Now more than ever, scientific research is proving the primary responsibility stress can play in causing and aggravating numerous psychological and somatic afflictions. In the June 6, 1983 issue of Time Magazine, the cover story described stress as "The Epidemic of the Eighties." It also said that stress is a major health problem. And one has to acknowledge that today's world has become even more complex and stressful in the last two decades since that article was published.

Several surveys indicate that almost everybody feels that they are under a lot of stress. Researchers in the field estimate that 75 - 90 percent of all visits to PCPs (Primary Care Physicians) somehow have to do with stress.

Most adults say their stress is mainly due to their job. And stress levels have also grown in children and the elderly population because of several reasons including: Peer pressures that often lead to everything from smoking to alcoholism and drug abuse; the loss of family and religious values and ties; increased crime rates; fear for personal security; and last but not least social isolation and loneliness.

Stress contributes to conditions such as diabetes, ulcers, low back and neck pain, hypertension, strokes and heart attacks. This is due to the ever growing sympathetic nervous system activity as well as a high level of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones. Chronic stress has been associated with defective immune system resistance. Stress can be responsible for anxiety, depression, and its varied effects on the body's organs.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines "stress" as follows: "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 following definition is given for "anxiety": "A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties"

And the following definition is given for "depression": "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."

One thing is for sure, our mind is the major reason for our experience of stress, anxiety and depression. In other words, what we think about, and our attitudes and the way we view our experiences dictate our feelings. That way, if we can find a way to alter our thoughts, attitudes, and points of view, we can eliminate our feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression and attain a more positive state of being.

Since the beginning of time, people have tried methods that would allow them to release stress. With the pharmaceutical industry there seems to be a pill for everything. And to that end the industry has developed a large line of tranquilizers from Valium to Xanax. If you choose to utilize drugs for relief, please be sure to pay attention to the fine print and learn about the side effects, which most of the time are, among others, addiction and dependency. Unfortunately, these sorts of drugs attempt to treat the symptoms, but not the cause. So if one stops taking them, the symptoms can return.

A more appropriate way of eliminating tension, stress, anxiety, and depression is to try to cure the root cause, which as I said before, is generally our thought processes. Now, here is some good news. The very essence of hypnosis is relaxing. The AMA accepted hypnosis in 1958 as an effective method of treating stress and stress related symptoms. However unlike drugs, there are categorically no negative side effects.

Hypnosis is the Alpha level of consciousness. It's the daydream like temporary psychological frame of mind which we experience as we're just about to fall asleep at night. And we experience it another time when we awaken in the morning. There are lots of different ways to guide ourselves into this condition of tranquility, from progressive relaxation to visual imagery to listening to hypnosis CD's.

Once in the hypnotic state, we can communicate with our unconscious mind, which is the center of our feelings. And one can more easily accept new points of view and ideas which will help us to dissipate anxiety, or even avoid it completely.

NLP, which is a modern kind of hypnosis, has various outstanding methods for dissipating stress. Perhaps the most effective technique is called the "swish" pattern - or the "flash" pattern. After using the "flash" pattern, your unconscious will automatically use bad, stress producing mental pictures, to generate relaxing mental pictures. Put differently, what usually makes you feel stress will now cause relaxation!

TO SUMMARIZE Our thoughts can trigger depression, anxiety and tension. So by changing our attitude and the way we perceive our situation and what we have lived, we can dissipate these feelings at the source. Hypnosis and NLP are natural tools that make it possible to change our attitude and point of view to easily dissipate the source of these negative feelings.

Alan B. Densky is an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He offers a complete line of stress reduction hypnotherapy CDs, and advanced stress reduction CDs through his Neuro-VISION hypnosis website. You can visit his self hypnosis blog, and download a free MP3.