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More than ever, scientific studies are confirming the fundamental responsibility played by stress in causing and aggravating different physical and emotional disorders. A cover story from a 1983 Time Magazine described stress as "The Epidemic of the Eighties." The article also mentioned that stress is a major health issue. And it is indisputable that today's world has become a lot more complicated and stressful in the last two decades since that article was written.

Numerous surveys show that most adults are under the impression of being under a lot of stress. Authorities in this domain estimate that between 75 and 90 percent of the visits to PCPs (Primary Care Physicians) somehow have to do with stress.

Most adults say that their job is the main cause of their stress. And stress levels have also increased in children and the senior population because of several reasons including: Peer pressures that often push people to everything from cigarette smoking to alcoholism and drug abuse; the wearing away of family and religious values and ties; increased crime rates; fear for personal security; and last but not least social isolation and loneliness.

Stress is a factor of problems such as diabetes, ulcers, low back and neck pain, high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. This is due to the increased sympathetic nervous system activity along with the release of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones. Chronic stress is corollary of impaired immune system resistance. Stress can be responsible for anxiety, depression, and its various impacts on the body's organs.

The following definition for "stress" can be found in the American Heritage Dictionary: "To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension, or strain"

The following is the definition of "tension" from the same dictionary: "Mental, emotional, or nervous strain"

The word "anxiety" is defined as follows: "A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties"

And it defines "depression" as follows: "The condition of feeling sad or despondent"

It defines "clinical depression" as follows: "A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, anhedonia, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death."

What we can be sure of is that our thoughts are the primary cause of our experience of stress, anxiety and depression. We could also say that, what we think about, and our attitudes and the way we view our experiences create our feelings. That way, if we can manage to change our thoughts, attitudes, and points of view, then we can get rid of our stress, anxiety, and depression and change them for a more positive state of being.

People have always sought out methods that would allow them to eliminate stress. The pharmaceutical industry seems to have a drug for everything. For that the industry has developed a large array of anxiolytics from Valium to Xanax. If you choose to utilize drugs for relief, please make sure that you are aware of the side-effects by reading the fine print, which most of the time include addiction and dependency. Unfortunately, these kinds of drugs try to treat the symptoms, instead of the cause. So if one stops ingesting them, the symptoms can return.

A more intelligent method to get rid of tension, stress, anxiety, and depression is to work on the root cause, which as I wrote above, is generally our thought processes. There is some good news. Hypnosis is all about relaxation. The AMA recognized hypnosis in 1958 as an effective method of treating stress or stress related symptoms. And unlike drugs, there are totally no negative side effects.

Hypnosis is the Alpha level of consciousness. It is the daydream like temporary psychological mindset that we pass through as we are about to fall asleep at night. And we pass through it again as we awaken again. There are hundreds of different ways we can guide ourselves into this relaxed mood, from step-by-step relaxation to visual imagery to listening to hypnosis CD's.

Once in the hypnotic state, we are able to communicate with our unconscious mind, which is the center of our emotions. And it becomes easier to accept new points of view and ideas which can help us to get rid of anxiety, or even avoid it completely.

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), which is a recently developed sort of hypnotherapy, has various outstanding techniques for eliminating stress. Maybe the technique that works best is called the "swish" pattern - or the "flash" pattern. After using the "flash" pattern, your unconscious will automatically use bad, stress producing mental images, to generate tranquilizing mental images. Put differently, what usually makes you feel stress will automatically cause relaxation!

TO SUM THINGS UP Our thoughts can trigger depression, anxiety and tension. So if we change our attitude and point of view towards our situation and what we've been through, we can get rid of these feelings at the source. Hypnosis and NLP are natural tools that allow us to change our attitude and point of view to easily get rid of the source of these negative feelings.