PANPHOBIA. Ի՞նչպես խուսափել ամանորյա սթրեսից հոգեբան Վիլեն Վարդանյան

Ամանորյա եռուզեռը հաճախ հանգեցնում է նախատոնական և հետտոնական սթրեսի, իսկ ինչպե՞ս խուսափել կամ ազատվել այս սթրեսից կպարզենք հոգեբան Վիլեն Վարդանյանի հետ:

Louis De Maria-New Year is celebrated almost everywhere in the world.  We, Armenians celebrate it luxuriously; full and rich tables, visits, receptions. The festive mood is all around. But we must look at the other side of the medal. The holiday hustle may cause preholiday and post holiday stress. How to avoid all of this and get rid of stress? We will try to find out with psychologist Vilen Vardanyan.  Hello Vilen, thanks for being our guest. Although the New Year is the beloved holiday of all children, it causes certain amount of stress to adults stemming from financial and other problems. How do we avoid pre holiday stress?

Vilen– The etiology and factors of pre holiday stress can be contingently divided into two subcategories: objective and subjective. As you mentioned when it comes to stress the financial factor plays a very important role in our country as well as in other countries and quite often it becomes the main reason for the emergence of stress causing factors. My advice is such; in order to avoid the pre holiday stress one must better plan all of the possible expenses. The experience shows that people are more likely to become stressed not so much because of the amount that they are forced to spend but because the expenses were sudden and unplanned and they have to spend more money from family budget, which greatly exceeds their planned amount.  There are also many human factors that play an important role in genesis of stress. As we know the end of the year is a time for recapping and summarizing for all of us. People also tend to do this on their birthdays and around Christmas time. People tend to summarize and look back to their accomplishments and failures throughout the year, and unfortunately some of them do not have the necessary psychological tools and mechanisms to combat stress, thus they focus on their failures and become susceptible to stress. The latter is especially common among elderly people, who tend to look back at their lives and conclude, either objectively or subjectively that they in fact did not accomplish enough during their lifetime, which in turn, results in stress. In such cases I advise to focus on positive events and accomplishments, value your “self” work on your self-development and ignore negative stimuli, which are everywhere and each and every one of us is surrounded by them. When people focus on negative they tend to think negative thoughts. So my advice is to simply value yourself as a person, work on your self-development and ignore negative factors.

Luis De Maria– The Holiday hustle causes restlessness and anxiousness. How to avoid stress in such a case?

Vilen– There are many methods that historically had proven to be effective in fighting against stress. Lately I have been frequently using a non traditional medicine method which efficiently relieves stress symptoms, namely upper body stress symptoms such as tension in neck and upper extremity muscles. It is a little technique called Hoku, which comes from Chinese acupuncture discipline. In Hoku one must apply pressure on a soft tissue between a thumb and index finger, as result the parasympathetic nervous system becomes activated and causes a relaxation of the body, although I should mention that this deals only with the symptoms of the stress, the main reason of stress cannot be affected by this technique. There are many other simple techniques such as physical exercise, walking.  It has been proven that 30 minutes of walking per day can have a positive effect in overcoming stress. During winter season exposure to sunlight, even if it is on a cloudy day, can be beneficial in fighting stress, since it helps our body to produce a neuro-mediator Serotonin, which is also known as a hormone, which gives us a temporary feeling of euphoria and elevates our mood during winter season. I should also mention that during winter season we are more susceptible to stress than during summer season. Thus, the above mentioned techniques can help us to relieve the various symptoms of stress. There is also a study according to which having citrus scent, or citrus fruits like lemon in the bedroom can help us relieve stress, because citrus scent prompts our body to produce endorphins, namely Nor epinephrine which acts as a mood elevating agent, activating our metabolism and causing overall elevation of many bodily functions. Therefore I would advise to combine these 3 methods and use them regularly and positive results will follow, I am sure.

Louise De Maria– After Holidays we transition to work. This often causes stress. How to make this transition easy?

Vilen– This kind of stress is universal, it is everywhere, it affects people in our country and Western countries, although I should mention that unlike pre holiday stress, post holiday stress is usually less severe, because people develop various protective reactions after holiday and have a high motivation to go back and make the money that they spent during holidays, accordingly people in general are more excited to go back to work than face the holiday season in this respect. I would advise to moderate food and alcohol intake and before going back to work try to get back to the same daily habits as before. For example, wake up early in the morning last two days of your holiday and go to bed early, thus generally adapt to upcoming work schedule. So the key in overcoming post holiday stress is adaptation.

Louise De Maria-And what will be Your New Years wish Vilen?

Vilen-I will make it very brief; Be healthy, avoid people that bring negative emotions, be with people that give you positive vibes, self educate and take care of your physical and psychological health.

Louis De Maria– Thank you Vilen for being our guest

Today we discussed the techniques that can help us to relieve and avoid stress. Perhaps there are too many wishes, but most importantly let there be no more shooting at our borders, be tolerant and compassionate, Marry Christmas and Happy New Year, stay in peace.

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