Introduction to Stress and Anxiety (Psychology)

In this discussion, I will be writing about what stress and anxiety are. In this piece, I will discuss how to relieve some of that stress and anxiety. Everyone in life has experienced stress and anxiety at least once. Everyone is not the same so I do want to emphasize that too. Everyone deals with external and internal issues in their lives differently than others. There is a chance that a small percentage of the population does not become stressed or anxious at all. The reason for this could depend on the person's reaction, perspective, and their mental state. There are other factors that can affect someone's way of viewing a situation and it all depends on how that person deals with the problem. Whether that person productively solves the problem or whether the person has the ability to accept things that cannot be controlled. The serenity prayer is a good example of this kind of mindset in life. It is a good guideline for life too.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen."

Explaining The Meaning of Stress

Stress is commonly caused by situations happening externally within someone’s environment. In some cases, stress can be caused by an internal factor. A defined definition of stress would be that it is an imbalance between a potentially stressful situation and the lack of/or availability of resources to deal with the problem at hand. Stress can cause bodily reactions but not to the same level as anxiety does. Stress is more constant when situations occur where there is a higher level of pressure. Coping methods are often used to defer stress in certain situations. Stress can have a behavioural effect on someone too. By this, I mean that the person could become very irritable when something is stressing them out.

There is a term called "stressors" and "stressors" are anything that refers to an event, situation, condition, or other external influence that causes a stress response. As I have mentioned above, anything that externally and internally poses a threat to someone can become a stressor that creates stress in the person. Examples of this can include financial status, work experiences, relationships, family, and so on.

Explaining The Meaning of Anxiety

The textbook that I am using to increase my level of studies in the Sport Psychology course states that anxiety is defined as arousal. It is a type of arousal that is associated with negative avoidance behaviour. Arousal is not an emotion but anxiety is. Anxiety commonly creates bodily reactions such as heavy breathing, sweating hands/palms, heart racing, headaches, etc. Secondly, anxiety can be involved in worrying about performance related to sports and other physical activities.

Different Types of Anxiety

There are different types of anxiety that can lead to higher or lower levels of anxiety. Some types of anxiety include somatic anxiety, state anxiety, cognitive anxiety, performance anxiety, and trait anxiety. Those are some of the common types of anxiety.

Somatic Anxiety:

Somatic anxiety is associated with having physiological reactions to a stressful event. Physiological means that the person is sweating, their heart is racing, palms are sweating, and so on. The anxiety is within the body.

State Anxiety:

State anxiety is often a case of anxiety that is involved with moods. The moods of someone can create an instant state of anxiety.

Performance Anxiety:

Performance anxiety is self-explanatory. Performance anxiety has to do with feeling anxious in performing a specific action. It has to do with the fear of failure in performing something specific. Performance anxiety counts for all levels of performance, performing on stage, singing, participating in a competitive sport, performing in a test, performing sexually or in other physically intimate ways, etc.

Cognitive Anxiety:

Cognitive anxiety is more internalized within oneself. Often to do with negative thinking about oneself.

Trait Anxiety:

Trait anxiety has to do with an internal focus. It has to do with the person's own being. It is almost a personality trait in a sense. The stress comes partly from how you are as a person in terms of personality type.

The Slight Differences of Stress and Anxiety

Stress and anxiety can go hand-in-hand because anxiety is a result of extreme stress and stress is a result of a specific threat of some sort. Anxiety is more long-term and persistent than stress but it can also be short-term. The level of severity and duration can determine whether someone is stressed only or whether they have anxiety. Anxiety is the fear of a specific outcome whereas stress is the immediate psychological and physiological reaction to an event that causes the person to stress.

An Example of Stress and Anxiety in Sport

An example of a stressful sport is rock climbing. A friend goes rock climbing indoors and outdoors. Outdoors he finds it more difficult to climb than indoors. When he becomes stressed or anxious about a climb he often tends to take a short break and try it again. Often stress and anxiety could be worse for some than for others in terms of possible fears related to the stress/anxiety factor. On a deeper level, rock climbing for someone who has a fear of heights tends to cause more anxiety than it would for someone who does not have a fear of heights.

Methods That Can Help Alleviate Stress and Anxiety

I am going to continue using the example of a rock climber to explain a couple of methods used for alleviating anxiety and stress. A way rock climbers can deal with stress and anxiety is to focus on breathing techniques. Breathing techniques can help reduce stress/anxiety and it can allow climbers to exert less energy when they are moving. When climbers focus on breathing it helps to slow down the body so that their brains can focus on the course. On the other hand, physical strength is partially a factor for rock climbing. 

