Handling Stress

Signs & symptoms
4. How do I know I am under stress?

Physical

* Faster heart beat
* Increased sweating
* Cool skin
* Cold hands and feet
* Feelings of nausea, or 'Butterflies in stomach'
* Breathing rapidly
* Muscles tension
* Dry Mouth
* Frequent urination
* Diarrhoea
* Change in appetite
* Easily getting illnesses such as:
o asthma
o back pain
o digestive problems
o headaches
o skin eruptions
* sexual disorders eg loss of sexual desire
* aches and pains
* easily tired

Psychological

* Worry or anxiety
* Confusion and poor concentration
* Feeling out of control
* Mood changes:
o Depression
o Frustration
o Hostility
o Helplessness
o Impatience & irritability
o Restlessness
* Difficulty sleeping
* Prone for substance abuse eg. Alcohol and drugs

Cognitive disturbances

* Difficulty to make good decisions.
* Reduce enjoyment of daily activities
* It causes difficult situations to be seen as a threat, not a challenge.
* It disrupt the positive frame of mind by:
* Increase in negative thoughts,
o Loss of self-confidence,
o narrowing attention,
o poor concentration
* It consumes mental energy in distraction, anxiety, frustration and temper.

Behavioural

* Talking too fast or too loud
* Yawning
* Nail biting, grinding teeth, drumming fingers, restless.
* Bad moods:
o Easily irritable
o Defensiveness
o Giving critical comments to others
o Can become violent
o Irrationality
o Overreaction and reacting emotionally
* Reduced personal effectiveness:
o Easily forgetful
o Making more mistakes
o Involved in frequent accident
* Poor work performance
* Neglect of personal appearance

[Top]
5. Where do my stress come from ?

1. Survival Stress :

When you are under some kind of threat either emotionally or physically or feeling as 'fear' to overcome the threat and survive.
2. Stress within yourself :

When your type of personality is Type A personality who is ambitious, perfectionist, hardworking and high achieve. stress.

When you expected unrealistic expectation. Five main unrealistic expectations :
* You expect all people to love and admire you
* You expect to be competent all the time
* You believed that external factors causing all your misfortune
* You expect that every events should always turn out the way you want them to, and that people should always do what you want.
* You believed that past bad experience will control what will happen in the future
3. Stressors from your environment and job
1. Environmental stresses
* Crowding and invasion of personal space
* Insufficient working and living space
* Noise
* Dirty or untidy conditions
* Pollution
* A badly organised or run down environment

2. Chemical and nutritional stresses
* Caffeine cause your levels of stress hormones raises, difficult to sleep and can make you more irritable.
* Bursts of sugar from sweets or chocolate: these make you feel more energetic in the short term. Your body reacts to stabilise abnormally high sugar levels by releasing too much insulin. This causes a serious energy dip shortly after the sugar high.
* Too much salt : This raises your blood pressure and puts your body under chemical stress.
4. Lifestyle and job stress

These may include:
* too much or too little work
* having to perform beyond your experience or perceived abilities
* having to overcome unnecessary obstacles
* time pressures and deadlines
* keeping up with new developments
* changes in procedures and policies
* lack of relevant information, support and advice
* lack of clear objectives
* unclear expectations of your role from your boss or colleagues
* responsibility for people, budgets or equipment
* career development stress:
o under-promotion, frustration and boredom with current role
o over-promotion beyond abilities
o lack of a clear plan for career development
o lack of opportunity
o lack of job security
* Stress from your organisation or your clients:
o pressures from your boss or from above in your organisation
o interference in your work
o demands from clients
o disruptions to work plans
o the telephone!
* Personal and family stresses:
o financial problems
o relationship problems
o ill-health
o family changes such as birth, death, marriage or divorce.

Complications
6. What will happen if I ignore the stress in me?

The effects of long term stress can be severe. If you do not take action to control it, this can lead to :

* Fatigue and Exhaustion
* Depression
* Burn Out, or Breakdown

Prevention
7. What can I do to reduce stress?

* You must recognize and accept the fact that you are under stress
* You should identify the source of your stress
* Learn to cope with your stress by Practicing Appropriate Coping Skills which corresponds to identified source of stress.
* If you feel there is no satisfying improvement in your stress after 3 weeks we recommend that you seek professional help.