Christopher Hogan, a general practitioner gives his opinion on how to deal with chronic stress. He explains that stress arises from the clash between a person's perception of events and their expectations (Hogan 542). As we have learned throughout the semester, the mind can be a very powerful tool, or weapon. Dr. Hogan specifically targets the prevention and treatment of stress.
First, he reveals the lack of knowledge and understanding we have towards stress. Rather than coping and managing stress, we try to find one-time solutions (Hogan 543). We make very little effort to manage stress. But a simple acronym, PRAISES can be the solution to excessive stress. Using the components of this acronym we will have a framework for a well-balanced and successful life. PRAISES stands for Physical, Recreational, Artistic, Intellectual, Spiritual, Employment, and Social (Hogan 544). Dr. Hogan claims that if we make an effort to maintain at least one thing from each of these categories in our everyday life we will prevent excessive stress.
The last component of Dr. Hogan's stress talk is the idea of levels of stress. The Yerkes-Dodson law indicated that their is a simple bell curve relationship between stress levels and performance (Hogan 543). It should be noted that if we do not have enough stress in our life we will not perform at peak efficiency (Hogan 543). Of course, the bottom of the curve would indicate that too much stress leads to low performance.
In conclusion, stress is not something to completely eliminate from our lives. We must learn to manage and maintain a balanced level of stress in order to achieve peak performance. Remember your PRAISES for a healthy mind and healthy body.
Reference:
Hogan, Christopher. Chronic Stress: An Approach to Management in General Practice. RACGP. Vol. 42. 8. (542-545).
This blog holds very true with how we need to manage stress. As we have learned in class, we find that over the last 100 years, we have shifted from tuberculosis and pneumonia being the major cause of death in the 1900's to having Heart Disease being the main causes of death in our society today. Heart Disease is also so prevalent in our society today due to the added stressors we create through our own mentality.
ReplyDeleteI like the analogy of PRAISES Dr. Hogan uses because it sums up how we can reduce stress levels. In "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers", it states that there are also specific states where one must be as well as having specific personalities for this Analogy to work. You also mentioned that you need a certain amount of stress to perform at peak efficiency. What exactly is the stress levels one must be at and does if vary among individuals?