Health and disease and all the grey area between, are states which reflect the ability, or otherwise, of the body to maintain equilibrium (known as homeostasis) in the face of a host of environmental threats and hazards. At any given time, the individual represents a culmination of all that has been inherited, and all that has been acquired and developed up to that moment. The degrees of susceptibility and of resistance that the body can demonstrate, will be absolutely unique to him. With so many variables, it should be obvious that no one method, system or prescription can apply to everyone, even if similar outward manifestations of ill health are evident. For this reason, less emphasis should be placed on signs, symptoms and outward manifestations of ill health; whilst these are important, especially to the individual, they do not indicate more than the particular manner in which his organism has responded to those factors which have threatened him. The same symptoms (e.g. headache) can result from a variety of causes. The same apparent cause (e.g. anxiety regarding work) can produce quite different symptoms, say insomnia in one person, palpitations in another and headaches in a third.
Treatment of the symptoms can never bring more than short-term benefit. To remove the symptom and ignore the cause is patently wrong, for that or another symptom will surely manifest itself sooner or later. Only by improving the general level of function of the total organism and by removing, where possible, the causes of the condition, can a successful outcome be anticipated. Since causes of anxiety are often outside the control of the individual (‘Will there be a third World War?’; ‘Will the factory close down?’; ‘How will I pay my bills?’, etc.), it is necessary to provide ways of altering the ways in which such problems are viewed. In addition, techniques are necessary whereby, even if such stress remains to some extent constant, the individual can nullify and counteract its ill effects by positive action. This is where relaxation, meditation and other exercises of the mind come in.
The individuality of each person must be recognized; this leads to a realization that the particular factors which enable successful adaptation to the environment will vary. Stress-proofing involves gaining understanding and insight into the nature of the problems of stress, as well as a determination to make changes, alterations, modifications and efforts in accordance with this knowledge. Through this apparent maze, I would urge the reader to hold fast to one concrete thought: given the chance, the body is a self-healing, self-repairing and self-regenerating organism. The aim is to give it that chance, and at the same time to erect barriers which will provide protection against future hazards.
The Causes and Nature of Stress
Stress-induced illnesses have now replaced infectious diseases as the most prevalent health afflictions affecting the industrialized nations. Many of these illnesses, including arthritis, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer, depression etc., seem to be associated both with stress (and other factors), and particular types of personality. Aspects of the equation require attention of course, and stress reduction and stress-proofing, as well as personality or behavioural modification, all present ways in which the individual can evade the consequences of stress.
Stress can be seen to be most harmful when there is an inappropriate response to it. When, for example, a man strolling in a field is confronted by a charging bull, his sprint to the nearest gate can be seen to be entirely appropriate as a response to the stress factor. He judged and matched the required response and no ill effects would result from the incident. On the other hand, the individual’s judgement of what is an appropriate response may be faulty, for example when anger is generated and maintained in response to a minor incident. Attitudes, beliefs and habitual patterns of behaviour can be seen to be the arbiters of whether the individual responds appropriately to a particular stress factor and, therefore, of whether there is consequent harm in terms of physiological stress.
There are a number of defensive tricks which the mind can play in response to any challenge or stress. These include repression of thoughts and memories which might prove stressful, as well as ‘rationalization’, in which the individual makes up an account of his behaviour in response to stress, the true explanation of which would produce anxiety. Such common defences, if producing anxiety states or personality changes, require professional psychotherapy to provide insights into and a resolution of the problem.
It is self-evident then, that what is to one individual, a major stress factor, may to another be only a minor irritant. The difference lies in the individual’s attitude towards the stress factor. For one person, for example, the meeting of a deadline, the need to be at a particular place at a fixed time, is of vital importance, and the prospect of being late, of failing to meet the deadline, generates a great deal of tension and anxiety (i.e. stress). To another person, such deadlines are mere guidelines, and no particular worry is felt at their being missed.
Attitudes depend upon the individual’s concept of reality. The world as he sees it is his own reality, and when this comes into conflict with the external environment, stress results. To some extent, all change represents stress. Anything that calls upon the mind-body totality (the individual) to adjust or change from that which is normal, represents stress. The individual’s concept of what is normal, what is right, how things ought to be, is therefore the sounding board on which the external environmental factors operate. Beliefs and attitudes often determine the degree of stress, anxiety etc. experienced. For example, the death of someone close is undoubtedly a major stress factor, and yet to someone whose beliefs include a certainty of an after-life or of reincarnation, the death will be seen as part of a continuous process, not an end, and therefore the amount of stress will be minimized.
It has been possible to grade the potential of events or changes in an individual’s life. In the following chart, scores have been allotted to each event so that the degree of susceptibility to the effects of stress can be estimated. This can be valuable in alerting individuals to pay extra attention to dealing with those elements of health maintenance which are within their control. Some such methods will be dealt with in Chapter 5.
Stress and Changes in Lifestyle
This scale is based on the work of T. H. Holmes and R. H. Rahe (Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 1967, No. 11) and is meant as a guide to the assessment of measurable stress factors, resulting from having to adjust to change. There are many other sources of stress, but it is true to say that a high score on this chart (300 or more) over a short time-span (six months or so), is a strong indicator (affecting 80 per cent of people) of the likelihood of major illness becoming apparent. If the score is relatively high, anything from 150 to 299 points, about 50 per cent of people become ill soon afterwards, and if under 150 points are scored, fewer than 30 per cent become ill. The higher the score, the greater the need for stress-proofing.
| Changes in Lifestyle | Scale |
| Death of husband or wife | 100 |
| Divorce | 73 |
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Marital separation
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