Self-management procedures for coping with stress

Anthony J. Vattano, Ph.D., is Associ ate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. A version of this article was presented at the annual convention of the Midwestern Association of Be havior Analysis, May 17, 1977. Many people encounter problems stress as a general reaction to such in living that precipitate excessive everyday activities as working or mak stress and anxiety, such as interpering love. The essential component is sonal conflicts, demands that exceed the requirement for performance or the individual's capacity to meet them, adaptation. In contrast, distress is the and threats to the satisfaction of psyresult of excessive, damaging, or un chosocial needs or desires. Social workpleasant stress.4 The demand may ers use a variety of approaches to deal range from organic dysfunction to in with the causes of such situations. Reterpersonal conflict. It is this aversive cently there has been an increased kind of stress that impels clients to emphasis on teaching people to cope seek the help of social workers. Dis directly with the symptoms of stress stress is responsible for mobilizing and anxiety through research-based G.A.S. to meet the increased physio self-maagement procedures.1 These^ logical and emotional demands on the procedures are self-managing in the body. The syndrome is a nonspecific sense that, although they may be reaction to changes in the homeostasis, taught by professionals, the client asor steady state, of an organism. G.A.S. sumes 'major responsibility for their consists of three phases: (1) an alarm operation in helping himself or herreaction in response to the demands of self. However, there has been little a stress-producing agent, or stressor, mention of these developments in the (2) resistance or adaptation to the de social work literature. mands of the stressor, (3) exhaustion This article discusses three such proor depletion of adaptation energy from cedures for coping with stress and continued exposure to the stressor.® anxiety—relaxation training, system(Although acknowledging the impor atic desensitization, and meditation— tance of Selye's distinction between and examines their implications for stress and distress, the author will fol practice. All three are different from, low the usual practice of referring to but related to, biofeedback training, distress as "stress.") which teaches people to voluntarily G.A.S. innervates (stimulates) the control certain physiological responses autonomic nervous system, producing associated with stress and anxiety, such increased heart rate, blood pressure, as heart rate, blood pressure, and musrespiration, skin temperature, sweat cle tension.2 Before discussing these gland and gastrointestinal activity, pu self-management procedures, it is pillary changes, and muscle tension, necessary to consider the associated This physiological arousal results in matters of stress and anxiety. the so-called "fight or flight" response, The concept of stress is used to dewhich has enabled people to deal with scribe a variety of physiological, cogthreatening situations since primitive nitive, and behavioral phenomena, times. The response is increasingly each of which has been subjected to a evoked by the multiple demands of considerable amount of study. Nevermodern-day society. Unfortunately, the theless, there is no general definition urban slum dweller, the person in rural that satisfactorily encompasses the poverty, and the middle-class striver range of events subsumed under the are often unable to engage in either term "stress." fight or flight to discharge their state Selye has devoted a lifetime to inof arousal. Even worse, the response is vestigating the physiological compomobilized repeatedly with a cumula nents of stress. In 1956, he formulated tive, debilitating effect on physical and the general adaptation syndrome emotional health. It is not surprising (G.A.S.) to describe how people rethat after repeated and prolonged ex spond to this condition.3 In a more posure to stress and G.A.S., many in recent book, Selye expands his physiodividuals develop hypertension, heart logical perspective and draws a distincdisease, or chronic emotional upset, tion between stress and distress. He Black people have been particularly defines stress as "the nonspecific revulnerable to hypertension as a conse sponse of the body to any demand quence of environmental stress.® made upon it." This definition views Selye's G.A.S. model is helpful in