Step Towards Handling Stress
D.Srinivasan, Psychiatrist, Kovai Medical Center and Hospital, speaking to students, parents and teachers of G.Ramaswamy Naidu Matriculation Higher Secondary School ,Coimbatore, on Saturday about ways to handle anxiety and stress. The initial step towards handling stress is identifying the factors that cause it, D. Srinivasan, Psychiatrist, Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital, said. Addressing the parents, teachers and students of G.Ramasamy Naidu Matriculation Higher Secondary School, he said stress could have a serious impact on a person’s mental and physical health if left unaddressed. Parents should therefore help their children in identifying their causes of anxiety. School-going children were often under stress owing to the pressure from teachers and parents to score good marks. Most often children were afraid to discuss their anxieties and fear with their parents, which added to their problems. Stress even manifested in physical problems such as headaches, stomach pain, sleeplessness and fatigue. Only if parents and teachers were aware of stress and the ways to deal with it, would they be able to offer some support to children.
“Be supportive to your children and encourage them. Do not mistake the child’s anxiety or stress for laziness or lack of initiative,” he advised the parents. Dr. Srinivasan told children to maintain a log of their daily activities in order to beat stress. “If you start planning for examinations , the last minute stress will be much less,” he said.If they found it difficult to meditate for half an hour, they could put away five minutes after completing each chapter or period in school to refresh their memory and recollect what they had learnt. This would increase their memory power, he said. Similarly, before going to bed, they could spend ten minutes in thinking over what they learnt for the day. If they followed such steps, students could use stress to their advantage.
Another important aspect of overcoming stress was changing one’s attitude. “If you get the feeling that you are doing something, which is thrust upon you, you immediately fall prey to stress,” he said. “If you develop a passion for for leaning, you will automatically be freed from anxiety and will be able to perform better ,” he added.Healthy eating habits and proper physical activity too could reduce stress. Parents should also see to it that their children slept well. Frequent relaxation was another way of avoiding stress. Visualising a place where you would love to visit or have already visited would help in relaxation and taking the mind away from a stressful situation.
