The STRESS Management Workbook
An action plan for taking control of your life and health!

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The Stress Management Workbook combines the best of modern medical information with realistic self-help techniques. As the authors emphasize, a certain amount of stress in your life is normal and healthy. This book simply shows you how to find and keep the perfect balance for you - so you can enjoy life to its fullest!

STRESS - You're bound to experience it at some point in your life Its symptoms are as numerous and varied as its causes. The Stress Management Workbook is a unique,complete guide to recognizing the factors that are evoking stress - at home, at work, In school, and In your relationships with family and friends. Once you've identified what's causing you to experience stress, you've taken the first big step toward overcoming it! The questionnaires, checklists, and self-evalution tools you'll find throughout the book will help you to measure your personal reactions to stress and to develop a stress management plan that is tailored to your day-to-day needs. The authors teach you how to use such time-proven stress management techniques as meditation, exercise, deep muscle relaxation, diet, and self-hypnosis.

Other features include:

· An "Integrated Model of Health and Disease - which helps you to pinpoint the physical and emotional effects stress can have on your well-being. · Diet guidelines - You'll learn which common foods can ease or increase the symptoms of stress. · Practical stress management exercises that you can fit into your busy schedule. The Stress Management Workbook combines the best of modern medical information with realistic self-help techniques. As the authors emphasize, a certain amount of stress in your life is normal and healthy. This book simply shows you how to find and keep the perfect balance for you - so you can enjoy life to its fullest!

Preface:

The twentieth century has been marked by tremendous advances in the theory and practice of medicine. Phenomenal scientific and technological discoveries have found their way into medical practice. People have grown to expect certain seemingly miraculous results from the institutions and providers of medical care, and often, the expectation is that the impossible can be achieved.

There is, however, increasing popular awareness that modern medicine cannot perform miracles despite the available science and technology. Professionals and laymen alike are learning that advances in medicine, however dazzling, cannot make up for life styles that breed pathology. Life style is now being recognized as a major factor in the development of many of our modern medical problems. General attitude and behavior are clearly linked to the individual's health status. Moreover, most medical problems seem to occur more frequently with increasing stress, and environmental exposure appears to be a factor in most illnesses. Expectations appear to have an effect on health and well-being. Such varied problems as cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, malnutrition, pancreatitis, ulcers, high blood pressure, headache, food poisoning, voodoo deaths, and others appear to be influenced by both internal and environmental factors, both emotional and physical.

Professionals and laymen are beginning to realize and teach that the individual has a great responsibility in the promotion of his own health and the prevention of his own disease. The concept of self-care is steadily gaining acceptance. People are beginning to realize that they have control over certain factors that affect their health and wellbeing. But although these concepts are being accepted more readily, the methods for their application and general use have not been widely available.

THE STRESS MANAGEMENT WORKBOOK is designed for the individual who takes the concept of self-care seriously and wants to do whatever he can to promote his own health and well-being, as well as take advantage of the best that modern medicine has to offer.

Although the book can be read rather quickly, the material is designed to be implemented gradually and thoughtfully in conjunction with advice from your personal physician. It is expected that your initial planned changes may take up to two years or more to institute.

Frequent review of the material should take place during this time, and modifications of the plan will not be uncommon. Modifications, again, should be placed into a reasonable timetable.

It is common for individuals to identify with many of the symptoms, behaviors, and attitudes discussed in this book. This is not cause for alarm. It does not necessarily mean that you have a serious problem; the information you gather will certainly help you to know yourself better and facilitate your personal growth.

This book has been designed for use as a self-help manual for the individual, as a text for students of healing professions as part of an in-house training program in a work setting, or as part of the Stress Management Workshop, which is conducted by the authors upon request. If it is being used in an employer-sponsored program, care should be taken to establish a degree of confidentiality that will facilitate honest responses to the material. Contents:

