A study by an associate professor, Harrington Cleveland of Penn State, as shown that if recovering addicts avoid stress then their cravings to return to to their previous drug habit increases. The study concludes that managing the daily stress of life is necessary for recovering drug addicts to control their cravings and put themselves on the path to full recovery.

Ignoring stress leads recovering addicts to more cravings

University Park, Pa. -- Recovering addicts who avoid coping with stress succumb easily to substance use cravings, making them more likely to relapse during recovery, according to behavioral researchers.

"Cravings are a strong predictor of relapse," said H. Harrington Cleveland, associate professor of human development, Penn State. "The goal of this study is to predict the variation in substance craving in a person on a within-day basis. Because recovery must be maintained 'one day at a time,' researchers have to understand it on the same daily level."

Cleveland and his colleague Kitty S. Harris, director, Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery, Texas Tech University, used data from a daily diary study of college students who are recovering addicts to identify the processes that trigger cravings and prevent some addicts from building a sustained recovery.

The researchers found that how addicts cope with stress -- either by working through a problem or avoiding it -- is a strong predictor of whether they will experience cravings when faced with stress and negative mood.

"Whether you avoid problems or analyze problems not only makes a big difference in your life but also has a powerful impact on someone who has worked hard to stay away from alcohol and other drugs," explained Cleveland. "When faced with stress, addicts who have more adaptive coping skills appear to have a better chance of staying in recovery." The findings appeared in a recent issue of Addictive Behaviors.

Researchers supplied Palm Pilots to 55 college students who were in recovery from substance abuse ranging from alcohol to cocaine and club drugs. The students were asked to record the their daily cravings for alcohol and other drugs, as well as the intensity of negative social experiences -- hostility, insensitivity, interference, and ridicule -- and their general strategies for coping with stress.

"We looked at variations in the number of cravings across days and found that these variations are predicted by stressful experiences," said Cleveland. "More importantly, we found that the strength of the daily link between experiencing stress and the level of cravings experienced is related to the participants' reliance on avoidance coping."

Statistical analyses of the survey data suggests that the magnitude of the link between having a stressful day and experiencing substance use cravings doubles for recovering addicts who cope with stress by avoiding it.

"We found that addicts who deal with stress by avoiding it have twice the number of cravings in a stressful day compared to persons who use problem solving strategies to understand and deal with the stress," explained Cleveland. "Avoidance coping appears to undercut a person's ability to deal with stress and exposes that person to variations in craving that could impact recovery from addiction."

According to Cleveland, the findings suggest the impulse to avoid stress is never going to help recovering addicts because stressful experiences cannot be avoided.

"If your basic life strategy is to avoid stress, then your problems will probably end up multiplying and causing you more problems," he added.

You can't work all the time. Even with regular stress relief and stress management techniques a vacation is good for you as it gets you away from everything and allows you to replenish your energy and creativity.

Be sure to plan a proper vacation and not take on a plan that will end up making you even more stressed. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of any vacation plan you are thinking of and be sure that you have activities planed on your vacation that you will enjoy.

Be a better worker -- take a vacation 

You'd love to be camping with the kids this week, but with that project deadline looming, taking vacation days seems unrealistic -- after all, you can't afford a holiday if you don't have a job to come back to.

Unfortunately, vacations have fallen to the bottom of the priority list for many workers. In December, staffing firm Right Management asked 501 employees from across North America if they'd used all of their vacation time that year. A whopping 67 per cent had not.

Other studies in recent years confirm that Canadians are prioritizing work over play. Forbes magazine recently ranked Canada the fourth hardest-working country in the world. According to Expedia's latest vacation deprivation survey, 24 per cent of employed Canadians did not take all of their vacation days in 2009 and, of those surveyed, 42 per cent of respondents reported feeling vacation deprived, up from 33 per cent in 2008.

While you may feel insecure about your job security, or perhaps just too overwhelmed by your workload, experts agree that vacation time is absolutely critical to your long-term health and happiness.

"There are actually some medical studies showing that people who don't take vacations every year increase their risk of death and heart disease," explains Edmonton psychologist Nancy Hurst.

Taking regular vacations is also important for avoiding burnout. "It's a chance to recharge your batteries, get some rest physically and mentally," Hurst says. "It's also good for strengthening relationships."

