Understanding Stress Management – The Healthy Employee

Understanding stress management

Understanding stress management and its impact on your health and well-being is an important factor in the quality of your daily life. Are you feeling stressed? Do you accept it or do something about it? Could you be happier by making a few lifestyle changes?

Can stress be positive?

• Stress can sometimes be positive
• Increase alertness and help you perform better in certain situations
• Excessive or prolonged stress can contribute to illness

What can prolonged stress lead to?

• Lower immunity levels
• Digestive and intestinal difficulties
• Depression and anxiety

What happens to my body when I’m stressed?

• Sleep problems
• Sweating
• Changes in appetite
• Headaches
• Muscle tension
• Pain
• Nausea
• Indigestion
• Dizziness
• Heart palpitations
• Increased blood pressure
• Long-term increased risk of heart attack and stroke

What are the behavioral and emotional effects of stress?

• Anxiety
• Irritability
• Low self-esteem
• Becoming withdrawn, indecisive and tearful
• Constant worry and racing thoughts
• Irrational behavior
• Being verbally or physically aggressive

What causes stress?

• Work, money matter and relationships with partners, children or other family members
• Major life upheavals and events – divorce, unemployment, moving and bereavement
• Minor irritations – feeling undervalued at work or arguing with a family member
• Sometimes there are no obvious causes

Relationships and stress:

• Your partner, your parents, your child, your friend or colleague can increase your stress level

Work-life balance and stress:

• 1% of the UK workforce works more than 45 hours per week
• Neglecting certain aspects of your life because of work can increase stress
• In 2008, mental health accounted for 442,000 cases of occupational illness

Money and stress:

• StepChange Debt Charity saw a 56% increase in demand for debt advice and support between 2012 and 2014.
• 42% of those seeking debt help have been prescribed medication by their GP to help them cope
• Chronic stress and debt can lead to depression and anxiety and has been highlighted as a factor linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Smoking, alcohol use, drug use and stress:

• Alcohol can make existing mental health problems worse. It is important to know the recommended limits and drink responsibly.
• Prescription medications that may have been prescribed for very good reasons can also cause mental and physical health problems if used for long periods of time.
• Illicit drugs, such as cannabis and ecstasy, are generally used recreationally. Problems begin as your body gets used to repeated use of the medication, leading to increased doses to maintain the same effect.

How can you help yourself?

1. Realize when stress is a problem for you

• Try to make the connection between feeling tired or ill and the pressures you are facing.
• Pay attention to physical warnings such as muscle tension, excessive fatigue, headaches or migraines.

2. Identify the cause

• Classify the possible reasons for your stress into three categories: those that have a practical solution, those that will improve with time, and those that you can’t do anything about.
• Try to release the worries of the second and third groups.

3. Review your lifestyle
   

   

• Are you overdoing it?
• Are there things you do that could be left to someone else?
• Can you do things more leisurely?
• Do you have an understanding of stress management?
• To answer these questions, you may need to prioritize the goals you are trying to achieve and reorganize your life.
• This will help relieve the pressure that can come from trying to do everything at once.

Remember to seek health and support when you need it:

• It’s okay to seek professional help
• It’s important to know that you can get help as quickly as possible and that you deserve to get better.
• The first person to contact is your family doctor, who will be able to give you advice on treatment and refer you to another local professional.
• Other charities that could offer help include Anxiety UK, Citizens Advice or StepChange.

OUR Health and well-being roadshows are an extract from our comprehensive catalog of workplace wellbeing services and events and are made up of many healthy living areas, including stress management, enabling employees to connect the dots when is about living a happy and healthy life.