Millions of Americans are affected by stress. And it's no wonder with the high demands of balancing a job, family, friends and other commitments. The effects of stress include anxiety, insomnia, headache, irritability, social withdrawal, depression and many other troublesome symptoms.

If you suffer from stress, there are options. Here are some of the most popular treatments:

Medication
Stress and anxiety can be treated with prescribed medications based on your doctor's diagnosis. Anti-anxiety medications can help relax the body and bring you back to a calm state. These medications are proven to be helpful, but many are recommended for short-term use, and there are always potential side effects. In addition, these types of medications might be habit forming.

Therapy
Some people decide to see a therapist to help deal with their stress and anxiety. Each treatment approach is determined by the therapist based on their analysis of the patient's condition. In general, therapy sessions include talking and listening segments and often a series of relaxation exercises such as rhythmic breathing to help people learn coping strategies. Though it requires a significant commitment, counseling is proven to be an effective treatment.

Natural Exercises
Stretching and breathing exercises and other complementary medical techniques such as yoga can have many health benefits including reduction of stress and anxiety. Stretching relaxes the muscles and releases built-up tension. Breathing helps to calm the nervous system and focus the mind. These are natural treatment options, but you must learn how to do them correctly to get the positive benefits.

Self Treatment
A portable medical device called the StressEraser teaches people how to deal with stress on their own. New advances in stress research reveal a harmful physical response that causes your nerves to respond faster and more strongly to everyday stress. Your natural recovery process is dependent upon the physiological mechanisms of breathing. This small, handheld device analyzes real-time biofeedback to teach you to activate your body's natural relaxation response through focused breathing.

About the size of a cell phone, the StressEraser works by accurately measuring your real-time heart rate variability (HRV) from the pulse in your finger tip via an infrared sensor and displaying it on an easy-to-read screen. HRV is considered to be the most accurate non-invasive measurement of your nervous system activity. As you inhale and exhale, your "breathwave" will scroll across the screen. The device trains you to synchronize breathing with your nervous system activity, relaxing the body and focusing the mind. Triangle symbols at the top of the screen indicate when you should exhale, helping you to achieve smooth breathwaves and extending the benefit of your body's natural relaxation response. Each wave is scored and points are gathered based on your ability to synchronize your breathing with the triangles.

"One of the problems in dealing with anxiety or other conditions is adherence. It's hard to get people, for example, to stay on the right diet and it's hard to get people to do things that induce a restful state," comments Dr. Eric Hollander of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

In commenting on the effectiveness of the StressEraser, he says, "It can help people relax both physically and psychologically by giving them immediate feedback and training them really to turn on their parasympathetic nervous system. And by doing that it can slow down pulse, lower blood pressure; it can be associated with muscular relaxation, and it can be helpful in terms of redirecting thoughts so people focus, for example, on their breathing rather than dwell or anticipate or worry about future events that they have no control over."

For more information on how the StressEraser can help you control your stress, visit www.StressEraser.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent