IS STRESS MAKING YOU SICK?

While even good things can cause stress, stress that is harmful or causes depression is unacceptable. Although the situation may not be changeable, the reaction to it usually can.
Some stress is the result of our upbringing. We often react the way our parents reacted, without even realizing it. Many women experience stress as a result of the "Super-woman" mentality that is part of working outside the home while still having all the responsibilities of normal fantasy life. Men often experience stress due to the age-old idea of being "bread-winner" in addition to husband and father. Both sexes are susceptible to the fear of current downsizing, which not only means a loss of employment but also a blow to self-esteem.
To effectively treat stress through hypnotherapy, the cause of the stress and the clients' responses are pinpointed. The Hypnotherapist then designs a program tailored to replace the old responses with new, positive physical and emotional responses. These may include deep breathing, positive self-talk, and using the imagination to visualize a positive outcome of a situation.

Here are some of the symptoms that people have and not realize that this is stress and if not taken care of will escalate:

• Neglect your diet
• Try to do everything yourself
• Blow up easily
• Have trouble sleeping
• Sleep to much
• Seek unrealistic goals
• Fail to see the humour in situations others find funny
• Act rude
• Make a big deal of everything
• Have difficulty making decisions
• Complain you are disorganized
• Avoid people whose ideas are different from your own
• Keep everything inside
• Neglect exercise
• Have few supportive relationships
• Use food, drugs or alcohol to pacify yourself
• Get angry when you are kept waiting
• Put things off until later
• Think there is only one right way to do something
• Race through the day
• Spend a lot of time complaining about the past
• Constant feeling of being overwhelmed

The goal of hypnotherapy in the treatment of stress is to help reduce or eliminate negative stress, incorporate new responses, and to assist the client in becoming a calmer, healthier human being.
To see if you are in danger of illness due to stress, take the stress test. You may be surprised!

The above scale was developed by Dr. Thomas H. Holmes, a psychiatrist at the University of Washington School of Medicine to measure the psychological stress that can be caused by various changes in circumstances.
The scale represents a "reasonably good correlation" between life changes and the onset of depression and medical problems.
Studies indicate that an accumulation of 200 or more "life-change units" in a single year may be more disruption than an individual can withstand -- thereby making him vulnerable to illness.
If your score is higher than you'd like it to be, don't wait for physical symptoms to appear.

Get help now. We're only a phone call away.