Physiological Method Of Stress Management

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One physiological method of treatment is Biofeedback. Physiological methods help people cope with the effects of stress by changing the way the body responds to it. With biofeedback the aim is to teach the client how to relax. The person learns how to regulate the symptoms of stress in real-life stressful situations. There are 4 steps involved. Firstly, the person is attached to a machine that monitors the body's response to stressors and then gives feed back on heart rate and blood pressure etc. The person then learns to control these symptoms and reduce the effect that stress has on the blood pressure etc. They may learn to take deep breaths which slows down the heart rate and makes them feel relaxed. Relaxation acts as a reward and encourages the person to repeat this as an involuntary action. As a final step the person is then taught to use this in a real life stressful situation. It has been discovered that biofeedback is especially useful on children and teenagers where a drug therapy would not have been suitable. Children who went through biofeedback have gained control over the symptoms of stress such as migraines and also showed an increase in enthusiasm and more positive attitudes. It is also an effective treatment as it aims to treat the cause of the problem as well as the symptoms. It can give clients a greater sense of control over themselves as well which can have much longer lasting benefits. Another advantage would be that it has no side-effects or harmful addictions attached etc. It is also voluntary and not invasive for example in drug treatment withdrawal symptoms may be distressing. Biofeedback can be used for an unlimited time, as it is not addictive in the way that BZ's (for example) can be (as they are only used for a maximum of four weeks to prevent this) so biofeedback is seen as more of a long term cure of stress. However, biofeedback has

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