In modern reality, people often have to experience stress. Sometimes it happens that some unforeseen event ruins all plans and forces you to plunge into anxious thoughts about your future. At the same time, the immediate prospects do not seem rosy, but, on the contrary, fade into a large number of bright negative emotions. Constant worries about certain events create emotional stress. It, in turn, affects both physical well-being and mental state. At the same time, the desire to act, make plans, or do anything at all may disappear.
Causes of emotional stress
In psychology, it is believed that emotional stress is a psychophysiological state of the body, which consists of a set of emotional experiences caused by various reasons.
Important! Most often, tension begins to manifest itself when a person constantly accumulates within himself and cannot throw out internal experiences from the outside, constantly restraining his emotional manifestations: anger, rage, fear, anxiety. Finding the cause of your worries and eliminating it is the main condition in the fight for your health.
The most common causes of tension have been identified:
- Genetic factors - it is believed that for people who have a melancholic character with weakness of nervous processes, tension can be inherited.
- The emergence and aggravation of emotional stress can be influenced by the social environment. Children are often susceptible to this influence when their parents are overprotective or have excessive demands. A child in a nursery and kindergarten is taught that it is impossible to openly show dissatisfaction, anger, or aggressiveness. They don’t explain how to throw out your emotions. Emotional tightness develops, turning into tension.
- For adults, the cause of tension and stress is difficult life moments: disasters, accidents, illnesses, divorces. Such traumatic shocks begin to cultivate anxiety for one’s life and health, and that of one’s family.
- Modern life is such that people often experience increased stress. Often situations require you to activate the hidden capabilities of the body, but physical activity is not enough for this. A passive lifestyle, sedentary work at a computer (especially for men), and a lack of active training interfere. This disrupts metabolism and leads to imbalance, hence constant tension in the body.
A passive lifestyle weakens the body and makes it difficult to deal with tension in the mind and body.
Afterword
Mental burnout is a long process, at the beginning of which a person strives to “squeeze all the juices out of himself” and find new resources. But in fact, irritation, dissatisfaction, anxiety, frustration, depression only increase, and then exhaustion, depersonalization and reduction come.
Interestingly, not only personality traits influence the development of burnout, but burnout also causes changes in personality. Due to the adaptive, but different from social norms, behavior of a burnt-out person, professional deformations arise. This is a variant of self-justification of the individual, resolution of the existing contradiction. Professional deformations are the result of a restructuring of the individual’s inner world and the emergence of new formations.
Read more about deformations in the article “Professional personality deformations: what they are, factors, signs and prevention.” And about the causes of emotional burnout in the article “Professional emotional burnout: causes and factors.”
Types of voltage
How to get rid of stress and nervous tension - ways to combat it
When muscle tension occurs, there is an increased load on the nervous system, which leads to inappropriate human behavior. Everyone reacts differently to a traumatic situation. Therefore, there are different types of reactions to the manifestation of stress:
- Inhibited type - the individual cannot adapt to stress, for example, excessive demands in the family or at work. In this case, behavior becomes inadequate, inhibited, and lethargic in relation to the situation. The individual is completely deprived of active resistance to problems.
- Excitable type - constant overexcitation leads to a person’s behavior changing, making him aggressive, hot-tempered, irritable. He seems to fulfill all the requirements, but this happens with excessive nervous tension. It often results in unreasonable conflicts; they say about such people: “it flares up like gunpowder.”
Any type of tension requires an outlet using effective methods so as not to go to extremes: illness, madness, desire for loneliness, hatred of the world and the desire to take revenge on everyone indiscriminately and similar dangerous phenomena.
Face-saving techniques
What to do when you are insulted? How to respond with dignity, maintaining inner peace and not losing face?
Technique 1. “External consent”
When someone says something unpleasant and offensive to you, it is assumed that you will lose control of yourself and reciprocate.
Or you will begin to prove to him that he is wrong and his words are unfair.
