Perception Business
Psychologists
Psychology at work
|
Perception Business
Psychologists |
|
|
Stress What is Stress? Although we hear a lot about stress now and many people think it is a recent phenomenon people have been suffering from stress for years. In the past people were said to suffer from their ‘nerves’ or during the war they were said to suffer from ‘shell shock’. These terms have now been dropped and replaced by the word stress, which is used to cover a wide range of pressures and symptoms. Stress is when the demands placed on a person exceed their ability to cope with those demands. An important point is that stress is related to the person’s perceived pressures. What may be stressful for one person may not be for another. Quite often, someone can be stressed due to a number of small pressures rather than one large problem. Also, some people are more pre-disposed to stress than others and the effects of stress can vary between individuals. For example, one person may be suffering from overwork; another from not having enough work and a third because they are worried about a close relative who is seriously ill. All these people would be said to be suffering from stress, yet the cause of this and the symptoms could be very different. People’s reaction to stress is based on the body’s natural response to danger. When people were living in caves they developed a system for preparing for danger. This is commonly called the fight or flight response, although fight, flight or freeze would be more accurate. When people are faced with a dangerous situation their body undergoes a series of changes brought about by the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine (hormonal) system. The combined effect of these changes is as follows: -
The effect of these changes is to slow the digestive process down, increase blood pressure and breathing so that we are ready for action. At the same time our muscles become tense and we perspire to keep ourselves cool. To provide us with the energy to keep going the body pumps sugars and fatty acids into to the body. These bodily changes were vital for survival many years ago; they were designed to be short lived and to allow us to cope with increased physical activity. Now challenging situations are more mental than physical and they last for a longer time. What is more they do not involve us in physical activity to use up the additional sugars and fats that pour into the body. These changes are the cause of the physical symptoms we all feel when we are faced with a stressful situation. Our stomach feels full and we may not feel like eating, we are aware of a higher pulse rate and we start perspiring even though we may feel cold. They also have an effect on our health. In the short-term we are less able to fight off the minor illnesses such as coughs and colds while in the long-term our raised blood pressure and increase in blood fats and sugars can lead to more serious problems. Prolonged stress can result in heart diseases. When we are stressed we may to resort to over indulging ourselves as a form of compensation. We may eat more, drink more or increase our smoking or taking drugs. Added to this we may either not be able to sleep or even want to stay in bed all day. None of these responses to stress are good for us in the long-term. Another problem is that stress often develops slowly. We cope with pressure for a short time, indeed short periods of stress can be beneficial, but over a longer period it can cause harm. Often we do not realise how stress is building up over a long period and do not take steps to reduce stress levels until the situation is quite serious. The best method of combating stress is to remove the source of pressure, but this is not always possible. If it is not then we must find ways to help us cope with the pressure.
|
|
|
Return to: Top |