More than ever, research is confirming the fundamental responsibility stress can play in triggering or aggravating several physical and emotional afflictions. A cover story from a 1983 Time Magazine labeled stress "The Epidemic of the Eighties." The journalist also declared that stress is our main health problem. And there is very little doubt that today's world has become even more complicated and stressful over the past two decades since that article was written.

Several surveys indicate that most adults perceive themselves to be under a great deal of stress. Researchers in the field estimate that 75 to 90 percent of the visits to PCPs (Primary Care Physicians) somehow have to do with stress.

Most adults claim their stress is for the most part due to their job. Stress levels have also grown in children as well as the elderly population for reasons including: Peer pressures that often push people to everything from smoking to drug and alcohol abuse; the wearing away of religion and family values; growing crime rates; threats to personal security; but also social isolation and loneliness.

Stress can be responsible for problems such as diabetes, ulcers, low back and neck pain, high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. This is due to the increased sympathetic nervous system activity and a high level of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones. Chronic stress has been associated with lower immune system resistance. Stress can cause anxiety, depression, and its different impacts on one's organs.

The following definition for "stress" can be found in the American Heritage Dictionary: "To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension, or strain"

"Tension" is defined as follows: "Mental, emotional, or nervous strain"

The following is the definition of "anxiety": "A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties"

And the word "depression" is defined as follows: "The condition of feeling sad or despondent"

"Clinical depression" is defined as follows: "A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, anhedonia, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death."

We can be sure of one thing, our thoughts are the primary cause of our feelings of stress, anxiety and depression. Put differently, what we think about, and our attitudes and the way we view our experiences strongly influence what we feel. So if we can manage to modify our thoughts, attitudes, and points of view, then we can get rid of our feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression and attain a better state of being.

People have always tried to find methods for releasing stress. With the pharmaceutical industry there seems to be a pill for everything. For that the industry has created a wide array of tranquilizers from Valium to Xanax. If you choose to use these pills for relief, please be sure to be aware of the side-effects by reading the fine print, which often are, among others, addiction and dependency. Unfortunately, these kinds of drugs try to treat the symptoms, rather than the cause. So if one stops taking them, the symptoms can return.

A better way of releasing tension, stress, anxiety, and depression is to try to cure the root cause, which as I wrote previously, is generally our thought processes. Here is good news. The heart of hypnosis is relaxing. The AMA accepted hypnosis in 1958 as an effective method of treating stress and stress related symptoms. And unlike anxiolytics, there are completely no negative side effects.

Hypnosis is the Alpha level of consciousness. It is the daydream like temporary psychological frame of mind which we feel as we're about to fall asleep at night. And we feel it once more when we awaken in the morning. There are several different ways to guide ourselves into this relaxed mood, from progressive relaxation to visual imagery to listening to hypnosis CD's.

Once we are in a hypnotic state, we can communicate with our unconscious mind, which is the seat of our emotions. And one can more easily accept new ideas and points of view that can help us to get rid of anxiety, or even avoid it in the first place.

NLP, which is a recently developed sort of hypnosis, offers several excellent methods for getting rid of stress. Perhaps the most effective technique is called the "swish" pattern - or the "flash" pattern. When you use this method, your unconscious will automatically use negative, stress producing mental images, to create relaxation producing mental images. Put differently, what commonly makes you feel stress will automatically make you feel more relaxed!

TO SUM UP Tension, stress, anxiety, and depression can be prompted by our thoughts. So by changing our attitude and point of view towards our situation and what we have been through, we can get rid of these feelings at the source. Hypnosis and NLP are natural tools that allow us to change our attitude and point of view to easily get rid of the root cause of our negative feelings.