1. Introduction to Stress 2. Signs and Symptoms of Stress 3. Identification of Stressors in Your Life 4. IncreasingStressTolerance 5. Implementing Change A Selected Bibliography List of Charts, Exercises, Figures, and Questionnaires Figure-An Integrated Model of Health and Disease Figure-Cross Section of Integrated Model at Time X Figure-Clinical Application of Integrated Model at Time X Scale 1-Symptoms of Stress Scale 2-Signs of Stress Figure-Physical Stressors Scale 3-Environmental Physical Stressors Figure-Physical Supporters Figure-Chemical Stressors Scale 4-Environmental Chemical Stressors Figure-Chemical Supporters Figure-Biological Stressors Scale 5-Environmental Biological Stressors Figure-Biological Supporters Figure-Social Stressors Scale 6-Environmental Social Stressors Figure-Social Supporters Scale 7-Environmental Social Supporters Figure-Attitudinal Stressors Figure-Attitudinal Supporters Scale 8-Attitudinal Stressors and Supporters Scale 9-Self-Image Chart Assessment Chart: The Need for Achievement Assessment Chart: The Control Issue Assessment Chart: The Workaholic Syndrome Figure-Health Habits: Stressors Scale 10-Health Habits: Stressors Figure-Health Habits: Supporters Scale 11-Health Habits: Supporters Figure-Interpersonal Style: Stressors Figure-Interpersonal Style: Supporters Charting Your Support Network Diagram-Diagramming Your Social Environment Scale 12-Behavioral Stressors: Interpersonal Style Figure-Behavioral Stressors Figure-Behavioral Supporters Scale 13-Internal Behavioral Stressors: Communication Skills Diagram-Verbal Communication Diagram-Nonverbal Communication Confrontation Exercise Problem-Solving Exercise Anger Exercise Responses to Anger Strategies for Dealing with Anger Expectations of Relationships Approach to Decision Making Scale 14-Social Stressors: Task-Based Stress Scale 15-Social Stressors: Role-Based Stress Changing Responsibilities Role Problems Eggs in Your Baskets Scale 16-Social Stress: Situational Factors Life Stage Exercise The Social Readjustment Rating Scale Figure-Genetic Stressors Scale 17-Genetic Stressors Figure-Genetic Supporters Figure-Immunity Figure-Immunological Stressors Figure-Immunological Supporters Immunization Chart Scale 18-Immunization Figure-Pathological Internal Conditions Level of Pathology Questionnaire Improving Stress Management Strategies: Pre-Test Conditioning Questionnaire Present Activities Chart Future Activities Chart Carbobydrate Consumption Fat Consumption Protein Consumption Calculating Your Total Daily Protein Consumption Vitamin Consumption Future Food Consumption Instructions Scale 19-Methods of Relaxation Recreation and Hobbies Checklist of Stressors and Supporters Action Plan for Change Support Network Help for Your Action Plan Improving Stress Management Strategies: Post-Test

FOR THOSE USING THIS BOOK FOR INDUSTRIAL TRAINING : A NOTE TO MANAGERS, SUPERVISORS, AND OTHER PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF PEOPLE The people you manage are not likely to do all the work in this book nor are they likely to fill out the Action Plan for Change, much less follow through without your example and encouragement. If the health of those you supervise is important to you, if you believe that productivity will increase, that absenteeism and staff turnover will decrease with increases in your staff's ability to cope with stress, then it is your job as manager to establish conditions that encourage completion and follow through with this material. 1. Make it clear to staff that their cooperation with this project is part of their job and that they are expected to complete all the work in this book. 2. Build time into the schedules of your workers for them to complete this material. 3. Pay them to do this work if time is not made available in their work schedules. 4. Set up a series of ongoing interviews over the next one to three years, at least two to three per year of follow-up, to discuss their progress and encourage them to follow through. 5. Reward, either financially or through some type of recognition, those employees who meet their own goals for stress management and stress reduction. 6. Lastly, if you do not set the example and demonstrate the importance of this program to the agency, business, or organization, your staff will not take it seriously. If you need help structuring and implementing this type of follow-up program, consult your company or personal physician and/or professional counselors/organizational consultants to help guide you through the process of change which you have found desirable.

About the Authors: Stephen Aronson, Ph.D . is a licensed psychologist with more than 10 years' experience as an organizational development and training consultant - to schools, summer camps, corporations, and government groups. He has taught psychology at the university level throughout the country. His professional interests include the development of communication skills, and team management.

Michael F. Mascia, M.D., M.P.H . is a Board Certified Family Practitioner with a private medical practice in Brldgton, Maine. He has taught Family Medicine in major medical schools, and is actively involved in the research and development of stress management techniques. Dr. Mascia isa dlplomate of the American Board of Family Practice, and a member of the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American Academy of Family Practice. He received his M.D. and MPH. degrees in 1972 from Tulane University.Drs. Aronson and Mascia have worked together, conducting stress management workshops for corporations, government groups, and individuals.