Stress Management or stress relief techniques are well researched ways to combat stress, the response of the body to threat or danger, in which the body prepares for immediate fight or flight.  Stress has a number of symptoms, including a high level of alertness, and thinking which may be speeded up, or racing. Other symptoms of stress may include palpitations, sweating, 'butterflies' or a churning feeling in the stomach, breathlessness, and other symptoms.

Stress is an emergency mechanism. It allows a person to operate at very high levels of physical performance for short periods, and is normally followed by a period of rest and recovery. 

Responding to a threatening situation by becoming stressed was very appropriate for our primitive ancestors, living in the wild grassy plains of Africa.  If they encountered a threat, what was needed was immediate, obvious, physical action - To run away, or to fight.  This is usually far less appropriate today.  Usually, the threatening situations we encounter in today's technological 21st century need careful and accurate thought - and stress will actually reduce the blood supply to those parts of the brain responsible for higher levels of reasoning and thinking!

When this state of alertness and tension continues for long periods without the opportunity to rest and recover, thinking and body functions can begin to pay the price.

Simply, a person may discover that even when (s)he has the opportunity, (s)he cannot relax, and allow body and mind to recover - it is as though body and mind have forgotten how.  Even though a person's situation may become easier, high stress levels may mean that his/her ability to function efficiently has suffered, and (s)he may still experience difficulty coping - and continue to experience stress as a result.  The appetite may be lost, or the sufferer may eat to excess.  Sleep patterns may be disrupted. 

If this high stress continues, physical symptoms can result.  Excema, asthma, psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine headaches, stomach ulcers, certain kinds of arthritis, and other illnesses are now considered to be potential results of high stress.