This is especially true to the extent that various aspects of the natural response to stress are learned rather than functions of innate genetic predisposition.
Typical methods of behavioral conditioning capable of reducing the secondary consequences of stress include coping mechanisms for the recognition of the earliest symptoms of stress and training to respond to stress in more positive ways instead of either repressing it or overreacting to it (Acosta, 1990; Selye, 1956). Furthermore, Sarno
(2007) reports that merely teaching patients to use their awareness of physiological symptoms as a method of recognizing their natural responses to stress significantly improves their ability to redirect negative emotions and prevent them from contributing toward their manifestation in physical symptoms.
Furthermore, Sarno (2007) also suggests that emotional awareness of physical pain as a symptom of stress provides a valuable biofeedback tool. In addition to learning how to alter one's immediate psychological response in the moment of stressful circumstances, effective methods of increasing psychological resistance to disease teach other mechanisms such as maintaining a broader approach to keep stressful events in perspective, and avoiding negative mindset in relation to self-criticism and relational comparisons to others, such as in the vocational arena and social relationships (Acosta,
1990' Flannery & Flannery, 2006).
Sarno (2007) has developed these techniques extensively and has reported that reducing the cumulative effects of environmental stress through behavioral training even enhances resistance to bacterial infection by boosting the efficiency and the intensity of...
Admittedly, these techniques cannot eliminate organic disease; on the other hand, volumes of research have documented the degree to which the subjective perception of pain is susceptible to emotional influence (Friedman, 1990; Sarno, 2007). Ultimately, the development of a disease-resistant personality is dependent on the individual's awareness of his genuine thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the many sources of stresses that are part of life in modern society. The long-term hope of medical practitioners who advocate techniques for doing so recognize the limitations of behavioral approaches to medical issues, but suggest that it is possible, at least, to address the non-organic physiological consequences of stress through non-invasive behavioral modification instead of through prescription drugs, physical therapy, and surgery.
References
Acosta S. "The interrelationship of stressors, hardiness personality and social support on the severity of manifestations of stress symptoms among high-income men."
University of Maryland College Park, MD. Ph.D. Dissertation (1990). Retrieved
April 15, 2009, from ProQuest Digital Dissertations database (Pub. No AAT
9121307).
Flannery, RB, Flannery, GJ. "Sense of coherence, life stress, and psychological distress:
A prospective methodological inquiry" Journal of Clinical Psychology Vol. 46,
No. 4: 415 -- 420, February 21, 2006.
Friedman, HS. (1990). Personality and Disease. New York: Wiley & Sons.
Sarno, JE, Mann, SJ, Rashbaum, I, Leonard-Segal, A, (2007). Divided Mind: The
Epidemic…
