Stressers

The proposition that the state which we term death is the final means of escape from the condition we call stress is somewhat reminiscent of the statement made by Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici that 'death is the cure of all diseases': this is, of course, essentially an anihilist view. There is obvious scope for the alternative proposal as advanced, for example, by Sir James Barrie in Peter Pan that 'to die will be an awfully big adventure'.

Man appears to be adapted to react to changes in his environment in such a way that appropriate mechanisms, designed to prepare him for coping with danger, are automatically initiated when he is threatened. This physiological reaction which has been termed the 'fight or flight' (Selye 1976) response 'helped our ancestors to survive by making them fit' (Gregory 1987) to respond to any perceived threat. The physiological responses are measurable and hence they are now clearly understood: for example, 'we can show how psychological proces...