The present module intends to present a wide panorama of stress, its sources, its consequences and the different ways to do well.
Stress is a current problem that we must know and try to avoid, since it is one of the worse feelings we can experience in our lives.
In the labour world, responsibility, decision-making, the dissatisfaction derived from the conditions or work organization, the “psychic charge” in short, can be stress sources. We must learn to identify its signs and learn how to avoid them for the development of our professional life.
One of the current situations is stress. In the developed countries, more than half of the population suffers from stress. We belong to this region.
The origins of this notion are old; Hippocrates underlined the existence of a “vis medicatix naturae”, a healing power of the nature, that is to say to launch physiologic mechanisms, to defend oneself from external aggressions. But it is not until the XIXth century, that the first investigations on stress began (Bernard, Haldane and Hans Selye). The latter defined the characteristic symptoms and denominated it “General Syndrome of Adaptation”.
The term “stress” has its origin in physics, where it refers to a force or weight that produces different degrees of tension or deformation in different materials. When Selye in 1926 introduced the term stress in health sciences and gave it a new meaning. In this case, the term stress does not refer to the stimulus (weigh or charge), but to the answer of the organism. Selye uses the term stress to describe the addition of unspecified changes of the organism as a response to a stimulus or situation. It seems that this change of defining stress like an answer instead of a stimulus (weigh or charge) was due to their bad knowledge of English.
However, what is stress?
It is the answer of our organism to a state of excessive and permanent tension that goes beyond the own forces. Indeed, stressed people are located in some life conditions that lead them continually to exhaustion, an accumulation of constant superman effort, a strong motional or/and intellectual tension, with a lack of time.
Mc Grath (1970) defines stress: “Stress is a substantial imbalance (perceived) between the demand and the answer capacity (of the individual) under conditions in which failure facing this demand has great consequences (perceived).”
Other authors1 base their definition of stress on interaction. In their works, they reach the conclusion that psychological stress is the consequence of the imbalance there is between the demands of the environment and the resources that the individual has to satisfy them.
According to Lazarus and Folkman, it is necessary to take into account two keys questions: the evaluation of the situations and the confrontation of the individual to them. The evaluation is the process by which the individual values the situations depending on his abilities and his experiences about the event. The confrontation includes the cognitive and behavioural efforts, which has to carry out a person to face the external and internal events in a continuous way.
Stress is the answer that includes cognitive and physiologic aspects with a high degree of activation of the Autonomous Nervous System and motive aspects that usually imply unfitted and scarcely adaptive behaviours.
Each person has a stress response when facing a threatening situation. The three previous answer systems are not always present. Two of them can be more intensive and the other weaker. Alternatively, there can be one of high intensity or the three of an average, moderate or high intensity. We have a characteristic profile of anxiety and if we know our answers, we can begin to reduce stress with the strategies that we will study later on.
Anyway, we should say one thing; the answer to stress is not something bad in itself, but on the contrary, it helps having more resources to face situations that are supposed to be exceptional. However, since many extraordinary resources are activated, it represents an important weakening for our organism. If it is an isolated issue, there will be no problem, because the organism has the capacity for recovering. Nevertheless, if these stress answers are too frequent, intensive or long, the organism may not recover. Some problems may appear, known as disorders associated with stress.
Work stress is one of the most investigated issues since it can affect the
activity and efficiency at work of any professional, and personal life.
Work stress is the result of the worker's perception: he or she thinks that
the demands of its professional activity overcome his or her own capacities.
It can be due to objective and subjective factors.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) refers to work stress as: “Dangerous illness of the developed and developing economies. It damages production because it affects the physical and mental health of the workers.
The ILO maintains that the companies that help their employees face stress and reorganize carefully the labour atmosphere in all its environments have more possibilities to achieve competitive advantages.
The expenses and losses derived from the cost of stress increase year after year: Absenteeism, low productivity, accidents at work, low motivation and what is more important, the incidence on mental and physic health, are some examples of its consequences.
The Burnout Syndrome or syndrome of “being burnt” is an alteration that appears in the workers because of their relationship with the labour market. Freudenberger first described it in 1974, although Malach and Jackson in 1986 define the concept more clearly. It is fundamentally present in professions where there is a direct attention to people or assistance.
The Burnout Syndrome has the following characteristics:
As we have said previously, the Burnout syndrome is a sort of specific stress that arises from the person's relationship with work. Its consequences are very similar to stress manifestations in the three answers levels. It appears in a progressive way because of the effort of inadequate adaptation from the worker to the reality that overcomes him. The quantity of work, its difficulty and the seriousness of the problems he must overcome show the evolution.
Before beginning with this point, let us try to write down all the situations that provoke stress.
