What has happened in the past thirty years that has caused us to become such a nation of stressed out individuals? Is society expecting too much from us or are we expecting too much from ourselves? Why are so many people suffering from the following:

• Anxiety disorder
• Social anxiety disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Depression
• Panic attacks

Years ago, no one ever even heard of these conditions, now they are featured in every magazine you encounter. There is a huge market to treat both depression and anxiety, which usually go hand in hand and are the offspring of stress.

Pharmaceutical companies are cranking out different anti-depressants all of the time. These are said to be ‘better” than the other anti-depressants that they discovered a year prior. Thirty years ago, no one ever even heard the term “anti-depressant.” If you used that expression back then, people would think you were talking about something to do with your car.

Today it seems as if every single person you encounter is “on something” for stress, depression or anxiety. All of them can neatly be lumped into the same category and are caused by stress.

Stress is usually at the root of all of the above psychological disorders. It also affects us physically as well. Stress has been linked to every disease known to man, including heart disease and cancer. Clearly, it is not a good idea for people to be under stress. But, as human beings, we are going to experience stressful situations. There is no avoiding this fact. Therefore, in order to really be able to help cure ourselves from being “stressed out” we need to know how to do the following:

• Identify stressors that affect our daily lives;
• Eliminate the stressors of which we can free ourselves;
• Learn to deal with stressful situations in a healthy way

If you are one of the millions of people who are feeling stressed out, you must take a look at the reasons why you are stressed out and try to do what you can to eliminate as much stress as you can from your life. If you continue to be “stressed out” you will most likely find yourself taking some sort of prescription drug for one of the above disorders. Taking prescription drugs for stress does not mean that you are “crazy.” This book will discuss alternative ways to deal with stress, but as a last resort, you are better off with the medications than allowing your body to be battered by stress.