Stress balls have become famous for being an easy and cheap means of finding some relief from stress. Stress balls are squeezable toys made of foam or gel and can even be made at home using balloons with baking soda or cornstarch. All you have to do is fill a balloon with a little air while using a funnel to deposit some baking soda or cornstarch. Make the ball from 3-4 inches in diameter and use it whenever you want.

Squeezing a soft stress ball tenses and relaxes your hand and wrist muscles. This cycle of tensing your hand and relaxing it helps you relax in general. There are also many nerve endings on your hand that connect to all major organs in your body. So using a stress ball acts like a massager for your nerves and the organs connected to them which may also have a healing effect for physical stress.

A stress ball relaxation exercise

If you use a progressive relaxation exercise, as explained on the page breathing and relaxation, then you can increase your relaxation levels greatly. All you have to do is tense and relax each muscle group – one by one- in time to squeezing the stress ball. In other words you squeeze the stress ball and tense your arm muscles. Then release the hold on the squeeze ball and relax your arms muscles. Then do this for your legs, stomach, feet, head etc.

Video: How to make your own stress ball

A study by a professor from Ohio State University has shown that a stress management program with breast cancer patients improves their mood and boosts their immune system. This has decreased the occurrence of cancer and has led to higher recovery rate.


Stress-Relief Program Helped Those Facing Breast Cancer Twice

TUESDAY, June 8 (HealthDay News) -- A stress-relieving program may boost survival in women with recurrent breast cancer and also improve their quality of life, a new study suggests.

Patients who took part in the program had "significant emotional improvement and more favorable immune responses in the year following recurrence diagnosis," study author Barbara L. Andersen, a psychology professor at Ohio State University, said in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research.

The researchers followed 227 women who were newly diagnosed with breast cancer in stage 2 or stage 3. The participants were randomly assigned to either take part in an intervention program designed to reduce stress and improve overall health, or to just be assessed without participating in the intervention.

Breast cancer recurred in 62 of the women during the follow-up period. Compared with the non-intervention group, those who had taken part in the anti-stress program were 59 percent less likely to die of breast cancer, according to the report released online June 8 in Clinical Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Anderson said the findings "show enduring benefits from the psychological intervention that were never previously considered or observed."

A previous study showed that women who took part in the program were 45 percent less likely to experience breast cancer recurrence over a follow-up period that averaged 11 years.

"These results are extremely heartening, because it shows that a psychological intervention can have long-term positive effects," Sarah Gehlert, professor of racial and ethnic diversity at Washington University in St. Louis, explained in the news release. Gehlert was not involved in the study but is familiar with the findings.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has a fact sheet about psychological stress and cancer.

-- Randy Dotinga

A team of doctors researching at the University of California have proven that exercise not only relieves the harmful physical effects of stress but also reduces genetic deterioration.

It is well known that vigorous exercise releases a chemical in the bloodstream called 'endorphins'. This chemical helps you relax and feel good.

It is also well known that stress releases a cocktail of chemicals into your bloodstream that breaks down your body’s cellular structure. This harmful effect on the body has been found to increase the incidence of all kinds of diseases (such as high blood pressure, heart problems and even cancer).

Stress management experts around the world recommend exercise as an effective way to relieve and deal with stress. The following study shows that exercise not only reduces stress but can actually help you live longer.

Study Show Link Between Exercise, Stress Relief

Short bursts of very vigorous exercise  can significantly lower the effects of stress on cellular aging, according to research from doctors at the University of California at San Francisco.

According to lead researcher Eli Puterman, PhD, exercise can actually prolong the deterioration of a genetic tail at the end of cells called a telomere.

Puterman and his team examined 63 older women, most of whom came from a similar background and lifestyle. Those who engaged in at least 40 minutes of exercise three times a week were found to have longer telomeres and lower overall stress levels.

"Physical activity is so good for you and stress is bad for you, but the new study shows the stress-buffering effects of physical activity in those who are chronically stressed," Puterman told WebMD. "People know stress is bad for the heart and makes you look tired and haggard and makes us more vulnerable to infections. And there is so much accumulating evidence that links stress to health, so to show that there is something we can do when we are stressed that can delay or buffer the impact is exciting."

The study appears in the current edition of journal PLoS ONE.

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Transcendental Meditation has been proven to be very effective for dealing with stress at work.

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