The phrase “maybe you are right” does not mean that you agree, everyone understands this, but it deprives the interlocutor of the right to continue the verbal attack.
In any case, it is obvious that repeating it is useless.
Technique 2. “Repetition”
Saying out loud what your interlocutor told you in the heat of the moment is very useful.
It is unlikely that anyone who is already prepared to hear “You are a fool!” ready to hear your words and ready to respond to them.
Even if he has a large vocabulary, constantly hearing the echo of his words without getting the desired result in the form of an emotional reaction is unlikely to please his opponent.
Technique 3. “Clarification”
"Do you really think so? Why?
Technique 4. “Part of my personality”
Someone doesn't like something about you.
Recognize that this is acceptable. But this is your personal quality that belongs to you, so someone else’s judgment about it should not cause you concern.
“Yes, I work slowly. But I try to do everything without mistakes, so I double-check my work.”
Effective ways to relieve tension
How to help a person get out of depression and calm him down if he doesn’t want anything
When asked how to relieve nervous tension, psychology offers effective ways. For people who are able to cope with emotional stress themselves, correctional methods will be useful:
- Self-analysis provides an opportunity to understand anxiety. According to psychologists, people often overdramatize the problem that has arisen. Using a simple solution on a piece of paper, you can analyze it into possible pros and cons. Then cut off everything that interferes with life.
- Auto-training will help relieve mental and mental tension. It combines muscle relaxation and self-persuasion well. Similar exercises are available on psychological websites. It is useful to fuel the results with physical and intellectual activities: reading books, creativity, pleasant training in the form of fashionable Norwegian walking with poles.
- Methods of relaxation and relieving psycho-emotional stress have proven themselves well. The main ones are meditation, breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, focusing on some object, for example, a candle, a facial point, sounds. If you know how to disconnect from all thoughts during classes, with the help of relaxation you can put your thoughts, feelings, emotions in order, and reduce anxiety.
Autotraining methods help relieve mental and muscle tension
- Psychologists urge you to actively remove from your life surrounding circumstances and people that cause tension, if they are related to work, social circles, or family troubles. It is useful to surround yourself with things that bring moral satisfaction: books, paintings, dishes, flowers.
- Physically and emotionally it is possible to “escape” from anxiety, so anxious people need to regularly run, exercise, adjust their routine, ensure restful sleep, find an interesting hobby, and expand their circle of pleasant communication.
- A strong effect is achieved by combining all standard and non-standard options that help solve the problem. In psychology, this method is called brainstorming. The main condition is to consult with loved ones and friends in order to see the traumatic situation from the other side.
If you can't relax
Professional stress - what causes it and how to cope with it
Many people, relying on treatment at home, complain that the recommended psychological remedies do not help, no matter how hard they try to follow all the instructions correctly.
Important! Psychologists warn that self-medication does not give immediate results. The effect can only be felt after a certain time. To completely get rid of neurotic conditions, it will take several months of regular exercise.
If a person says: “I can’t relax, I’m tense all the time,” this is a wake-up call for family. Left alone with his problems, he begins treatment with pills and tries to find relaxation with the help of drugs or alcohol. If available means do not help, you must seek qualified help. It consists of prescribing medications and psychotherapy:
- Tranquilizers (sedatives), for example, Diazepam. It is prescribed for a short course to avoid addiction and exhaustion of the nervous system. It must be borne in mind that tranquilizers do not cope with depression.
- Antidepressants are used to normalize the mental state. Modern drugs - Amitriptyline, Sertraline, have a minimum of side effects. They are not addictive, but require long-term use - up to a year.
- To relieve severe anxiety and restlessness, antipsychotics are prescribed. All of these drugs have many contraindications and should be used only in cases of extreme necessity: Chlorprothixene, Sonapax, Aminazine.
