Work-related stress has received different names over the years, from the famous surmenage to the more recent burn-out syndrome. Basically this type of stress is an exhaustion of the nervous system, with a tendency to become chronic, which produces wear and tear that gives rise to depressive-type symptoms.
Stress should be a specific reaction to a potential danger, which allows the confrontation or flight from the situation that is causing it. That is why when it occurs in the workplace it is so complex, since neither option is available. The individual cannot effectively change the situation quickly, nor can they stop going to workplace like Appliance repair. There lies one of the main reasons for the chronification, since the alert reaction occurs repeatedly, with the consequences mentioned previously.
In the long term, other types of complications appear, many of them related to somatizations, gastrointestinal symptoms -gastritis or breakdowns-, muscle symptoms -pains and contractures- and headaches. All phenomena that speak of a body that is suffering a state of permanent tension.
Why is it produced?
The most important stressors had to do with work overload, excessive responsibility and fundamentally the overvaluation of the notions of success or failure that each one has of their daily tasks. As they are elements that bring a lot of concern, we call them direct stressors.
Of course, the relational climate that can occur in the workplace also influences. All work implies links, as in all the spaces in which we move, home, family, friends, etc. In the workplace there are also certain links that can favor a climate of cordiality and camaraderie, or just the opposite.
Influence of external factors
Like any demanding situation, work is also compensated or aggravated by personal conditions. Mature personalities have a variety of resources with which they can cope much better with sustained stress with fewer consequences.
Today the word resilience is used, which emphasizes the range of resources that mature personalities have. These types of people can be exposed to the same level of stress as any other, but nevertheless they respond in a better way and even manage to obtain learning.
Risk population
The population at risk that we identified after the study carried out ranges between 35 and 45 years of age.
At this time in life, a personal requirement is combined, where many are dependent on children, spouses or partners, with entering a highly competitive level of the labor market. In other words, the personal burden that each one carries at that time in life is added to the level of job competence.
Tips to prevent work stress
- Respect the lunch space, a small parenthesis in the day where you can relax and put your head on something else.
- Take a break in the middle of the morning and another in the afternoon.
- Get up, stretch your feet, walk, get a little oxygen, and change your body position. All of this relaxes.
- Try to maintain a relationship of camaraderie and even foster the bond outside the work environment.
- Focus on the tasks accomplished and not on the pending ones. Focus on the objectives achieved.
Treatment
As the symptoms usually imply a seriousness and a real impediment, the treatment would have to combine the pharmacological part and the psychological support. The pharmacological in the line of anxiolytics and antidepressants, since they can relieve quite quickly and modify the most acute symptoms. Then the therapeutic accompaniment is carried out with the aim of solving more individual questions of the personality, fundamentally generating strategies to achieve better performance at work. For example, associating it more with pleasure than with the situation of obligation.
When to consult?
In general, we can all have a week that is more upset, more listless, with greater difficulties in meeting the demands demanded. The problem arises when these situations are installed and the symptoms that occur become independent of the specific situation. That is, after an exhausting week, the demand for work decreases, but one still detects reluctance or lack of energy. This means that the symptoms have become independent and clear signs of stress are beginning to show.
The time it takes for stress to appear is variable, since it depends on the resources of the personality, the capacity it has to face this pressure in a sustained way.