Roll up, roll up

and lend your support...please!

Complete an online survey on ‘Hassles of Daily Life’ and go into the draw to receive one of two iPod Nanos. (Note: may be for Australian residents only....)

The University of the Sunshine Coast and the Australian Psychological Society are conducting research on daily events or situations that make people feel irritable, and their reactions to these situations.

The survey takes approximately 10 - 15 minutes to complete. If you wish to participate, go here.


In completing the survey you are not required to provide any contact details. All survey responses are confidential and will be reported only as compiled data. Participants can independently submit their name and contact details to be in a draw for one of two Ipod Nanos. The research will be published by the University of the Sunshine Coast in conjunction with the Australian Psychological Society.

Surveys can be submitted up until 19 September 2008.

National Psychology Week
9-15 November 2008

Everybody Lies Part 2

I'm thinking the House t-shirt should be mandatory wearing in our household currently. Our house is on the market and we're also looking for somewhere new. Lies seem to be the order of the day, not only from some of the agents trying to sell us a property (for '4 bedrooms' read '3 bedrooms and a linen cupboard' and that 'drive through garage'? Well, yes, if you drive through a brick wall), but also from the agent selling our house ('Oh, didn't we tell you about the additional advertising costs?', 'We have loads of qualified buyers looking in your street', later revised post-signup to 'We aren't expecting big numbers for your street' and a single visit). I found out yesterday that we had been lied to about a bid on a property we were interested in, simply, I guess, with the aim of forcing our hand to make a higher bid and before we were ready.

Of course, it's not only the agents. We're living a lie. Every morning I strip off our regular bedding and put on the new, expensive coverlets and decorative pillows. I remove our bathroom towels and put out brand new ones. I set out pretty baskets of expensive smelling soaps and face washes in the bathrooms. Everything gets stowed away. Do we really live like this? Absolutely not.

The whole process is extremely stressful and I can't wait for it to be over. Practical Man and I keep bouncing the words 'SERENITY NOW' (thanks, Seinfeld) off each other. The fact we are yelling it is probably not a good sign.

So, it seemed an appropriate moment to revisit and implement some stress busters.

Good stress busters can include:

Taking time out to do something creative. I have been thinking about sneaking out in the dead of night to draw 'devil horns' on the smiling face of our real estate agent on the sign board outside but, while this might be personally satisfying, I'm not sure it would count in this respect.

Enjoy a laugh. Watch a good comedy. Maybe we should revisit that Seinfeld 'Serenity Now' episode.

Relaxation practice. Closing eyes and focusing on breathing. Except when I close my eyes, in a kind of Sixth Sense moment, 'I see real estate agents'.

Practice postive self-talk/affirmations. It's true that the way in which we think can determine the way we feel. 'I will fire that real estate agent', 'I will fire that real estate agent'. Yes, feeling better already.

Give yourself the spa treatment. Relax in a nice, warm bath, filled with luxuriously scented bubbles, surrounded by candles. Of course, the moment I do this, the agent will call for a viewing. Even a real estate agent might have trouble selling the unsual house feature of 'cranky prune-like woman in bathtub'.

Joking aside, these are some good strategies for coping with the immediate experience of stress. Anything else work for you? Ultimately, I think what's really going to work for me at this moment, is to sell this house. Anyone want a weekender in Sydney?

Stress busters

I know. Stress busters not Ghostbusters. Any excuse to slip in a photo of the hilarious Bill Murray. A good dose of humour is sorely needed. This has been some week.

Firstly, I picked up some malicious script that effectively wiped out my pc. I was able to use my PC for about five minutes at a time before it crashed. Given problems doing this post, I'm not sure it's resolved yet.

I think people may have left me some hints on what to do about it but I am still unable to read or add to any Blogger comments. Not sure if that's a related or separate problem. If you did, thank you, I hope to be able to read what you wrote sometime this year.

Being the good ex-IT person that I am, I hadn't been diligent and backed everything up. So my rumination papers have to be started from scratch. Self-inflicted, spare me no sympathy in that regard.

Secondly, my mobile phone got wiped out. Walking my daughter to piano lessons, I noticed my trousers were soaked. A small waterfall out the corner of my bag alerted me to the fact that the bottle of water she'd placed in my bag was not capped properly. Initial relief that it wasn't a defective bladder was replaced by a realisation my poor mobile had bitten the dust. No screen display and permanent vibrate is the current status of that one.

Adding to the stress is the decision to put the house on the market with an associated mad flurry of activity. All that painting we've been conveniently ignoring. All that decluttering to do. We got a painter in. Sorry? You were expecting me to sand the surface first? Oi.

