How do deal with stress?
 

Generally exercise works for me. However, I am always looking for different ideas.

I smoke pot. (no surprise there, huh?):eek:

I beat my wife.

Prayer and putting my dependence on God with focus on Matthew
6:25-34

(I know religion is off topic, but it is the answer to the question)

I gotta admit, beer sprayed out of my nose on that one!

Yoga, exercise, meditation...not that I do any of them, but my wife does all three and it seems to help her a lot. I prefer TV and Haagen-Dazs myself.:)

Your post inspired me to eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's.

Booze

"Today's the 1st day of my vacation so go pack a suitcase, grab the kids, and I'll see ya in a week".

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...psiduhznhz.jpg

aaaahhhhhhh! Liquid Aloha!
Get a chance, try their Kokobrown hmmmm hmmmm just a taste of toasted coconut in an imperial stout.

I set things on fire.

Music

Have a few shots of tequila and buy some cards!

I come to this forum. :)

I go on net 54 :D

+ a million

It depends on what stress you are thinking of? Short episodes or long term. There are a couple of tranquilizers that work very well for short term anxiety/stress. It seems like the longer term stuff is harder to deal with using medication, although it works for some.

I use breathing exercises when it gets really bad. In addition, when my mind is racing, I try to concentrate my attention on baseball cards. I start listin out what I need in my head, going through potential sets, etc. it really helps me get my mind of of things and has been really helpful before going to bed.

Something to remember is that stress and anxiety are common problems. And, if you decide to do the medication or therapy thing there is nothing to be ashamed of.

Exercise or Xanax

Very true, I wish when I had severe anxiety problems I would have gotten help. For me the key was to just get up and go into another room or outside to change my surroundings.

Luckily I have been good for 20 years but for 2 years I was a mess total.

No shame in any of it. I am under a lot of work related stress and looking for a non-medicinal way to cope.

......

There's something about a little Scotch on the rocks and a binder of cards that takes the edge off of a hard day.

Tim, I think you have it figured out.

For me it's a bottle of cabernet and the final night of an REA auction.

Used to be the final night of Barry Sloate's auction - Barry had more stuff of interest to me in his smaller auctions, than any of the big ones do thiese days.

Listen to some music, helps a lot for me.

This week my wife is interviewing at 2 places for a new job. Wish her luck.

Hope she finds something she likes. Mine is an accountant so she takes money way too serious.

Nothing wrong with that.

I try not to feel stress. Maybe I'm naturally good at dealing with it, people seem to tell me I never seem stressed. But at the moment I'm dealing with severe financial problems, two elderly, sick dogs, and just about nothing else in life working out very well. I don't drink or do drugs and am agnostic so here's kind of how I cope:

1) Perspective. No matter how bad things get for you, there is a 99.99% chance you can find a story about someone who has it worse than you. For me those kinds of things help me put my brain in perspective and makes my own "stresses" seem small by comparison.

2) The dogs. Just hanging out with the dogs is a great stress reliever. They are old so really all they want to do at this point is short walks, hang out, and sleep. They don't know the meaning of the word.

3) Music. As I have gotten older I've really gotten into the "singer/songwriter" genre. Sometimes someone like Jackson Browne can put into words and music exactly what you're feeling at the time. When stressed I tend to stay away from the harder stuff and stick to acoustic music and classical stuff.

4) Exercise. My game of choice is ice hockey. I play in a mid to low level adult beer league but even at that it's a great workout, gets the blood flowing and works out the stress. I feel great, tired, and am sore the next morning but do feel much better.

I definitely agree that perspective is important. I was complaining about something to one of my best friends. He looked at my and said that it made him think of when he was growing up in the Dominican without running water.

I got his point. That's why he is such a good friend.