stress managment

Essay by bigpapaUniversity, Bachelor's April 2003

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STRESS MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

In this essay I will attempt to give a comprehensive description of stress, its nature and symptoms and look at its possible causes and effects. Where relevant I will relate these to situations I have experienced working in the field of social care. I will also look at two successful methods of coping with and relieving stress. Stress can be hard to define. The fact that stress (at appropriate levels) can be beneficial and help maintain the body's equilibrium should always be taken into consideration. One definition of stress could be the way a person responds to what they perceive to be a mis -match in levels of pressure placed upon them and not the pressure itself.

In my work supporting adults who have a learning disability, and/or mental health problems, stress and its effects are common. I am currently supporting a woman through a particularly stressful life event, the recent death of her mother.

It was my client's response to the bereavement and her perceived ability to cope, which has been a critical factor in her experiencing stress. With regards to my client's current situation, stress has manifested itself in a variety of physical and psychological ways. The physical symptoms being headaches, backache and flu like symptoms. In terms of the psychological affects of stress, my client has been diagnosed with a depressive type illness, and experiences anxiety/panic attacks when leaving her house. Her sleep pattern is also disturbed as she is experiencing long periods of fatigue through the day and wakefulness at night. My client feels that she has no one in her life that she can trust, and feels threatened and unsafe whenever she leaves the house. This is the transactional model of stress, which combines the response and stimulus models of stress...