Stress Management Technique

As Wheaton notes, there are a variety of types of stressors that constitute a "stress continuum," and they range from macrostressors, which are non-event stressors "that occur at the macro or social system level" such as economic recession, to the immediate stressful events that occur in everyone's life (88). A technique such as progressive muscle relaxation is usually invoked at points of high stress caused by the so-called "daily hassles" or immediate events. After fighting traffic to get to the office (a daily hassle) one might engage in PMR prior to beginning work. Discrete stressful events, such as receiving bad news (a work project needs to be redone or a child has taken sick), also call for PMR. Chronic stressors--which are "continuing problematic conditions in our social environments and roles"--and discrete stressors "affect health independently" yet are also interconnected because each type has "indirect effects through other stressors" (Wheaton 104, 110). A body