By Nisal Rukshan
We experience inter related and inter different phases throughout our life. The practices of absorbing those differences are distinctive from each other. As human beings, we are utilizing those skills in day-to-day life to overcome different situations. In these different situations, we undergo threats and fear, which is also called stress.
Actually, what is this Stress?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) “Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain.” Further, they explained, “Stress is your body’s response to anything that requires attention or action. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way you respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to your overall well-being”
What are the Signs of Stress?
The stress can be long-term or short-term. But it’s more important to know long-term stress is riskier for human life than short-term. There are many symptoms of stress. Among those many, some common factors can be highlighted as follows.
These symptoms are included Physical, mental, and behavioral signs such as mood changes, clamping or sweating, lowered libido, sleeping problems, dining problems, anxiety, grinding of teeth, headache, Diarrhoea, lowered energy, muscle pains in the neck and shoulders (especially), palpitations and Trembling, etc.
How can we identify Stress?
The recognition of stress is not an easy thing. Even though there are some tips to identify it with the signs of the following factors.
Behavioral signs: Less time to Enjoy, decreased self-care, dependence on smoking or alcohol
Emotional signs: Angry, Frustration, over thinking, sadness, etc.
Physical signs: high blood pressure, changes in heart palpitations, headaches, muscle pain, or weakened immune system.
Psychological signs: bad memory, feeling alone, anxiety, and trouble remembering
What are the Causes of Stress
Many factors can cause stress in life. It may be relationships, education, work, money, recognition, attention, or many more things.
How do this Stress impact Work and us?
Work and stress have an inter-relationship in positive and negative nature. Hence work-related stress has much impact on our day-to-day lifestyles in different ways and means. It’s essential to know what it means and its consequences. Especially here it’s describing negative impacts and their effects on us.
Among several definitions of work-related stress “Work-related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope” is elaborating a wide angle of it.
What are the Sources of Stress at Work?
Factors related to career: when it comes to these factors like weak physical health at work, overload of work, pressure in timings, and risk of physical danger arousing the work-related stress.
Responsibility: circumstances in the role during work, conflicts faced to fulfill the responsibilities, responsibility to own an organization like many factors also popping up during the work.
Development in career: situations like imminent promotion or demotion, lack of job security, etc.
Relationships: the way of having a relationship with superiors, under command subordinates, fear of delegating power, lack of trust in workforce type factors creating the person automatically to stressful ground.
Culture and the Environment: The environments of the organization, its policies, position, and its power of decision-making and acceptance also have much impact to emerge stress in a workplace.
At a time when a person feels stress automatically the nature and nurture of a human being sign him or her to fight or flight (cope up or withdraw). If one can cope with stress will be reduced and not coping upped the stress will drag the individual to an embarrassing position. It creates anxiety, complexity, fear, and much more as we mention at the beginning of the article under signs of stress.
It is not simple as we mentioned here, it always joins with the biological functioning of the human body. If anyone is always under stress the natural biological system will have much impact which is caused in the long term. Especially during these situations is a need to identify and have better-coping methods to overcome.
If not, bad health behaviors and long-term biological conflicts Will create Diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol concentration, depressive mood, job dissatisfaction, increased heart rate, Diabetes, Hair loss, Hyperthyroidism, Sexual dysfunction, Tooth and gum disease smoking habits, and more. Finally, it will end up with Coronary heart disease or mental illnesses.
What are the types?
There are four types of stress.
The short-term stress which we experience is called Acute stress. It may be positive or distressing in experiences of the day to day life. Chronic stress explains, a steady sense of sensation pressured and overwhelmed over a long period. Episodic acute stress: at a time a person experiences acute stress regularly. If he or she has episodic acute stress, the individual may experience constant pressure or that things are not correct. It can be very tiring and affect one physically and mentally. Eustress: explains stress that has the impact of positive response. This is the opposite of distress. It includes any type of beneficial stress, even bodily or mental.
With Above all, it’s clear that Stress is not harmful , but when it goes to extreme levels a series of biopsychosocial issues are emerging.
How can we overcome this stress and work-related stress?
Some factors in lifestyle like engaging in physical exercises regularly (WHO suggests that adults engage in 75 to 150 minutes of physical activity throughout the week), getting a balanced diet (Diet has a strong correlation to stress levels and mental health ), avoiding bad habits like smoking alcohol, getting good sleep (at least 6 hours), make time to relax, allocating a leisure time, practising of a deep breath, use of mindfulness techniques taking part in different hobbies, and brain exercises like puzzle solving can reduce your stress even work-related stress.
Other than the above if you are having such symptoms you can talk to someone very close in life with much trust. Sometimes it may heal you by releasing the pressure which is kept inside for a long time.
Similarly, if you feel this stress is impacting dysfunction in your day-to-day life, mental and or, danger to life, deviant or distressful it’s highly required to go to a qualified mental health care partner. Then they will help you to get into normalcy via medicines and proper psychological treatments.
Finally, we all need stress to live but it must be at a level out of danger. Extreme stress in the long term creates a series of issues in psychosocial phenomena. We should have mindfulness and always care for others when they need social support to overcome difficult situations. It will enhance communication, good relationships, empathy, and active listening among different parties to build a society with better coping and understanding of each other.
Nisal Rukshan Bsc (Hons) Counseling Psychology