Stress is an integral part of our everyday life and is -directly and indirectly- associated with mental and physical disorders. It is scientifically proven that it is associated with the main non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, etc). Greece is in high rank among European countries in cardiovascular disease, adult and juvenile obesity, traffic accidents and tobacco consumption, which are all associated with stress. Moreover, stress is intensified in Greece due to recession, unemployment etc. Greek people also rank highly in workplace stress. Stress is triggered as well as triggers unhealthy lifestyle, which is responsible -to a great extent- for the afore-mentioned diseases.
However, stress is not the only problem, but along with the difficulty to cope with it, a vicious circle is formed, which is difficult to escape from...
Having identified the burden that stress incurs on the overall health, Stress management and health promotion society has designed and developed individual programs for stress management and change in lifestyle, which embrace the particular needs of each person, and individual population groups. Through clinical practice, long experience and specialized knowledge of the Society's members and associates -who are stress scientists (doctors, health professionals etc.), graduates and lecturers of "Stress Science and Health Promotion" post-graduate degree- offered by the Faculty of Medicine of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens- courses of stress management and improvement of lifestyle are designed, which concern healthy individuals (stress management, time management, workplace stress, etc.), as well as patients (high blood pressure, obesity, headaches, sleeping disorders, memory disorders etc).
The main goals of these courses are stress reduction through scientifically proven stress-management techniques (e.g., Pythagorean Self-Awareness Intervention, abdominal breathing using biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery etc.), improvement of quality of life, well-being and satisfaction levels, self-efficiency, the adoption and establishment of healthy behavior, memory enhancement, reduction of pharmaceutical consumption, treatment and medical care costs, in order to achieve better health for everyone.