STRESSFUL SITUATIONS |
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Stress is impossible to avoid, people even increase frequently their own stress unnecessarily. The difference between the exigencies people have with themselves or perceive from other people, as well as the available resources to satisfy those requirements, can constitute a threat or a stress source.
Many stress sources can be classified into the following list:
The influence also comes from breaks, interpersonal relationships, observations / criticism from the colleagues, communication difficulties and limited promotion possibilities. These factors can also generate work stress.
We present two ways of classifications of the possible stress situations that everybody has at work or as an analysis of stress prevention facing the organization situation and labour plan.
Stress scale: The objective is to identify the students’ stress, so that they begin to identify the possible stress sources.
Complete chart nº 1.
Sources of the students' stress: |
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| Sources of work stress | With what weekly frequency it takes place (5-4-3-2-1) | What do I think when I am in stressful situation? | What do I feel? | What am I used to do? |
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Complete chart nº 2.
Choose a stress source that you enumerated in chart nº 1. Write, at least, two scripts for each stage of confrontation with the stress sources. The scripts should limit the perturbing emotions; provoke positive emotions that may place you in a good position to control this stressful situation.
| Before the situation. | |
| During the stressful situation. | |
| After the stressful situation. | |
If the results are positive. |
|
If the results are negative. |
Stress accumulation usually provokes different reactions. The quantity of stress people need before they show it varies depending on different factors related with the personality (insecurity, perfectionism), heritage, habits and defence mechanisms. Next, we expose the signs and symptoms associated to professional stress:
Psychosomatic:
Emotional:
Behavioural:
Defensive:
Work stress will also have repercussions on personal life and on the efficiency and quality at work. When the worker comes back home after his or her working day, he or she carries all the accumulated tension and this has consequences on his or her family. That person will continually complain about his or her work, he/she will direct his or her dissatisfaction, laments and aggressiveness towards the partner, and it may lead to a crisis and rupture of the marriage.
The individual affected by professional stress is unable to develop his or her family role, he or she has fewer attention and dedication for his or her family. He says it is aimed at protecting them, although the only reason is that he or she does not want to relive his or her work problems. The effect of repressing his or her feelings will modify his or her personality in a negative way, for his or her own person and for the relationships with the others, suffering from the lack of communication at all levels.
In relation to work, the most evident result will be a lost of efficiency, smaller motivation, bigger frustration, dissatisfaction and disillusion, prevailing a dropout and non-participative attitude.
The prevention of stress is quite important and decisive. It is easier to face it in the initial phases than when it is already “established” in the person.
The others are very often those who observe the changes and attitudes in a stressed person. The people that surround us are those who can check the precocious diagnosis of stress, and therefore the professionals of the team should be aware of what they represent.
Once in our professional life stress can appear, and it is a risk for us, it is important to know it, to assume our limitations and to ask for help when we lose control.
Next, we detail some general advice when you are stressed.
The cognitive techniques to reduce stress are more effective in individuals whose answer profile is predominantly cognitive. This type of techniques aims at modifying erroneous or negative evaluations with regard to the demands or of the individual’s own resources to confront them and facilitate the restructuring of the cognitive schemes.
Some distorted habits or thoughts are quite common and we can identify them to be able to modify them. We present the most representative elements to identify and face them:
These irrational thoughts or ideas can arise in 4 fundamental ways of distortion:
People with these types of thoughts may easily perceive reality in a distorted way and it is then difficult for them to reach any objective or personal goal, provoking a problem of adaptation to the environment.
To be able to modify the way they interpret reality or think about an event, we present the cognitive reorganization technique:
“Today is the eve of a holiday in the supermarket where I am in charge and they have had to help me to solve a problem with a supplier because I was at the cash desk showing how to use the card”.
It is a description of how you felt and what behaviours have appeared during the event and after it.
“I am angry”, “I feel rage and anger”, “I have not eaten anything since the event of the supermarket”
“I have to make everything well so that people I care for accept and consider me”
“No, there is nothing that can show me it is true”
“Every day I work well, I assist all the suppliers and I carry out other tasks; moreover, there is no universal law that tells me that I must do everything well”
“Why do I have to look at other people to valuate my acts?
In fact, I do not live better thinking, and it avoids me to solve other situations. So I only speak with myself, I interpret the reality erroneously.
If I go on like this, I will have more breathlessness, will not eat and worsen my health.
Once you have detected and analysed these thoughts, you have to use some strategies to think rationally and adaptively.
To get success with this technique it is necessary to train; at the beginning, you should do it with a pencil and sheet of paper, until you do it well.
