Listening and understanding are key to dealing with stress
Quite often it is tough to be able to determine effective ways of dealing with stress because the person suffering is not necessarily receptive to outside intervention.
As an outsider it is obvious that one should take a step back from the problem and try looking at it from a different view. Often this will allow the problem to be discovered. However the inherent nature of someone suffering from stress is to magnify the importance of their tasks in their mind. So it becomes challenging to get them to step back and talk it through.
The problem is how do you get someone to actually pause and take the time to study their situation. Unfortunately the most appropriate way will really depend on the real circumstances. However, there are some sensible strategies that can be adopted.
As a manager in the workplace you can ask for an informal review. The objective being to go through the details and to try and map out the problems.
As a partner, parent or friend you can talk to them about it taking the stance of being genuinely concerned and wanting to help.
In all cases the objective is to start a line of communication about the problem. This will enable you to understand in detail what the problems are. Try to map out what is causing the stress, what are the events that lead to the stressful situation and what things are being done at the moment to reduce the stress.
As soon as you have discovered the real cause of the problem i.e the thing that is causing the stress. Try to break it down even more. Discuss all the events that lead up to the situation in as much detail as is possible with as much real data as possible.
Again the exact steps you take to understand the problem will depend very much on the case. However, it is often possible to begin to see an answer by doing this type of analysis.
The solutions are often actually quite easy once you start to understand the problems.
The main thing here is the task of actually understanding the problems before offering effective ways of dealing with stress.
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