Tips and Techniques for Dealing with Stress

Tips and Techniques for Dealing with Stress

By Dr. Rita Nachen Gugel

Change is an expected part of our daily lives today. Dealing with it so that YOU control IT rather than vice versa is an important and positive force in controlling your life. Try a few of these tips.

1. Accept what you cannot change. Take a tip from AA. Change what you can, if it bothers you. But, if you cannot change it, learn to live with it.

2. Face up to your problems. Sort them out, and see which ones are real and which are simply imagined. Deal with them as they are, and not what you think they are.

3. Deal with one problem at a time. Sort out your priorities, and deal with them in the order of their importance to you.

4. Be flexible. Give in once and a while. If you do, others will too.

5. Don’t hold all of your worries inside yourself—talk it out. Frequently we swallow our unhappiness (along with candy, cake, ice cream, etc.) because we can’t let the problems out. Talk to someone. A burden shared is much less of a burden.

6. Work off Stress. Physical outlets for stress help your body to fight off many of the negative results of stress.

7. Get enough rest/relaxation/sleep. Give your body a chance to recover from day to day. Lack of sleep and rest will only make matters worse for you.

8. Avoid “self medication.” A “spoonful of sugar” may make the “medicine go down,” but it does your body no good. Sugar, alcohol, nicotine, and ice cream may all feel good going down, but they make matters worse—from the inside. They add to your body’s physical stresses, thus making dealing with external stresses much harder.

9. “Take time to smell the roses.” Have some fun. Relax.

10. Think about and do something for others. A little altruism never hurt. It even makes people feel better about themselves.

11. Be the “captain of your ship.” If you are not happy with your life, think about what’s wrong or missing, and then plan the necessary actions to change it to coincide with your needs and desires for your life.

12. Work on your relationships with those who share your life. Don’t hold back your feelings. Share them with your family and friends and co-workers. It can help to decrease tensions.

http://www.caregiver.com/articles/general/tips_for_stress.htm

Getting to the Bottom of Bed-Wetting

Getting to the Bottom of Bed-Wetting
By Michael Plontz
Consistently wetting the bed--beyond the age deemed reasonable by society--can be a traumatic experience for a child who doesn’t understand why. Did you know that most children who experience enuresis (the clinical term for bed-wetting) have at least one parent who had the same problem? A parent could de-stress the child, and maybe the situation, by confiding that in their child. Enuresis affects 20% of children at five years old, five percent at age ten, and two percent at 15. One out of 100 children with enuresis may continue wetting the bed into adulthood. It is over twice as common in boys as it is in girls. While it is common for children five and under to occasionally wet the bed, the child who has repeated episodes at six or beyond should be taken to a professional.Enuresis does not necessarily mean that a child has emotional or physical problems. Sometimes the cause is as simple as having a delay in the development of the bladder. The smaller bladder cannot possibly hold a large amount of urine. Some researchers believe that it could be related to toilet training. The training was either too early or too strongly enforced. It could also be caused by an adjustment problem, parents who are too critical, a reaction to a new situation—perhaps a new sibling in the house—or a regression of some kind.Physical factors other than the slow development of the bladder are rare, but may include lesions in the lower spinal cord, diabetes, or urinary tract infection. A physical and a urinalysis could rule out physical causes and infection or diabetes.Be prepared to answer several questions if you decide to seek professional help. It would probably behoove you to keep a journal documenting the following information. Of course, journal entries should be made in private—not in front of the child. It might make he or she feel too self-conscious. Here are the questions:
When did this begin?How often does it occur?Are there any “dry” periods? If so, how long?Is control while awake a problem?Is there any daytime urination? How often?Does enuresis cause the child to awaken?Is the child shamed by his bed-wetting?Does the rest of the family know about the problem?Is there any punishment involved?How does the family treat the problem?Are there any beverages given containing caffeine or alcohol?Does stress increase the incidents? Does anything in particular make the problem worse?Does anything improve the situation?Are there any medications taken?Are there other symptoms such as pain in the back or abdomen, or a fever?Is there a family history of the problem?Are any methods of prevention such as diapers, alarms, rewards, or restricting fluids used?
Just as important as seeking professional help is treating the problem correctly at home. Yelling at or punishing a child may only make the situation worse. Not only that, it could create feelings of low self-worth and poor self-esteem. The best thing to do is talk about it openly (if the child is so inclined) keeping in mind that expressing confidence, reassurance and encouragement to a child could be the best medicine of all.
http://www.caregiver.com/articles/general/bed_wetting.htm

Not Another Sleepless Night

Not Another Sleepless Night
By Jennifer Buckley
A typical day for a caregiver might include on-the-job stress in the morning, a rush to a doctor’s appointment for your mother at lunchtime and battling bottle necked traffic in the evening only to come home and figure out what to cook everyone for dinner. By this time, your muscles feel achy and you crave the comfort and security of your bed, but when it’s time to turn in, once again you can’t fall asleep. Some caregivers exert enough energy during the day to power a small nuclear submarine, but sleep deprivation is a common problem among a large percentage of caregivers. You find yourself balancing your checkbook mentally, wondering if your boss actually meant what he said and if the planet is really going to run out of clean drinking water. All the traditional sleep techniques have been exhausted: you drank warm milk, ate a bedtime snack, avoided caffeine and took a hot bath. You may have even tried counting those white puffy ranch animals, but to no avail--another sleepless night.If common sleep inducing measures don’t work for you, it’s time to try some unconventional methods. Remember, as with all new ideas, keep an open mind. After all, the name of the game is falling asleep. March of the toy soldiers. Fill your bathtub ankle deep with cool water and march around in it for a few minutes. It’s a proven form of hydrotherapy for sleeplessness.A room with a view. Visualize something peaceful like dancing butterflies.Time to exercise. If you can’t sleep, tell yourself you have to get up and go running, you’ll be asleep in no time.Herbal nation. Try one of the many herbal teas or capsules like Kava Kava or St. John’s Wart; they could be a safe and effective alternative to traditional sleeping pills.You are a poet and you didn’t even know it. Start writing a well-constructed poem about life in general, it is a great way to re-focus negative thoughts.Maid-service for a night. Get out of bed and remake it with all the military guidelines in effect: hospital corners, exact and even folds and the tightness to make a quarter bounce. Then get back in bed and your mind will feel less chaotic.Watch ’em wiggle. Wiggle your toes- keep wiggling, keep wiggling, keep wiggling…………zzzzzzzzzzzzz.Listen to this. Many stores today sell tapes, records and CD’s with the sounds of nature like water flowing, rain falling and ocean waves rolling onto shore. It’s a form of audio therapy and it tends to relax you.Just give at least one of these non-traditional ideas a try. The worst thing that could happen is that you might actually get more than three hours of sleep tonight. You are a caregiver and the last thing you need is to fight with your pillow another night. If nothing seems to be working for you, consider seeing a doctor. It could be more than just anxious thoughts keeping you from snoozing. Good luck and sweet dreams.