Stress Free Weight Loss – is it possible??

Hi

I’ve posted a new blog about stress and weight management on my new blog home:

http://www.stressedguru.co.uk/blog-2

click on the above to read it!

Dave

Stress(ed) Guru

My Blog has a new Home!

Just a quick blog to let you know that I have finally integrated my blog with my Stress(ed) Guru website.  I’ll be blogging on their from now on.

So please do check out my new Blog and, while you are at it, have a look at the rest of the website – there will be a load of stress related resources on my ‘Health,’ ‘Work,’ ‘Rest,’ and ‘Play,‘ pages

go on, you know you want to

And for those of you who have subscribed – A huge thank you.  Please go onto the new blog and sign up for that one, cos that’s where the action will be from now on….

SG out (But not down)

www.stressedguru.co.uk

 

Chronic Stress and Maladaptive coping

In my last blog I explained what chronic stress is and how it can be damaging.  Today I’m going to talk about maladaptive coping – what it is and how it relates to stress.

What is it?

Well, the term ‘maladaptive coping,’ tends to be used by mental health professionals when describing the negative behaviours we undertake,  in order to cope with or survive an experience.  They often relate to conditions such as anxiety, depression and so on.  An example, might be coping with an anxiety condition through drinking alcohol to excess.  The benefits of the relief from the constant tension are far outweighed by the damage that excessive drinking can do.  Hence the term ‘mal’ -adaptive rather than ‘adaptive.’  The adaptive part refers to action we take to adapt to conditions, in order to ensure ongoing survival. The ‘mal,’ refers to the not so positive types of adaptations.

Anyway, how does this relate to stress?  

Well, the term has been borrowed in order to cover those coping strategies we often resort to when experiencing chronic stress (and indeed acutely stressful situations, but since we are continuing on from the last blog about chronic stress, we’ll focus on that).

So, as we’ve explained, chronic stress refers to the state where we are under pressure, have engaged our stress reaction, and remain this way for extended periods of time.  As humans, we have an overriding drive to survive and cope.  We need to feel like we are in control of the situation and that need to cope can compel us to react in lots of ways, some positive, some not so.

Examples of maladaptive coping strategies when under chronic stress?

• drinking excessively – an artificial means of relaxation?

  

  Isolating yourself may not always help

• smoking, or taking other drugs whether legal or illegal.

• over or under-eating – craving energy because of the impact of the stress reaction on our insulin management and blood sugar levels or ‘i just don’t have time to eat!’

• getting to work earlier, leaving work later and not taking breaks – need to catch up/ keep on top/ get through this workload, etc – cope, survive.

• withdrawal – from those around you.  Might be a short term beneficial strategy, but long term, may lead to isolation and lack of support.

• Anger and aggression – ‘can’t believe how those b*****ds are causing me so much stress’, etc etc!!

Those are just a few examples. I’m sure anyone who has experienced chronic stress can either identify with some of the above or come up with their own.  The key message is that whilst survival is a positive (as John Kabat Zinn says in one of his Mindfulness meditations – ‘if you are still breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you’), how you are surviving may be causing some damage – whether to you personally or to those around you.

Have a think.  Are you or have you experienced periods of stress?  If so, how are you/ did you cope?  Jot these down and see if you can identify some maladaptive coping strategies there.

The key is to identify them in order to avoid or tackle them in the future.

More to come

SG out.

Oh and here’s a PS thought – can multi-tasking become a maladaptive coping strategy?  I know what I think.

Dave Algeo is Stress(ed) Guru, specialising in raising awareness of the stress and providing tips, tools and strategies for managing stress personally, professionally and organisationally.

Contact Dave on dave@algeotraining.co.uk, check out the Stress(ed) Guru website or call on 0800 380 0609

PS – Check out my new parody song – ‘Let’s Talk About Stress Baby’ on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra8qe1iebGU

Chronic Stress – When it all Goes Wrong

No More Mr Nice Guy

Can you handle the pressure??

In my previous blog ‘Positively Stressed? – Is there a good side to stress?’ I gave stress a break and examined the positive side to our stress reaction.  Today, however, the gloves come off.  No more Mr. Nice Guy.  I reveal the truth about stress – all it’s sordid little affairs and who it has been sleeping with (well not sleeping actually – that’s the point about chronic stress – it keeps you up all night for all the wrong reasons!).

Ok, so we’ve explored how our stress reaction forms part of the motivation mechanism and is a critical part of achieving effective performance.  This is the point at which the level of our stress arousal is appropriate to the challenges at any given time.  It is important to recognise, before we start looking at why this balance is often so precarious, that we each have our own optimal level of stress arousal.  What might create a real buzz for one could well freak out someone else.  As we have seen in previous blogs, the kind of stressor, our perception of it and our perception of our ability to cope with it will vary from one person to another.  This is a very individual thing.

