About Dr. U. Gauthamdas Expertise I welcome any questions that relate to the theoretical basis of stress, its origins and its outcomes, and the rationale behind and practice of various stress management techniques.
Experience I am a psychitarist who has specialised in organisational behaviour and stress management, with more than 15 years experience in teaching, and conducting workshops and seminars on various topics including stress management for parents, students, and executives
Why is it that women suffer from health effects of stress more than men? Also, what are the best ways to manage stress?
Answer Dear Jackie,
Women are likely to have "multiple-role stress" which is stress due to managing many different roles and responsibilities. Common roles include being a mother, wife, professional working woman, and caretaker of the home. Often these important roles conflict with one another, and women are forced to make tough choices between competing demands. Sometimes, women overextend themselves trying to do it all. Other times, women suffer disappointment and guilt if they are not able to meet all of the demands of family, home, and work.
Women are likely to be the primary caretaker in the family. Though many men are taking active roles in parenting, women still provide the majority of childcare. There are great joys in parenting, but it can also be a physically and emotionally taxing responsibility. Women also are more likely to be the primary caregiver for aging parents and ill family members. Providing family care does not end at the close of a 40-hour workweek. Instead, the caretaker sometimes needs to provide 24-hours care on a daily basis.
Women, therefore, often feel pressures from inadequate housing, poor access to healthcare, and fear of unexpected expenses. In such cases, women also have fewer opportunities for recreation and escape from day-to-day stress.
Recent research by Shelly Taylor, Ph.D. and her colleagues has complicated the picture. Taylor has coined the phrase "tend-and-befriend" to describe a very different pattern that her research group has found in women who are stressed. It seems that most of the earlier research on the fight-or-flight response was done using males. Taylor has found that females - even female animals from different species - respond differently to stress than males. Females under stress nurture themselves and their young ('tending') and form alliances with others ('befriending').
The fight-or-flight response seems to be present in women under acute stress. The tend-and-befriend response then seems to kick-in, and the women respond differently then men.
Stressed-out women are likely to seek social contact, rather than indulge in the "fight-or-flight" behavior that has long been considered the principal way both sexes cope with stress.
In cases where the stress is uncontrollable, a woman can learn to change her own physical and emotional reactions to stressful situations. Individuals learn to recognize and change their own reactions to stress through a variety of stress-management techniques. Techniques such as yoga, meditation, biofeedback and relaxation training are effective.