So, feeling a little stressed to say the least.

Stress is part of life and doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. It can be a good motivator but too much can be detrimental both to our health and also impact on our relationships by generating feelings of anxiety, anger and distrust. Perhaps if I had taken the pointy stick to the PC a la Basil, I might have felt less frustrated!

When coping with stress, it's easy to reach for things that may initally prove comforting (the pointy stick) but, ultimately, help little and may even be harmful to health. For some, that might be a drink or drugs, for others (guilty as charged) it might be food. It's a good job I am on this elimination diet because the temptation to comfort eat on pears, potato, beef and rice is non-existent.

More positive strategies for dealing with the effects of stress include:

Taking a nap. I personally find this hard to do because when stressed my mind works overtime and I end up simply lying and thinking about napping and my inability to do so. Doh.

Relaxation/guided meditation. This takes practice, particularly if you have a mind that like mine is hard to 'shut off'. For this reason, I use a prerecorded relaxation procedure (Kabat-Zinn) so that I simply have to listen rather than have to focus on the mechanics of the relaxation technique itself. One warning, an earlier tape I used proved rather too good. A 2pm half-hour relaxation session ended up with me waking in the dark of night!

Be kind to yourself. That glass of red in a bubble filled tub? That pair of Manolos you just have to have? Last time I felt this way, I was extremely kind to myself at the local cat breeders and introduced the lovely ragdoll Clio to our family unit. Pets are supposed to be beneficial in reducing stress levels. Of course, whoever said that had not encountered our non-retrieving Golden Retriever Spud, who has suddenly discovered a penchant for a cappucino at the cafe across the road and has been attempting to break out at any given moment to secure his caffeine fix.

Enjoy music or art. The artistic talent in my family all went to my dear sister. Nonetheless there's something very satisfying about splatting paint on a blank surface. Of course, applying this in a practical manner and painting the house would probably really help to reduce the current level of stress.

Experience laughter. For me, comedy is king. Laughter is the best mood buster I know. I've often noted the wise Mr. Practical leaving out a couple of dvds before taking refuge in the atomic shelter (aka the shed), movies guaranteed to make me laugh without restraint regardless of current level of foulness of mood or stress level. Stress and grumpiness reduction guaranteed.

Maybe I should try some of these strategies on the pc? Or even Blogger?

Stress & Chocolate

The pile of surveys waiting on my desk here is getting larger. The number of variables to be entered into a stats package is ridiculous. Even thinking about what I'm going to do with this data is terrifying. I freely admit to having gone to the wrong room completely when the maths brains were given out. The deadline for thesis presentation is looming. It's a stressful situation but I've decided today I'm going to make a real attack on it all.

Yes, I will....After I've taken care of the chocolate bar sitting conveniently on top of the pile.

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating and so it's timely that my behaviour demonstrates a response commonly seen in women when faced with stressful situations.

A study by the University of Leeds shows women to be at greater risk from unhealthy behaviours in such situations. Leading researcher Dr. Daryl O'Connor says that stress can disrupt normal eating habits and create a tendency towards snacking, particularly on high fat and high sugar items. Stress can also increase other unhealthy behaviours including increased caffeine consumption, smoking and the neglect of exercise.

The study reveals that it is mental rather than physical stressors that are important. Physical stresses are likely to make us eat less. Additionally, we are not all equally at risk. Those most likely to be follow this pattern are "emotional eaters" (who, me?), who seek to avoid the negative feelings of arousal and anxiety associated with stress by turning to food.

The relationship between stress and food is not really surprising. Stress has been shown to increase the release of a number of hormones, in particular cortisol, which can lead to food cravings. When cortisol levels become elevated in response to constant stress, cravings for the fuels that feed the the stress response, fats and carbohydrates, occur.

A survey undertaken by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) found that after September 11, stress eating was common, with about 20 percent of people eating more comfort foods. Sugar cravings also rose, with 19 percent saying they were eating more sweet, sugary foods.

Nonetheless, the study is important because it reinforces the potential harmful effects of stress on maintaining a balanced diet, when this has been shown to be important to reduce cardiovascular health risk.

So if, like me, you're prone to stress-related eating, try some of the following strategies:

Make sure you continue to eat regularly. Don't wait until 'starvation' hits and you find it harder to exercise control over what and how much you eat.

Remove temptation from your environment.

Try and avoid the urge to snack by deferring eating for 15-3o minutes. The urge to snack may pass.

Don't eat while occupied by a task. When we don't focus on what we're eating, we're less likely to notice signs that our appetite has been sated.

Now, where's that chocolate bar?

Resources

ESRC press release