In today's society everyone from the media, to business leaders, politicians and even psychologists are raising the issue of the amount of stress that the population is currently under. There are many factors that are causing these outrageous levels of stress such as the workplace, finances, the weather, government and the general day-to-day run of the mill life.
If it is such an issue, What is Stress?
Well there are a number of formal definitions of stress but the easiest way to look at stress is this way. Stress is our mental, physical and behavioural response to anxiety-producing events.
Essentially, anything that is an anxiety-producing event is a form of stress. The way in which it affects us is dependent on the length of the stress, the type of stress and what other stresses we have been exposed to prior to this event.
Everyone's ability to cope with the various stress put on our lives is dependent on our own make up. Everyone deals with stressful situations uniquely and this is one of the challenges we have as employers.
The impact of a single stressful event may not be too great for most people however, if a person has been affected by multiple stressful events in a short period of time, then even a very benign situation can result in an overreaction by the individual.
There are many authors of books on stress management but one thing is true, they all agree that our ability to cope with stress is based on our own individual make up and the exposure to various stress laden events.
The impact of stress on us physically can be as simple as an elevated heart rate to major health issues from prolonged stressful situations. We have seen that those who have experienced major stressful events like multiple deaths of family members, looking after sick family members or witnessing of tragic events can lead a person to suffer serious psychological impairment or even physical illness due to the stressful event.
Research has found that working in constant stressful environments can in fact impact the physical well being of staff members. In some cases leading to unfortunate diseases such as heart disease and in the most extreme cases Cancer.
The key issue is that whilst we do need a certain level of stress to maintain our bodies, excessive stress can be detrimental to our long term well being and we need to understand that this needs to be managed effectively.
If you recognise that you are over-reacting to very benign situations or you do not feel happy at all during the day, then these are clear signs that you maybe suffering from stress and it are important that you seek help. Help can come in a number of forms such as learning how to deal with stress through a stress management course or by visiting a professional psychologist to help you develop a plan to manage your stress. Learning how to manage your stress effectively, could literally save your life!
Chris Le Roy is the Managing Director of the One-on-One Professional Business Training Centre. Our company provides a range of stress management training that will help you to learn to stress management skills, you career and more. Our company also provides first aid courses to help ensure you have that qualification when you apply for your next job.
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