- Folk remedies are recommended: herbal decoctions and teas from hawthorn, lemon balm, valerian to calm and relieve tension. Recipes for decoctions can be found on the corresponding websites.
In case of emergency, the doctor will help you choose medications
Attention! Any medication can have different effects on different people. It all depends on the level of stress, the personal characteristics of the person, and any somatic diseases he or she has. Therefore, only a specialist can select medications, taking into account how to get rid of nervous tension.
Medications will help cope with acute manifestations of mental stress, but will not get rid of the problem as a whole. The causes can be eliminated with the help of psychotherapy and relaxation. It is noted that drug treatment without psychotherapy is effective in 40%, and with the use of psychotherapeutic techniques – in 70%.
For various types of disorders they use:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy, which explains what thoughts trigger anxiety and how to stop them.
- Rational psychotherapy, the technique helps to understand the causes of symptoms that lead to emotional stress.
- Body psychotherapy, which copes with muscle tension in the body. Using special exercises, the doctor “brings” internal experiences to the bodily level, where he teaches how to cope with them.
Help yourself!
You can relieve nervous tension and quickly pull yourself together in a stressful situation at home without the help of doctors. In order to help yourself, you can use some recommendations:
- Be sure to let your nervous system relax.
- Take seriously the correct rotation and balance of work and rest.
- The ideal environment for the nervous system is when a person is in a calm and friendly environment. This is sometimes difficult to adhere to due to the fact that it is not always possible to choose a work environment, but a friendly state at home can and should be ensured.
- Any physical exercise and sports have a beneficial effect not only on overall health, but also on the nervous system.
- When your emotional state requires help, you need to consult a doctor for the right recommendations.
It is impossible to avoid all situations in life that can bring negative impacts. But it is possible to help the nervous system, get rest, relaxation and relaxation. Pay more attention to proper sleep.
You should not drink coffee before bed, smoke or drink alcohol - this will help avoid problems with insomnia. Walking in the fresh air before bed will also help. Proper sleep means following a routine; you need to go to bed and get up at the same time.
If there are problems of a family nature, or at work, perhaps difficult relationships with colleagues, you should solve them as quickly as possible, but always in a calm and quiet environment.
When a person is surrounded by unresolved problems, it is impossible to relieve tension in the head, which sooner or later will lead to a nervous breakdown. When situations cannot be resolved on your own, you need to contact a psychologist who will find the right method and give advice.
Difficult situations in the family are dangerous not only for adults, but also for children, since they perceive everything psychologically very difficult.
Physical activity has a very good effect on the nervous system. Exercising will help you forget about troubles; in addition, during exercise, the hormone of joy - endorphin - is produced. Also, a little fatigue from sports will help you fall asleep faster, and there will be no problems with insomnia.
Don't forget about the beneficial effects of playing sports. This can be completely different physical exercises - fitness, swimming, exercise equipment, cycling. It is worth paying attention to yoga, as it allows you to increase stress resistance and establish protection for situations that can cause nervous tension.
Such activities will help you relax, normalize your general condition, strengthen your sleep and put your emotional state in order. Breathing exercises also have a beneficial effect on the nervous state.
You can engage in dancing and creativity, which will also have a beneficial effect on the nervous system. Don’t forget about relaxation, massage, swimming pool, gymnastics, all this can relieve emotional and physical stress. Calm music, meditation, and sounds of nature will calm the nervous system.
ethnoscience
Folk remedies that are good for stress and nervous tension:
- Before going to bed, take a bath with the addition of lavender, use the following proportions: 50 g of the plant per 1 liter of boiling water, pour and leave for 10 minutes, then add to the bath.
- You can use adding oils to the bath, it could be chamomile, mint, jasmine, orange. 5 to 10 drops will be enough. You can use decoctions of different herbs for a bath: string, calendula, oregano, valerian, lemon balm, hop cones - all of them can have a calming and relaxing effect.
