Nobody Drives You Crazy, You Do!!

Short and to the point, Nobody Drives You Crazy, You Do!!: A Stress Managment Primer" is perfect for those suffering from the stress so common in twenty-first century life. At his or her own pace, the reader works through the program learning first, how to relax and second, how to modify stressful behavior. Dr. Tatarunis, a lifelong educator and stress management specialist for two decades, gives the reader the necessary knowledge and understanding to develop the skills to manage stress. Proven success with his clients over the years makes the author confident that you, too, can benefit from this practical program.
Below are a few excerpts from his book.

To purchase this book, click here. It will open a Microsoft Word file.

Preface
A man is the origin of his actions.
-Aristotle
A successful lawyer came into my office who was having difficulty coping with the stress created on the job. He had reached the point where getting to sleep had become an impossibility. As soon as his head hit the pillow his mind would shift into third gear and he found himself reliving the problems of the day and then making plans for tomorrow. After a month working through this program he was happy to report that he no longer had any difficulty sleeping and was learning how to react more positively to the stressful conditions at work. However, when he came to see me the fifth week and I asked him how things were going, he replied, "Terrible." When I asked what had happened he said, "I've been feeling so great and sleeping so soundly these past few weeks, I figured that I no longer had to follow the program. So this week I stopped." Unfortunately, that's not the way this or any other stress management program works. When you begin to feel better you have to stay with the program in order to maintain what you have achieved. The lawyer immediately got back into the program, as presented in this primer, and when he returned to my office the next week, he reported that once again his sleep habits were back to normal "and he was coping more positively with his job.

Present-moment Living
So don't be anxious about tomorrow, God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.
-Matthew 6:34, the Living Bible
In order to learn how to live in the present moment it is important to put the past and the future into proper perspective. The past is gone and can't be changed and the future isn't here yet, so all you have is the present. I became quite aware of the concept of present-moment living early in the process of developing my own stress management skills. Once I stopped holding onto the past, which is one second after now, and gave up worrying about the future, with all of its uncontrolled variables, my stress level became less debilitating. Let's take a closer look at why many of us are still tightly tied to the past and spend so much time worrying about the future.

The Past
Many of us seem burdened by a lot of stuff that we carry around in our mind from the past. I'm not talking about the pleasant things that bring back fond memories. I'm talking about such negative emotions as anger and envy.

Anger and Hostility
Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. -Benjamin Franklin
An important part of stress management is to become aware of how you manage your anger-especially if it leads to hostility. A ten-year study of over 300 black and white adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty indicated that those with high levels of anger and hostility developed calcification of the arteries, thus developing hardening of the arteries, and in time this had the potential to lead to heart disease.

Anger Research
A few decades ago, stifling anger was considered dangerous and the venting of anger was recommended for anger management. However, when researchers began to find a connection between certain psychological traits such as anger and hostility and heart disease, then the approach to managing anger changed. The danger of anger and hostility was substantiated in a study conducted by Dr. R. Williams (1998) at Duke University. He investigated a personality test that had been given to over 200 male medical students.

To purchase this book, click here. It will open a Microsoft Word file.