Stress And Change In Life

Stress means many different things to different people - it can even mean different things at different times to the same person - but one of its underlying characteristics is the frequency with which it is encountered in association with change. Harmful stress is often regarded as a disease endemic to the 20th century, and it cannot be in coincidence that a period that has witnessed such major changes in file in all levels, from the invention of the motor car to the appearance of the test tube baby, has also seen a most dramatic rise in stress levels. Coping successfully with stress is often a question of adapting adequately to change, and to meeting the many demands which change imposes, but the literally breath-taking speed and diversity of change within our own time has created an overwhelming range of choices, which can be confusing and stressful in their own right.

Yet natural, as opposed to artificially accelerated, change is the very essence of life itself. The great life-experiences which human beings share - for example, birth, marriage (and divorce), bereavement and so on - all involve a very considerable element of change.

It is when the response to these changes is in some way inadequate that they become stressful: then they are no longer natural transitions, but stumbling blocks. And the same is true of reactions to the major body changes - puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, the menopause - which are in themselves an entirely natural part of the life process, but potentially stressful in an adverse sense, depending on individual response.

On a more mundane level, many of the potentially stressful situations we encounter in our everyday lives are also linked to change - like moving away from home for the first time; starting a new job; moving house; taking retirement. While some of the ordinary ups- and-downs which we all encounter on an everyday basis may seem almost too insignificant in themselves to rank as stressful, they can easily become so if they accumulate over a long period of time.

Many of the stressful situations and suggestions for coping with them to be found in this site will be seen to be closely related to change, and one cannot emphasize too strongly that an awareness of the stress/change relation is one of the basic premises for learning to come to terms with stress. Obviously, change that is not of your own choosing, but seemingly imposed on you, will tend to be much more stressful than change which you can more easily control for yourself. But generally speaking, if you can get into the habit of anticipating change, thinking and planning ahead, and learning to balance changes in your life with a variety of compensating and stabilizing factors, you are off to a great start on the road to controlling stress rather than letting it take control of you.

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