Stress Management Can Save You Money!

An increasing number of studies, including randomized clinical trials, point to safe and relatively inexpensive interventions that can improve cardiovascular health outcomes and reduce the need for more expensive medical treatments.

A study of patients with heart disease found that psychosocial interventions reduced the risk of further cardiac events by 75 percent, compared to the patients who were given only standard medical care and medications. A sample of 107 patients with heart disease was randomly divided into three groups (standard medical care, exercise, and stress management) and followed for up to five years for the incidence of myocardial infarction, bypass surgery, and angioplasty. The stress management group showed a marked difference compared to the other two groups: only 10 percent experienced these clinical conditions, versus 21 percent in the exercise group and 30 percent in the standard - care group.

An important component of psychological preparation for surgery involves giving patients positive physiological suggestions and imagery. In a randomized, placebo - controlled, double - blind clinical trial, 335 patients were given one of four different audiotapes to listen to before and during surgery. The placebo group listened to a tape with a neutral white noise. Only one experimental tape produced statistically significant benefits; it contained guided imagery, music, and specifi c suggestions of diminished blood loss and rapid healing. The patients who listened to this tape experienced a 43 percent reduction in blood loss and were able to leave the hospital more than a day earlier than the other groups.

The Chronic Disease Self - Management Program, developed jointly by Stanford University and Kaiser Permanente, includes educational group sessions for patients with chronic disease. The intervention consists of a patient handbook and seven weekly two - hour small - group sessions that focus on developing practical skills to cope with common symptoms and emotions. In a randomized clinical trial of 952 patients, those who participated in the course, compared to the wait - listed control subjects, demonstrated significant improvements at six months in weekly minutes of exercise, self - reported health, health distress, fatigue, and disability. They also had fewer hospitalizations and spent an average of 0.8 fewer nights in the hospital. Assuming that a day in the hospital costs a thousand dollars, the health care savings were approximately $750 per participant — more than ten times the cost of the program.

Not only does stress management appear to reduce the long - term chances that heart patients will have another cardiac event, a new analysis by the Duke University Medical Center and the American Psychological Association demonstrates that this approach also provides an immediate and significant cost savings.

The medical outcomes in this study were notable. Patients in both the exercise group and the standard - care group averaged 1.3 cardiac events — bypass surgery, angioplasty, heart attack, or death — by the fifth year of the follow - up. Those in the stress management group, in contrast, averaged only 0.8 such events during the same period.

The research team found a financial benefit of stress management strategies within the first year of the study. The average cost for the patients who utilized stress management were $1,228 per patient during the first year, compared to $2,352 per patient for those who exercised and $4,523 per patient for those who received standard medical care.

Moreover, the researchers found that the financial benefit of stress management was maintained over time. The average cost rose to only $9,251 per patient during the fifth year for those who used stress management strategies, compared to $15,688 per patient for those who exercised and $14,997 per patient for those who received standard medical care. The average cost per patient per year during the five years was $5,998 for those who used stress management, $8,689 for those who exercised, and $10,338 for those who received standard medical care.

Thus, the benefits of stress management seem to exceed the benefits of both exercise and standard medical care in the reduction of cardiac events and in financial costs.

There is now a large body of research that links stress to heart disease, and there is an equally impressive and growing body of evidence of the effectiveness of stress management for successfully treating heart disease. Thus, it seems prudent that clinical interventions should better refl ect the emerging evidence of the effi cacy and cost - effectiveness of stress management for the treatment of heart disease. Stress management techniques such as B - R - E - A - T - H - E should be an integral part of evidence - based, cost - effective, high - quality health care.

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What is stress?

So what is stress? It is one of those terms that mean so many things to different people. For the purposes of this book, it may be a good idea if we have a common understanding. In this chapter we shall provide you with a definition of stress, highlight the difference between pressure and stress, and explain the biology of stress.

Simple definition

There are many definitions of stress. The one we have found useful is:

Stress occurs when pressure exceeds your perceived ability to cope.

So it is not just external pressure, such as reaching deadlines, that triggers stress, but whether you believe that you can cope with a situation that you perceive as important or threatening.

Obviously, the more experienced or skilled you are at a particular activity, such as giving presentations or completing projects on time, the less likely you are to become stressed.

