The Doctors' Guide To Instant Stress Relief

Provides clinically proven stress reduction techniques ranging from relaxation and assertiveness training to time planning, worry control, and positive self-talk

It is unfortunate that this straightforward, commonsensical guide to coping with stress has been burdened with a hyperbolic title and a gimmicky "pocket guide to instant stress relief"a heat-sensitive card that measures hand warmth. Much of what is known about stress and its relief is here distilled into practical if not novel advice. Readers can determine their own stress profiles utilizing a checklist of symptoms and a seven-minute test. The authors describe a wealth of techniques for relieving stress, including biofeedback, breathing methods, tape recordings and a well-balanced diet. Exercise, they emphasize, is nature's best tranquilizer, but they suggest small, slow increments. They also remind readers that excessive weight can be stressful for body and mind. Their prescription is not a miracle diet, however, but what they call "small changes that you could imagine doing the rest of your life." These reasonable strategies include drinking a glass of water before every meal, starting lunch or dinner with soup or salad, eating only when seated at the table, eating fewer fatty foods and brushing teeth after the evening meal. Nathan is a professor in family practice at Albany Medical College, Staats is a professor of psychiatry at Louisiana State University School of Medicine and Rosch is president of the American Institute of Stress in New York. (October
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.