- You can use a fragrant pillow, which is easy to make yourself; just sew hop cones into a rag bag; it should be placed next to where you sleep. You can also use any herbs that relieve nervous tension - lavender, mint, lemon balm, St. John's wort.
- You can prepare a tea or decoction that can normalize sleep, relieve tension and relax.
To prepare such teas, you can use the same herbs that are included in medications.
Relaxation after mental stress
A wonderful way to achieve harmony of soul and body is relaxation from stress and tension. Before you start practicing relaxation on your own, it is best to consult a specialist. He will teach you how to conduct relaxation sessions that have a beneficial effect on the physiological state of the body, normalize blood pressure and heart function.
Psychologists recommend relaxation sessions to almost all people, because the reality is that modern people are constantly under stress, undermining their health. Relaxation activities help improve performance, mental activity, and reveal talents. It doesn’t take much time to relax – just thirty minutes a day is enough for relaxation.
Relaxation sessions provide a good opportunity to cope with emotional stress
For relaxation activities, it is necessary to create an environment: a secluded, quiet place with muffled relaxation music. A specialist will help you choose a set of exercises and a method of relaxation, as they must correspond to the individual’s individual mood. The following relaxation psychotechnics can be suggested:
- a set of breathing exercises, for example, according to the yoga system;
- complex of meditation on objects, sounds;
- muscle relaxation complex.
Important! Relaxation will not get rid of problems that cause mental stress, but it will allow you to relax, remove nervousness, distract yourself from unnecessary things and concentrate on the main thing.
How to relieve tension in the body
There are different approaches to techniques for removing clamps in the body. Some experts recommend using exercises of the “knock out a wedge with a wedge” type, the essence of which is to remove tension in the body by straining as hard as possible. The following exercises help this position:
- “Lemon” – sit comfortably, lower your head, close your eyes. Imagine that you have a lemon in your hand. You need to slowly squeeze it until you feel like all the juice has been squeezed out. Then there is an alternating action: now relaxing, now tense. It is useful to remember this feeling in order to put the body in order.
- “Icicle” - stand up, stretch your arms upward with force, imagine yourself as an icicle. Freeze in this position for 1-2 minutes and gradually begin relaxing with your hands, imagining that the icicle is melting in the sun. Having remembered the feelings of relaxation, you can resort to them in tense moments.
- “Candle” is a breathing exercise. Relax in a comfortable position, breathe evenly and deeply. Close your eyes and imagine that there are lit candles at a short distance. Mentally “blow out” the candle, completely exhaling the air. Do this several times.
Other experts recommend therapeutic massage, physiotherapy (Charcot's shower, electrophoresis, exercise therapy). Such effective techniques will help relieve spasms and muscle pain. It is best to discuss detailed recommendations with your doctor.
For your information. Warm baths, walks before bed, a nutritious diet, healthy sleep - simple and affordable remedies can relieve muscle tension if the problem has not gone too far.
Therapeutic massage and physiotherapy can help relieve muscle tension.
How to minimize the effects of stress on the body
Despite the fact that stress is harmful to the body, it is necessary in the right doses, as it helps to mobilize strength to solve any problems. However, its excessive amount has a negative effect on a person, leading to tension. To minimize its consequences, you need to learn how to manage stress. Psychologists give the following advice:
- accept for yourself that any life situation is already stressful, you must try to extract the maximum benefit from it;
- if nothing works out today, leave the solution to the problem for later according to the principle “I’ll think about it tomorrow”;
- engage in any breathing practice (yoga, bodyflex) that helps relax muscle tension, calm breathing and reduce the impact of stress;
- harmony around oneself helps to create harmony in the soul: order at home, in affairs, thoughts, body;
- make your life more comfortable and enjoyable through hobbies, communication, sports, travel, books.
The life of a modern person cannot be imagined without external stress and internal tension. This state is natural and even useful, you just need to learn how to manage it, knowing how to relieve emotional stress.
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Key words:1Psychoregulation
