Recognizing Stress
- What is stress?
- What causes stress?
- How do you recognize stress in your life?
- Have you been under stress recently?
- How does stress affect you?
- Do you have a kind of red warning flag that indicates too much stress?
- When you are stressful, how do you feel physically?
- Do you feel tired during the day?
- Can you sleep well at night?
- Does your stomach hurt?
- How do you feel emotionally?
- Do you feel nervous or worried about stressful situations?
- Do you get angry easily?
Helping Others
- Have you ever helped someone who was feeling stressful?
- What did you do?
- Did you give them advice?
- Did you listen to them?
- Did you do most of the talking?
- Did you take some action to help them?
- Have you ever helped someone that you didn’t know?
- What are characteristics of a good counselor?
- Is it necessary to have shared the same experience?
- Is it important to be an expert?
- Is it important to be patient?
Healthy Stress
- Do you think stress is ever good, useful, or necessary?
- Do you play games or sports that are sometimes stressful?
- When can stress be a good thing?
- If you are playing a sport and your team is losing, does it give you extra energy?
- Does stress make you feel more alive?
- Is your home life stressful?
- Are you busy at home?
- Can you relax at home?
- Do you enjoy having discussions about politics with other people who have different opinions?
- Do you like to argue about different ways to do things at work or at home?
Personal
- Have you felt stress recently?
- Did the stressful feeling last a long time or a short time?
- Had the cause of the stress happened to you before or was this a new situation?
- How often do you think you feel too much stress?
- Do you feel too busy sometimes?
- In what way does a too full schedule lead to stress?
- Do you like being busy?
- If you are very busy at work or at school, do you have ways to balance your life?
- If you have nothing to do, do you enjoy yourself or do you get bored?
- Does stress make it hard for you to think or act?
- How can you judge what is the right amount of stress for you?
- Is your stress caused by relationships with other people?
- At work? At school?
- At home?
- With best friends?
- With partners?
- Can you think of some examples?
- Does stress come when you worry about your life?
- Do you keep your worries a secret from other people?
- Do you have anyone you can talk to when you are worried?
- When did we start talking about stress as a psychological condition?
- What do you do when you have stress?
Stressful Situations
- Are there situations that you find stressful?
- Do you feel tense when you meet someone for the first time?
- Do you get nervous if you have to make a speech?
- Do you suffer from stress when you have too much work to do?
- Do you work or study for long hours under stressful conditions?
- Does the place you live have a low-stress environment?
- Can you be alone as much as you like?
- Can you be with friends as often as you like?
- Is it easy for you to make decisions about important things?
- Can you relax when you are sleeping away from home?
- In what kinds of situations do you observe other people feeling stressed?
- What are some situations that you enjoy?
- What are some situations that make you feel stressful?
- How can you eliminate stressful situations?
- Plan a low stress, cheap, one day holiday.
Controlling Stress
- How do you relieve stress?
- What stresses you out?
- Do you have a stressful lifestyle?
- How can you eliminate stressful situations?
- How do you get control of a stressful situation that is getting too tough?
- What is the “fight or flight” response? How does it relate to stress?
- Do you enjoy the feeling of being stressed?
- If you are feeling stressed, what do you do?
- Do you like to relax or be active when stressful?
- Are you capable of relieving your stress or do you need help?
- Can alcohol cure stress temporarily?
Living Stress Free
- How can you live a stress free life?
- Can you give five suggestions that would be inexpensive?
- Can you give five suggestions for children?
- Can you give five suggestions for the wintertime?
- Give us suggestions for making school life less stressful.
- When stressful do you like to listen to a certain kind of music?
- Does it help to go shopping or take a long walk?
- Do you like to be alone or be with other people?
- Do you eat more or eat less?
- Do certain colors make you feel happier?
- Do you always follow the same pattern to relieve stress or do you try different things?
- What are some positive ways people deal with stress?
- What are some negative ways people deal with stress?
- How do you deal with stress?
- What is the most stressful experience you have ever had?
- When was the most stressful time of your life? Did you learn anything from that experience?
- What do you think is the greatest cause of stress for most people?
- What is your greatest cause of stress?
- Do you deal with stress differently that your parents do/did? If so, how?
- Do you know of anyone who likes to break things or become violent when they are stressed? What have they broken? What kind of violence do they do?
- What is the most stressful job you can think of?
- What is the least stressful job you can think of?
- Which would you choose: A stressful job with very high pay or a relaxing job with considerably low pay? Why?
- Is being single less stressful than married life? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
- How do you reduce stress in your life? Do you think they would be considered good or bad ways of dealing with stress?
