Stress can be defined as the human reaction to adversities such as extremely demanding situations, grief, or danger. In modern times, stress factors have increased ranging from family problems, financial issues, work problems, to grief. The existence of a stress factor is only one part of the development of stress, with the second being how an individual will react to a specific stress factor ( Bamuhair et al., 2015 ) . When there is a valid stress factor and an adverse reaction to it, then an individual can be said to be stressed. Different people adopt different ways of reducing stress with the popular ways being classified into effective and non-effective, formal and informal, and legal and illegal ways.
The first category of popular ways to reduce stress can be defined as effective and non-effective, with effective ways being those that are known to work while non-effective ones are those that either does not work or end up making the situation worse. When it comes to stress, the subject is so wide and complex that many people try different things to solve it. Effective ways of handling stress are those that either eliminate the stress factor or assist the individual to handle the stress (Miedziun & Czabała, 2015). For example, an effective way to deal with marital stress is to openly talk about the problem, including therapy. Among the most ineffective approach commonly used is the silence treatment where couples refuse to talk to one another, hence only making a bad situation worse.
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Formal ways of reducing stress are those used either in a professional setting or under professional superintendence while informal popular ways will include the day to day approaches to stress reduction that is not based on any psychological phenomena. The formal ways are prescribed by professionals, either directly through visiting a psychologist or indirectly through following a published approach to stress management ( Bamuhair et al., 2015 ) . Formal approaches are only used when stress becomes an active and potentially debilitating problem. A psychologist, for instance, can advise a stressed person to run fingers on their lips to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system in order to calm the body and the mind. Informal ways are not based on any sound science but may or may not be effective. Good examples of informal approaches are going for a run, taking a walk, dancing, singing or participating in some sporting activity.
Most of the popular ways to reduce stress may be legal, but there are also illegal popular ways such as resulting in the use of narcotics. With stress being such as a common issue in modern society, not all popular ways to solve it fall within the law (Miedziun & Czabała, 2015). Illegal popular ways of solving stress can be defined as all the ways where a known law is broken. However, many illegal approaches to stress reduction have become popular over time. For example, many people believe that a physical confrontation with a person who is acting as a stress factor is a sound stress mitigation measure, yet fighting is illegal unless done as a regulated sporting activity. Other people will also recourse to excess consumption of alcohol or the use of narcotics all of which are illegal. A legal way of reducing stress may include meditating or yoga
The three sets of classifications above represent popular ways in which people extenuate stress in different settings. Extenuating stress in this context refers to the common ways, approached, and strategies that people use to either avoid stress when there is a stress factor or reduce stress and its vagaries. Most popular ways to reduce stress can be generally said to be effective since even a placebo effect is an actual effect when it comes to stress. The second and third classifications of formal and informal on the one hand, and legal or illegal are thus, more definitive than the effective and ineffective classification.
References
Bamuhair, S. S., Al Farhan, A. I., Althubaiti, A., Agha, S., & Ibrahim, N. O. (2015). Sources of stress and coping strategies among undergraduate medical students enrolled in a problem-based learning curriculum. Journal of Biomedical Education , 2015. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/575139
Miedziun, P., & Czabała, J. C. (2015). Stress management techniques. Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , 4 , 23-30
