Professional help for coping with stress
If changes to lifestyle factors are unable to reduce your stress levels, it is best to ask your doctor to refer you to a recommended mental health professional who specialises in treating anxiety and stress.
Talk to a therapist, life coach or psychologist for professional help and assistance. These people are trained to assist you in learning coping techniques suited to your particular type of stress and your lifestyle.
There are a variety of services that these professionals can provide you with:
- Cognitive behavioural therapy or talk therapy– allows you to talk about everything that is an issue in your life. The medical professional may ask questions that get to the cause of the stressor. This is known as talk therapy. CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) allows you to change the way you think about and act towards certain stressors, getting you to understand your stressor in order to change your response.
- Biofeedback– is able to measure your body’s response to stress, monitoring your heart rate, breathing, brain waves and muscle tension in real time. This then allows you to employ certain breathing or coping techniques to see which one reacts best with the stress responses in question.
Outlook for those suffering from stress
Being able to manage episodes of acute and chronic stress allows you to reduce your risks of stress-related diseases and illnesses. Lifestyle adjustment and professional treatment can both be effective should you commit yourself and your time to them – it will be worth it in the end.
It is best to handle your stress before it develops into a condition that is not as easy to manage. Speak to your doctor about dealing with stress.