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 Stress
Work Stress
What is stress?
Symptoms of stress
What causes stress?
Dealing with stress
Work Stress
If you’ve identified that work is the main source of stress, your symptoms might include finding it difficult to focus and having your mind wander, having a tendency to put things off, not being able to get started on tasks, long periods of being non-productive, or noticing that you surf the net and check emails a lot more than usual.
These symptoms might have become more apparent after changes in the environment such as:
changes in your workload (e.g., tighter deadlines) or position
(more responsibility)
other changes in the organization (e.g., restructure)
job insecurity (e.g., fixed contract or knowing the organisation is struggling)
sense of lack of control
a difficult or noisy work environment
insufficient skill for the job and feeling unable to ask for help
inadequate working environment
poor relationship with others
pressure from others
harassment
It is common to feel inadequate when you are not coping. But it can be liberating to figure out what is causing the problem and take steps to do things differently so you don't have to keep avoiding tasks or people.
Sometimes we find people are taking on too much and no-one could reasonably handle the amount of work they are expecting themselves to do in a sustainable way.
Sometimes we find people are trying so hard to do their work perfectly, that they feel paralysed to even begin tasks because their standards are so high.
Sometimes we find that people feel so overwhelmed that they don't know how to calm themselves and make a plan.
Whatever the issue, we can help you figure it out and change your patterns of thought or behaviour.
Click for tips to deal with worry and two relaxation exercises
What is stress?
Traditionally stress was thought to be the result of external stressors in our lives. For example in 1967, researchers Holmes and Rahe developed a stress scale of 43 life events (including deaths, divorces, sicknesses, house moves, new baby etc) and they tried to work out whether stressful events could cause illnesses.
More recently, researchers have pointed out that the effect of stressful events depends on an individual's perception of a situation and their perceived ability to cope with it.
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Symptoms of stress
Stress can result in mental, physical, emotional, and behavioural effects.
Mental effects include difficulties concentrating, difficulties making decisions, forgetfulness, self critical thoughts, and difficulty turning off.
Physical effects can include increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, butterflies in stomach, nausea, dry mouth
Emotional effects include nervousness, tension, moodiness, loneliness, crying, sadness, guilt and shame
Behavioural effects include difficulty sleeping, outbursts, irritation, aggression, avoidance of people or places, inactivity, drinking, or smoking.
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What causes stress?
In line with the view that it is not the situation but how we experience it that causes our stress levels to rise, anything can potentially be a cause of stress.
The biggest cause of stress for a number of people is some element of their working life. Interactions with one's partner, children, family and friends can also be stressful, as can health concerns (including exercise/diet/food related issues), loneliness and other difficult emotions.
Dealing with Stress
Dealing with stress usually involves understanding more about its specific effects on you, anticipating and planning for periods of stress, and finding the optimum level where you function best. Using a systematic approach to problem solve what you can (breaking the tasks down into smaller steps and making a plan to do the steps) also can help you feel more in control. Often the hardest thing for people is recognizing and accepting their feelings as we tend to berate ourselves harshly when we are feeling like we’re not coping.
Developing new skills, whether it be learning to say no and be more assertive, dispute perfectionistic thinking through cognitive behaviour therapy, work when you feel like procrastinating or giving up control by delegating, can be an effective part of managing stress.
Many people we see find it very difficult to take breaks and schedule pleasant activities. Using stress as a reminder to step back and to look at ones values and overall life meaning can be effective. Learning mindfulness meditation has been shown to be very effective in stress reduction. Read "Living in the present" - a blog written for Mindfood magazine or "How to live in the moment" - a column written for Mindfood.
If you feel like talking to someone about what's bothering you, please call us on (09) 361 2303 or email info@changeit.co.nz
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