So, what’s the problem with finding our optimal level of stress arousal and then staying at that level?  Surely we can go on forever like that?  We need stress after all?

Yeah But, No But, It’s Not That Simple Right…

The thing to remember here is how the stress reaction works using two opposing processes.  Remember, the Sympathetic part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) gears us up to deal with the stressor, whilst the Parasympathetic part of the ANS restores us to lower levels of stimulation.  They work in partnership, and if we spend long periods in one or the other we can experience problems.

Let’s use an analogy here to illustrate the point.  Imagine our body and mind is a big old country mansion with lot’s of rooms, lot’s of activities going on (a wedding, guests staying over night, a couple of business conferences and fishing taking place in the attached lake).

Now clearly the place is going to need some day to day maintenance and care to keep it running smoothly, to tidy up after the parties, make beds and ready rooms and so on.  On any given routine day, staff are bustling about with the usual functions, following regular procedures and things tick along nicely with all staff busy but on top of things.  This is your day-to-day routine body and mind functioning.

However, just as things are hunky dory, along comes an unusually long period of dreadful weather – snow, rain and wind.  This prompts staff to move away from their general maintenance tasks to more urgent tasks such as temporarily plugging leeks, shuttering up the windows, clearing paths, ensuring the whole place is adequately heated which requires for more resources and effort to keep the fires going, bring in extra logs.  This is you kicking into fight or flight – activating your stress response.

Now this would be fine for a short period of time.  The day to day tasks can wait, there are fewer guests visiting anyway given the bad weather, so the staff can focus on the emergency actions.

The trouble is this weather persists and persists, freakishly, for months and the staff, unable to do anything other than constantly move from one potential disaster to another keeping things together and ensuring the place doesn’t fall down around them.  And they are getting very little rest. Your stress reaction is switched on for a prolonged period of time.

While all this is going on and staff are into a more hectic but effective routine in dealing with the threats, the day to day maintenance is forgotten and the place starts to look the worse for it.  Carpets, start looking dirty and stained, cleanliness is slipping and those little maintenance jobs start developing into bigger jobs and ultimately add to the list of serious, costly and eventually urgent tasks, such as that roof, which staff have been patching up, actually needing replacement.  And your staff are getting tired and worn out.  Your stress reaction is disrupting the day to day body and mind upkeep.

This is not good!  If this weather keeps up, the property risks falling into a state of real disrepair and financially there is a real risk that they could face bankruptcy.  Chronic Stress leading to breakdown – physically, emotionally and psychologically.

Know What I Mean Harry?

See the links to the stress reaction?  Like the country house, we are a hive of physical and psychological processes and activities.  Under ‘normal’ circumstances where we move from moderate stress levels back to more restful states, eating normally (providing the energy and resources for the ongoing maintenance and repair process), and resting (providing time for those all important tidy ups and repair processes to take place) and things work fine.

However, if we start to experience relentless stress or chronic stress, attention is diverted more and more towards those activities designed to help us deal with the threats. As a result, the general day to day maintenance functions start to receive less attention.  Just like the staff in the country house, the priority and the drive is to deal with the emergency situation and ensure survival.  Unfortunately, if this continues for any length of the time the lack of general maintenance starts to show, we start to get a bit ragged around the edges (both internally and often externally).

Research tends to indicate that our capacity for coping in the face of relentless stressors over time is impressive. Let’s face it, we have evolved to survive and the drive at these times is exactly that – just get through it.

This may be why so many of us can operate under incredible pressures for weeks, months and even years.  Pressures such as constant job insecurity, relationship issues, constant unrealistic workloads, unsupportive working environments and all the other stressors identified earlier can often be endured for amazing periods of time.

As we’ve illustrated, however, this ability to cope has a knock on effect on the day to day functions and wellbeing.

Getting back to the question then, Can we maintain high levels of stress arousal for extended periods of time?  Yes, quite possibly – but at a cost.  And, if prolonged, that cost can result in significan health breakdown.

Is it really worth it? 

Tomorrow – Maladaptive coping and stress

SG out…

Dave Algeo, Stress(ed) Guru

Dave Algeo is Stress(ed) Guru, specialising in raising awareness of the stress and providing tips, tools and strategies for managing stress personally, professionally and organisationally.

Contact Dave on dave@algeotraining.co.uk, check out the Stress(ed) Guru website or call on 0800 380 0609

Stress and the Immune System

What does Stress do to our Immune System?

