stress.

30. Substance use

31. THANK YOU