But in many jobs there is constantly high pressure to perform, and no breathing space at all. Under pressure employees start working longer hours, taking work home, and in extreme cases work in their holidays to achieve work targets and deadlines. A time may come when, literally, the person passively accepts one project too many and then realizes he or she just can’t cope any more. We often hear the phrase, ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’, but this is very relevant to the field of stress prevention, as we will highlight shortly.

Of course, if you do not perceive that the problem is important or threatening, then even if you do not successfully deal with it, you are unlikely to become stressed.

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Are You Over Stressed Quiz

Let’s see if you are overly stressed out. Ask yourself the following:

1. Do you worry constantly and cycle with negative selftalk?
2. Do you have difficulty concentrating?
3. Do you get mad and react easily?
4. Do you have recurring neck or headaches?
5. Do you grind your teeth?
6. Do you frequently feel overwhelmed, anxious or depressed?
7. Do you feed your stress with unhealthy habits-eating or drinking excessively, smoking, arguing, or avoiding yourself and life in other ways?
8. Do small pleasures fail to satisfy you?
9. Do you experience flashes of anger over a minor problem?

If you can answer “Yes” to most of these questions, then you do have excessive stress in your life. The good news is that you’ve bought this book and will learn many valuable techniques to cope with that stress. But we’ll get to that later!

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Why Are We SO Stressed Out?

We're living in very trying and difficult times and things don't seem to be getting any easier. Sometimes life can seem terribly painful and unfair, yet somehow we manage to struggle on, day after day, hoping and praying that things will soon get better.

But day by day the world is becoming a crazier and more uncertain place to live in, not to mention stressful. Nothing seems safe anymore. Millions of people are in record levels of debt. Many are losing their jobs, their homes, their health and sometimes even their sanity. Worry, depression and anxiety seem to have become a way of life for way too many people.

We seem to have entered the Age of Anxiety. In fact, in 2002, the cover of Time magazine proclaimed this loud and clear on one of their covers as the featured story in that issue. The constant stress and uncertainties of living in the 21st century have certainly taken their toll, and as a result many of us seem to live a life of constant fear and worry.

When the terrorist attacks happened on September 11, this constant stress and worry seemed to just be magnified. In fact, many people even now four years later report they are still scared that something of that magnitude could happen again – perhaps closer to them.

Turn on the news or open up a newspaper and we are bombarded with disturbing images and stories. We begin to wonder if we are safe anywhere. In this, the information age, never before have we had so much access to so much data.

The economy is another stressor. Our country is in debt and so are many Americans. Soaring gas prices, outrageous housing costs, even the cost of food has sent many Americans to work in jobs that are unsatisfying and tedious. They work these jobs because they need a paycheck. Today, it’s more important to bring home the bacon rather than work in a dream career.

Having more women in the workplace adds to the stress. So many women feel the need to be everything to everyone and that includes a paycheck earner, house keeper, mom, wife, daughter, and sibling. The only problem with that is some women just don’t make any time for themselves thus contributing to their stress levels being at an all-time high.

Even children can feel the pressure of stress and anxiety. Teenagers who want to go to college find themselves pushing themselves during their studies to try and obtain scholarships so they can attend schools that have ever increasing tuition costs.

They find themselves having to hold down part-time jobs on top of all that to earn money for extras that their parents can no longer afford. Add peer pressure into the mix and you have a veritable pressure cooker! Cell phones, internet, palm pilots, blackberries, i-pods – we are always on the go and always reachable. We don’t make time to relax and enjoy life any more. Why not? We certainly should!

We feel pressure to do these things because we think we HAVE to, not because we WANT to. All too often, it’s difficult for people to just say “No”. Not saying that one little word piles up un-needed expectations and obligations that make us feel anxious.

All of us will experience situations that may cause us to become stressed or feel anxious. The reasons are too many to note but can include, buying a property, having guests stay over (in-laws!), being bullied, exams, looking after children, managing finances, relationship issues, traveling etc.

Stress is a ‘normal’ function of everyday life. Only when it appears to take over our lives does it then become a problem.

Everyone will have different reasons why a situation causes them pressure. As a rule it’s usually when we don’t feel in control of a situation, then we feel its grip tightening around us causing us to feel worried or ‘stressed’.

If stress is caused by us not feeling in control of a situation, the answer is to try and reverse this, and regain that control. The good news is: YOU CAN!

You have everything inside you that you need to overcome your stress and the accompanying anxiety. The problem is, often we don’t realize that we are in control because we feel so out of control at time. But the tools are there, you just have to use them.

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