Hi.  A quick blog today folks.  I found a rather interesting Radio 4 Programme – ‘Am I Normal’ the other day and one of the episodes was particularly interesting and relevant to stress.  The immune system is critical to our health and well-being, yet so often, we don’t appreciate what a fantastic job it does and how fragile it can be.

Stress does funny (or not so funny) things to the immune system.  It stimulates, then suppresses it, encourages it to under-react in some cases and over- react in others.  What is going on?

And, as the title of the show goes, what is normal?

So, check out this link for the ‘Listen Again,’ of the ‘Am I Normal?’, Radio 4 show on The Immune System.

SG out

Dave Algeo is Stress(ed) Guru, specialising in raising awareness of the stress and providing tips, tools and strategies for managing stress personally, professionally and organisationally.

Contact Dave on dave@algeotraining.co.uk, check out the Stress(ed) Guru website or call on 0800 380 0609

Having a Riot. No Laughing Matter???

Shocked and Angry

No doubt like everyone else, we’ve been shocked, shamed and disgusted by the events of the last few days.  Pictures of looting, violence and disorder provoke questions about the how, the why and so on.  For my part, the cop part of me, I share a sense of pride, frustration and fear for all those brave officers, in the front line.  Let’s not forget though the other emergency services, and the fantastic people who have ‘bounced’ back to show those bent on destruction, that we will not bow down or wilt in the face of such aggression.

A time for Humour?

So, amidst all the anger and outrage, why is it that humour seems to feature almost as prominently?  Take a look at this picture, one of many floating around the web:

Is this insensitive and dismissive of those who have and are suffering as a result of the riots?

Or is it a typical, human response to trauma:  to re-frame that which hurts or doesn’t make sense into something more bearable?

My experience over the years as a police officer tends to direct me toward the latter.  Everyone knows that those working in the emergency services or the military have their own very unique brand of dark humour.

Why is that?

It’s because it proves to be a very powerful way to deal with the stress and trauma of situations.  Admittedly, someone overhearing a conversation between two fire officers at the scene of a fatal road traffic accident may be shocked at the humour and the joking.  But, in the shoes (or boots) of those officers having to face such a reality day in day out, that humour provides protection.

Humour as a Survival Instinct..

And it is not confined to those in such occupations.  In my past as a police officer, I worked for several months as a Family Liaison Officer on a long running murder enquiry.  During those dark months, I witnessed the tragedy, trauma and destruction that murder wreaks on the loved ones left behind.  That wonderful family experienced the worst that life can throw at them.  And yet, even in the darkest, bleakest moments, they/ we found time for laughter, humour and jokes.  How is that possible?  When consumed with tragedy, how is it we still find momentary relief in humour?

I have come to believe that, humour is a powerful survival mechanism, becoming more important and more prevalent as times becomes tougher.

Laughter and Stress Management

When it comes to stress management, coping with trauma and recovery, finding space for humour and having a good laugh is critical.  Research supports just how beneficial laughter is in terms of lowering stress levels.

Perhaps, rather than condemning those who seek to make light of the recent troubles, we should take a moment ourselves to laugh along.  There is one proviso here, however.  And that is that the humour is not victim oriented.  We all, I am sure are aware of situations where ‘it’s just a joke,’ has been provided as an excuse for bullying or even assault.

So, in short, humour and laughter will no doubt form part of the recovery process for everyone trying to come to terms with the aftermath of the riots.   Let us remember the power of laughter in our own stress management too.

SG out

Dave Algeo is Stress(ed) Guru, specialising in raising awareness of the stress and providing tips, tools and strategies for managing stress personally, professionally and organisationally.

Contact Dave on dave@algeotraining.co.uk, check out the Stress(ed) Guru website or call on 0800 380 0609

Let’s Talk About Stress Baby

Well, although I’m on holiday (normal service will be resumed soon – promise), I thought I would promote my parody song – Let’s talk About Stress Baby.  The song was inspired by my own frustration around the whole topic of stress.  Let’s face it, when it is talked about it is often misunderstood, maligned and denied.  My philosophy as a professional speaker and trainer and stress expert is to use humour and knowledge to break down barriers and prejudice around the subject and raise awareness.  Understanding and managing stress is possible, but made all the more difficult by lack of knowledge, distorted beliefs anf misunderstanding.

So, here’s the video.  enjoy, and catch you all soon.

 

SG out

Dave Algeo is Stress(ed) Guru, specialising in raising awareness of the stress and providing tips, tools and strategies for managing stress personally, professionally and organisationally.

Contact Dave on dave@algeotraining.co.uk, check out the Stress(ed) Guru website or call on 0800 380 0609