Stressed Out?

Produced by the Forest Hospital in Des Plaines, IL, this nicely done "how-to" helps viewers to understand, control, and cope with the daily stress that we all experience. Lori Scacco narrates this four-pronged approach to handling stress, which features physicians and health care workers discussing attitudes, nutrition, exercise, and leisure. The program covers common symptoms of stress, emphasizes the importance of reducing the amount of stress in one's life so as to avoid more serious health complications further down the road, and exhorts viewers to work out, eat right, take a break, and don't make mountains out of molehills. The final segment has a visualized relaxation exercise that adds some video effects to a shot of water (which viewers can't see anyway since they're supposed to close their eyes) while intoning the usual banal quasi-mystical litany. Excepting the relaxation sequence, however, Stressed Out? is a good program which might serve as a good replacement for Less Stress in Five Easy Steps (reviewed in our April 1989 issue) if that tape is showing signs of wear and tear. Recommended. (Available from: Forest Hospital Video Services, 555 Wilson Lane, Des Plaines, IL 60016; (708) 635-4100, ext. 365.)