•Religious Practice

For many people some form of religious practice will help to cope with stress, particularly if it is a major life event such as bereavement, accident or chronic illness. There are, however, some possible dangers if the particular belief is of a fatalistic nature. “It is in the hands of God” may prevent some individuals from trying to resolve their own problems.

•Counselling Techniques

Many individuals will benefit not only from professional counselling but also from just talking to their friends or colleagues. It will help to reduce feelings of inadequacy if they know that others find a particular task difficult.

The basic principle behind counselling is that, since stress is caused by an individual’s perception of a situation, the stress will be reduced if the individual can be made to change the way he/ she perceives or reacts to the situation by changing or modifying his/her beliefs or assumptions about the event (cognitive coping). Counselling may also assist an individual to see that some behavioural change may be necessary (action coping), and help bring about that change.

An individual, such as a pilot, who must demonstrate authority and control in his work may show some reluctance to ‘admit’ that he is experiencing problems with stress. He may fear that the admission of being under stress might be interpreted as weakness or a lack of competence. All pilots should be aware that stress can influence performance on the flight deck, particularly in an emergency, and take positive steps to deal with the stress if they feel they are affected by it.

Note: Evidence that people under stress often smoke more, overeat or increase alcohol/caffeine consumption has led to the theory that apparent self-abusive behaviours may actually be forms of stress management.

Stress Summary

Stress is simply a fact of life. We all require some stress to activate our nervous system, to stimulate us and allow us to adapt. It is only when the stress is high or sudden that it can become destructive and may exceed our abilities to adapt. Stress encountered in our daily lives is cumulative and depletes our reserves. However, a lack of stimuli may be just as bad since this encourages anxiety.

Although it is extremely difficult to eliminate stress, we can, through training and other techniques, increase our resistance to it. Stress coping can be either short-term (action coping) or long-term Stress Management (a change of lifestyle or counselling) depending on the situation. The first step is, however, to recognize and admit to oneself that the condition exists.

Although the stress mechanism is mainly physiological and triggered as a defence mechanism to help us survive, coping strategies to deal with stress are mainly psychological.

To increase stress tolerance the chief weapons in your armoury are:

•Experience (fewer unexpected situations).

•Learning (reflex responses are performed correctly, even under stress).

•CRM (using all resources available).

Stress 7

Questions 7

Questions

1.Having successfully overcome a stressful situation once, how will the person react if placed in the same or similar situation a second time?

a.There will be little difference

b.He/she will know what is ahead and be already in a stressful condition thus stress will increase

c.He/she will feel more confident and therefore stress will reduce

d.It will depend on the individual

2.How is performance affected by over and under arousal?

a.It is improved

b.There is little difference

c.It is degraded

d.It will depend on the individual

3.What is the purpose of the “sympathetic” nervous system?

a.To control the emotional response under stressful conditions

b.To control the effects of adrenalin

c.To return the body to homeostasis after the “fight or flee” syndrome

d.To prepare the body for “fight or flight”

4.What is the purpose of the “parasympathetic” nervous system?

a.To prolong the body’s mobilisation and return the body to normal after the “fight or flight” syndrome

b.To prepare the body for “fight or flee”

c.To direct the adrenalin to the correct organs of the body

d.To return the body to normal after an emotional response under stressful conditions

5.What part of the body is affected with the vibration in the 4 to 10 Hz frequency range?

a.The brain plus there will be a headache

b.The chest plus there will be an abdominal pain

c.The respiration plus pains in the chest

d.The pulse rate

6.Which graph shows the relationship between arousal and performance?

a.A U-shaped graph

b.An inverted U-shaped graph

c.A straight line graph

d.An M-shaped graph

7.The three phases of the GAS Syndrome are:

a.alarm, fear, resistance

b.alarm, resistance, exhaustion

c.alarm, fear, exhaustion

d.fear, resistance, exhaustion