20 MINUTES TO MASTER … STRESS MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER 7

BEHAVIOURAL REACTIONS (#u894a4255-08a0-5822-9ef2-592ecec9f69d)

Some people, rather than displaying an overtly emotional reaction to stress, experience negative changes in their behaviour. Some of these changes in behaviour may not appear to be linked to stress at all. Most of us would readily recognize excessive smoking as a stress-related behaviour, but when someone honks his horn and gesticulates wildly while we are sitting in a traffic jam we probably don’t immediately think his problem is that he is over-stressed!

Our behaviour and reactions are governed by three factors – our personality, our past experiences, and our present circumstances. Our personality will dictate our behavioural tendencies. If you are an introvert you are more likely to react to stress by withdrawing rather than by lashing out, as an extrovert might. A placid personality will have a much higher stress threshold than a ‘racehorse’ personality whose stress responses are triggered much earlier by more minor events.

Our past experiences will also contribute to our present-day behaviour. Past experiences, especially those in childhood and adolescence, help form our attitudes and beliefs, and our expectations for the future. If, for example, we have grown up in a loving and supportive environment where we received help when we had trouble dealing with a situation, we begin to learn how to deal with difficult situations without panicking. This means that we react much less readily to stress later on in life compared to those who have had guilt and shame heaped on them whenever they made a mistake or had problems learning something.