Given the special stresses that working, career, and professional women are subject to, it is no wonder that they experience female stress symptoms. Given the special drive and character women must have to compete successfully and even to excel in the working world, it is no wonder that they suffer "executive stress" symptoms as well.

According to Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosen-man, achievement-oriented male executives have long paid for their personality profile with high blood pressure and/or heart disease. The same characteristics that were reinforced by their career successes were making them susceptible to psychosomatic diseases. These characteristics include

competitiveness

aggressiveness

secret anger

impatience and

irritability

perfectionism

constant raising of their own quotas

focus on approval of others for their self-esteem

Friedman and Rosenman labeled this profile the Type A personality, and warned Type A men of their high risk for stress-related symptoms.

Now, as women are entering executive careers, they are exhibiting their own brand of Type A behavior. Imagine the Type A personality as a working woman, and the result is the following:

She is a perfectionist, and so must be the perfect employee without slacking off as beauty, devoted daughter, lover, wife, mother, friend.

She is never satisfied with her achievements.

She is as impatient and irritable as the Type A man, but unfortunately has less time and more chores to be impatient and irritable about!

She can be aggressive rather than assertive.

She gives others enormous power to affect her feelings about herself through their reactions to her.

She is secretly angry that no man is saving her from herself, although she would like to feel differently.

She competes on the job as well as with other mothers and wives.

She schedules a dinner party for the day after her quarterly presentation to the board, since all her roles are priority roles.

When a man exhibits Type A behavior, physicians and family become concerned. "Get a thorough checkup," they say. "Take two weeks' vacation." However, this advice is not as readily applied to Type A women, most of whom have family and social responsibilities they can't easily escape—or which they feel they can't easily escape, which amounts to the same thing. Top often, they simply find themselves settling for the notion that everything will look a lot better after a good night's sleep.

A good night's sleep can't hurt, but it will not be enough to reduce the stress symptoms of a Type A woman. Better advice? First of all, educate yourself. Educate yourself about stress in general; about your particular stress pattern; about the opportunities for stress management in your daily life. Take control of your life, in fact and in spirit. Don't give others the power to affect your self-esteem and behavior with their approval or disapproval. Decide for yourself how you feel about yourself. Don't give others the power to control your time schedule unless it is appropriate. Don't give others the power to control your goals through implicit or explicit competition. You must concentrate on winning your own self-approval, scheduling your time yourself, and setting and achieving your own goals.

Try to make the switch from evaluating and judging yourself to describing and accepting yourself. The former increases stress, the latter gives you a chance to manage it. You might not be able to change your Type A behavior easily, but you can at least allow for it, work around it, and recognize it. You can catch yourself in the middle of becoming a spectator of your own performance. You can smile at your own Cinderella fantasies. You can switch your assertiveness from off-putting demands to flattering requests. But you can do these things only if you know yourself. If you are caught up in a flood of self-evaluation and self-criticism instead, you'll be too busy steering to chart your own course and feel in control of your own destination.

On the very practical side, here are some suggestions from other working women.

Buy more clothes and underwear to avoid the need for frequent laundry and cleaning trips. Include dark soil-resistant suits and lots of extra blouses. Give yourself permission to stock up! You save time for every penny you spend.

Hire help, as much as you can afford. Find a cleaning service. Let the tailor fix your hems, the laundry do your shirts. Have a fashion consultant identify a few types of clothing that always look good on you to simplify your shopping. Or use a professional shopper if your department offers this service. Use caterers or waiters and bartenders for parties.

Teenagers and college students are good sources for many of these services. Don't overlook a tax accountant and a travel agent. In the long run, these services are cheaper than the doctor's bills that may follow too much stress.

Schedule escape. Read a novel in the bath, on the bus, or at lunchtime. If your body can't

go to a faraway island, at least your psyche can!

Find private time. One half hour after everyone else has gone to sleep or before everyone else has awakened can be your time for indulgence, contemplation, or fun.

Play. If you enjoy games, take a crossword puzzle to breakfast, or backgammon to dinner.

Psychologist Constance Freeman and her associates have relaxed during ongoing lunch-

time Scrabble games for eight years!

If you have a mate who works, establish a policy of "equal flexibility." Each of you must

be able to take it for granted that your goal is to share the total load of household work

equally, and that both your schedules and energy levels may vary unpredictably. For

example, once you have this understanding, whoever had the easier day or who got home

first would prepare the dinner. If neither of you has time or energy, you might go out, order in, or even eat separately.

Practicality is the key. It is important that working couples not let practical tasks such as cooking and cleaning become symbols for other things, such as loving and caring. When both partners have equally heavy schedules, let meals be for nourishment and count on conversation, sex, consideration, and the like to demonstrate your love and caring for each other.

Determine the healthiest diet for you and make sure you have the right foods on hand. Do you need a protein snack at 4 p.m.? Does your favorite diet call for only cottage cheese at breakfast? Again, stock up! You will be much less stress-prone if your body has the nutrients it needs, and you have the satisfaction of sticking to your diet. Make it easy for yourself.

Keep lists. Whether in the form of a small notebook or pocket calendar that is always in your purse, or a more elaborate categorizing technique taught by some of the time-management courses, such a system will enable you to trap thoughts, names, addresses, dates, and so on as they come to you and to get things done efficiently. Again, taking control of your environment lowers stress.

In an article entitled "Type A Behavior: A Progress Report," Meyer Friedman gives the following suggestion: practice walking, talking, and driving your car at a slower pace. This can help to reduce your sense of urgency and, consequently, reduce irritation and even anger. It may force you to schedule fewer activities and leave you more time for "joy and affection in situations that previously either irritated or angered."

Self-hypnosis and other special relaxation exercises can be a great help in relieving tension.

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