Another tip to keep in mind for anxiety/stress is to take activities one step at a time. Only try what you feel comfortable with until you are ready to move on to the next level. Staying hydrated while completing a physical activity is an important factor in relieving stress/anxiety because water cools down your body. If someone’s physical and mental state is not healthy then it is more likely that they will experience stress and anxiety. 

In rock climbing, praise and supportive comments from other climbers tend to relieve stress. However, if the individual does not want attention or does not want advice/commentary from other climbers there is a chance that it may create more anxiety than intended. The same idea can include climbers “pumping” each other up through semi-aggressive words, phrases, or other ways of mocking. The semi-aggression often increases the adrenaline and arousal of a climber to perform better. There will always be a negative outcome or positive outcome from these types of interactions depending on the individual’s personality.

Other Types of Stress Management Techniques

Educational Stress Management:

This is a technique that requires the person to learn about anxiety and how it can impact performance in a person. This technique was demonstrated by Carl Lewis in 1984 by competing in the 1984 Olympics. He won 4 medals. He demonstrated peak performance under pressure. Carl Lewis did this by reducing his psychological arousal to increase a relaxed state. Educational Stress Management comes with practice, knowing oneself and your own limits. This technique involves educating yourself to learn how anxiety personally affects you and your body. In the future, you can then identify how to relax your levels of arousal when it comes to stress or anxiety.

Cognitive Stress Management Techniques:

As explained earlier, there is a type of stress that is internalized within one's thoughts. Some techniques that can help someone think less negatively about their situation are things such as thought-stopping, attentional control strategies, counterconditioning, mindfulness (also known as mindful thinking), centering, attentional cues/triggers, reframing, positive self-talk, and imagery. There are a variety of techniques that can work for someone regarding cognitive stress and anxiety. I will discuss a couple of these coping methods.

-Thought-Stopping: Thought-stopping is when someone uses a cue to interrupt any type of unwanted thought. Cues or trigger words are used as a "wake-up" call for yourself when thinking negatively about a specific situation or event. The idea is that when someone has a negative thought or unwanted thought they should yell or clearly tell themselves out loud to "Stop!" Other cue words or triggers can be used. It is up to the person on what the cue word should be. Once the cue word is used, that person must quickly substitute the unwanted thought with a positive thought. If word cues do not work then visual cues can be used too. It depends on what works for the person. Everyone is different when it comes to what helpful stress methods will work for them.

-Attentional Control Strategies: Attentional control strategies are a lot more detailed to explain in this post but I will give a brief explanation of what they are. Attentional control strategies are mostly used for directing attention away from the event, situation, or stressful factor and onto a different distraction. The strategy is about control and control of attention, meaning that you are trying to control your attention from one thing to the next.

-Positive Self-Talk: This method is self-explanatory but I will touch on a couple of details. This method is used to practice positive self-talk, meaning that you have a conversation with yourself and tell yourself positive, affirmations. An example would be something like, "I am strong and beautiful. Today will be a good day." There are multiple examples of positive self-talk. Self-talk is where you spend time with yourself, giving yourself instructions, reinforcing thoughts, and interpreting thoughts, feelings, and actions. It is an internal dialogue you have with yourself either out loud or internally. Self-talk can increase self-confidence and reduce stress.

-Reframing: Reframing is used to look at a situation and tell yourself that it is an opportunity to learn new skills and develop strategies for a higher level of play or activity. This method is used to change your perspective on a situation and argue that it is an opportunity instead of a disadvantage. In this method, it teaches one to have a broad view of situations. Instead of thinking in a narrow and rigid way.

Overall, there are several methods to coping with stress in a cognitive way. If you have any more questions about any of the methods I did not discuss please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to explain it to you.

Relaxation Exercises:

As mentioned above, breathing techniques are a popular stress management technique.

Other relaxation exercises include;

-Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation involves purposely tensing and relaxing various parts of muscles in the body. It is used to train atheletes to relax their muscles in competitive situations or in general used for any physical activity.

-Meditation

-Counting down or up and breathing

-Autogenic Training

Autogenic training is close to meditation but it is a form of self-hypnosis (I am not generally for hypnosis but it is still a method). Autogenic training takes months to practice and it has six different stages whereas mediatation is not often contrusted in that way. The goal is to induce sensations that include warmth and heaviness within the body. This technique is not as commonly used among athletes. Once again, it is a state of self hypnosis.

The last branch of stress management is called the cognitive-behavioural stress methods. However, this method includes a lot of detail that I will have to get into another time. This post is only an introduction and a few methods to help allieviate some stress. I hope that this post has helped someone understand themselves better. I hope that you will try out some of these methods and see what works for you! Feel free to do deeper research on these methods to see if they will work for you. Do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have. I will try my best to answer them. :)