To demonstrate that stress can be seen as warning signals that the mind sends out when it's past experience and current capability to cope (determined by one's existing personality) is exceeded by the challenges in life. Accordingly, stress symptoms manifests when boundaries of one's personality – the way one thinks, feels, and act – is exceeded for the better as well as for the worse. The author has found that 'Breakthrough Intimacy' - closeness between committed couples far greater than their previous maximum level, can eliminate stress symptoms such as anxiety, anger, physical-symptoms, depression, and symptoms of borderline personality disorder, by exhaustion without medications and often within 6 months.

The patient and his/her partner perform daily subjective self-rating on 41 parameters to record daily changes in their psychological adjustment, according to a quantifiable model of personality and positive mental health. The couples' daily self-rating is tracked graphically via Internet, providing accurate and comprehensive data to guide the therapist and the patients. Working in three-way teamwork, the therapist actively help the couples to achieve closeness far greater than their previous maximum experience, overcoming waves of symptoms until they disappear by exhaustion, as the couple undergo personality transformation.

1,170 patients treated for various stress symptoms over the last 20 years will be presented.

Stress can be better understood and treated as the consequence of one's personality which can be transformed through ‘Breakthrough Intimacy’ - closeness between committed couples far greater than their previous maximum experience.