Most of us will experience stress at certain times in our lives. Whether stress is a result of excessive work load, unreasonable performance expectations (often self- imposed) or stressful personal events like moving home, illness or relationship break downs, each of us copes with it in a different way. A particular situation might cause stress for one person while someone else might not perceive it as stressful at all. High levels of stress have a negative effect on both mental and physical health both in the short term and long term so it is important that we address it as soon as we feel symptoms of stress; that might be by changing our perception of particular situations or learning to relax more easily.

Stress is our defence mechanism;in a threatening situation (whether real or perceived) stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline ensure that we are able to perform at our best in order to protect ourselves from harm. That may simply be to protect us from a perceived threat of negative judgement, for example when giving a presentation at work or it may be an actual physical threat. If the threat is only perceived or it goes away on its own, the stress hormones that the body has produced are not needed, but continue to circulate around the body producing feelings of irritability, anxiety and even depression.

A little bit of stress can be a good thing in the short term as it can help to us to perform in important situations but if stress continues and becomes chronic our mental health as well as our physical health can suffer. It can result in problemssleeping, high blood pressure, tension headaches, migraines as well as effecting relationships and performance at work.

Causes of Stress

There are many different causes of stress. These include significant changes to our lives, like the break-down of a relationship or happy changes such as marriage or having a baby, workload, pressure to perform, chronic worrying, lack of control over particular aspects of our lives as well as an exaggerated sense of responsibility. In addition, since the mindcannot tell the difference between real or perceived stress it can be what we imagine will happen rather than what will actually happen that causes stress. Often stress is accumulative, that is, stress can be the result of several situations that are stressful.

We all experience different levels of stress in response to certain situations. These personal differences are influenced by our perception of an event, which in turn, is influenced by our past experiences andour individual cognitive processes. How stressful we find a particular situation is also influenced by our feelings about it; in other words how emotionally resilient we are and how effectively we have coped with pressure or a stressful situation in the past.

Not only do different people respond with different levels of stress but we also find different situations stressful. For example one person in a department at work might find the workload stressful while another person will find the responsibility stressful rather than the workload. Some people enjoy giving presentations and contributing to meetings while other will feel stressed about speaking to a group.

Other common causes of stress include:

• Having too much to do
• Bereavement
• Chronic health problems
• Relationship problems
• Job loss
• Retirement
• Changes in personal circumstances (which may be happy like getting married)
• Money problems

Symptoms of Stress

When you are experiencing challenges your body will release ‘fight or flight’ chemicals to help you protect yourself in threatening situation. Noradrenaline and adrenaline help by raising your blood pressure,which increases your sweat response and your heart rate. These chemicals can also negatively affect your digestive activity and blood flow to your extremities. The hormone, Cortisol,encourages sugar and fat in your body to give you energy for the ‘fight or flight’, but it alsodiverts resources away from your immune system. These physical changes, which once helped us to protect ourselves from predators,don’t help us in a modern world, where we can neither fight or take flight from the house sale or job loss. If these stress hormones are consistently left in our system, over time they will begin to have a negative impact upon your health

When you are suffering from stress you might find that you are easily angered and short tempered, or you feel fearful of relatively benign situations or unlikely circumstances. Stress often leads to depression and anxiety and all of its associated symptoms. You may find it difficult to make decisions because of all of the “negative what ifs” in your mind as well as have problems with your sleeping patterns.

Hypnotherapy for stress

Hypnotherapy can help reduce your stress and anxiety levelsby helping you identify the cause(s) of your stress. Hypnotherapy will also help your unconscious mind identify and deal with your stress response and find a healthier more appropriate alternative response. Your hypnotherapist will use a number of different techniques to help you resolve your stress and anxiety levels, usually over 3-6 sessions. We recommend that sessions are weekly or fortnightly to begin with, but once you start to see progress you might wish to see your hypnotherapist 3 or 4 weekly.