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Stress management deals mainly with symptoms, rather than causes, of our problems.
Stress management isn't helpful for many types of stress, such as the death of a loved one or the loss of one's job.
The benefits of stress management are usually short- lasting.
Exercise, meditation, biofeedback, and other stress management techniques require considerable time and discipline, which many people lack.
Advocates of stress management promote the false belief that stress is an inevitable, unavoidable part of modern life (it's not!).
Advocates of stress management promote the false belief that the root causes of human stress are difficult, if not impossible, to control (many are not!).
Managing stress keeps us from discovering a whole host of even better coping options.
Managing stress rarely improves our self-awareness or self-empowerment skills.
Managing stress doesn't enable us to prevent our problems from constantly reoccurring.
Like other symptom-oriented approaches (e.g. using cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, food, etc.), the more we rely upon stress management techniques, the more we become dependent upon them.
Source: The Health Resource Network, Inc., a non-profit health education organization.
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