We are going to analyse the following irrational ideas, trying on the one hand to classify them and, on the other hand to modify them:
| Irrational idea |
Situation |
Feeling |
Level of anxiety From 1 to 10 |
Alternative thought |
| “My friend doesn't want to meet me to have a coffee” | ||||
| “My boss believes I don't make any effort” | ||||
| “I am very slow, I should work quicker” |
How to confront with stress?
This is one of the most difficult things, since everybody expects a lot from us and we try to satisfy their expectations. To say “no” politely and with a good reason does not mean we should feel guilty, and will not make the others move away from us neither.
Some minutes of relaxation with a cup of coffee can make us feel better and give us strength to face our work. Take one day free or some small vacations extra can be good for us. Everybody has a limit for the quantity of stress he can tolerate and we do not have to feel guilty.
Look for new challenges and try to escape from the routine: it is always useful. Doing the things you usually do in a different way provides a bigger personal freedom and autonomy.
Continue your training
In order to have your knowledge updated with the new advances in your profession, you can get it with off-the-job training, conferences and magazines; you will have more knowledge and will be able to apply them.
It can really help us, especially when we get too involved in certain labour tasks. On the other hand, you should leave your work at work (“leave the uniform at work”).
Participate in some activity after the working day, take a drink in a bar, practice some sport, go on foot to your house if possible, it will help you forget your work and relax, and there will be no tension with your family and friends.
Many symptoms of stress are psychosomatic. It can be useful to learn how to relax physically and mentally. You have to relax but also identify and treat the symptoms to get rid of them.
Many techniques as the abdominal breathing, the self-massage that can contribute to get rid of muscular tension, and the progressive relaxation can favour the dream and diminish the levels of anxiety.
Progressive relaxation by Jacobson
Now we will carry out a relaxation technique that will be we very useful in moments of excessive tension, anxiety, insomnia, depression, tiredness and whenever we want to relax. The progressive relaxation of Jacobson is based on the premise that the answers of the organism to anxiety. The deep muscular relaxation reduces physiologic tension and it is incompatible with anxiety: the habit of responding in a way annuls the habit of responding the other one.
The necessary time for its training is from one to two weeks, in sessions of 15 minutes everyday. The use of a tape recorder is recommended for its practice along with a soft and relaxing music.
Progressive relaxation involves first tensing your muscles and then letting the tension go. You might wonder why we first tense the muscles. Imagine a pendulum. In order for you to get the pendulum to swing furthest to one side, you have to pull it far along the other. Similarly, to relax your muscles, it can help to tense them first. As well, you become more aware of what each muscle feels like, where it is located in your body, and what to look for in the future when you are trying to determine whether muscles are relaxed or tense.
Read it over and give it a try. You can also read the instructions into a tape recorder and play it back to yourself as you relax. The key for success is practice. As you get better at progressive relaxation, you will consequently get better at relaxing.
The first muscle groups to tense and relax are the hands and forearms. Starting with your right hand, make a fist and hold that fist for 5 seconds. Then, all at once, let go of your fist. Let your hand drop loosely into your lap or on to the support of your armchair.
Notice the feelings of relaxation. Repeat this one more time - tense the hand, hold for 5 seconds...and relax. Proceed in this manner for each of the muscles groups outlined below:
right hand and forearm
right bicep
left hand and forearm
left bicep
forehead (tense by making a frown, scrunching up the muscles above your eyebrows)
cheeks and nose (tense by pretending you are smelling something awful)
mouth (tense by pulling the corners of your mouth outwards)
neck and shoulders (tense by shrugging)
chest and stomach (pretend you are about to be hit in the stomach)
right thigh
right foot and calf
right toes (press your toes down to the bottom of your shoes. Be careful not to make them too tense or else they may cramp)
left thigh
left foot and calf
left toes
After two to four weeks of practicing Progressive Relaxation, you will be so proficient at relaxing your muscles that you can cause them to relax without first tensing them.
This technique is called Smooth Muscle Relaxation.
This is a useful technique because it allows you to focus on particularly tense muscle areas and relax them without needing to first make them tense. The technique is only helpful if you have first become an expert at recognizing each of your muscle groups, recognize the difference between tension and relaxation in those muscle groups, and are able to allow the muscles to relax by focusing your efforts upon them. All of this is only achieved through thorough and effortful practice of Progressive Relaxation.
Stress Inoculation
Once we have learned how to relax and rationalize our thoughts, we will use a more specific technique to confront stress that shows us how to confront and to relax with many stressful experiences.
The stress inoculation includes to learn how to relax using deep breathing and progressive relaxation, so that every time you feel stressed you can get rid of the tension.
Basic procedure:
In situations of exhaustion, the family is the system of natural support, the primary group, but usually the help of the colleagues is even more useful, since they have similar experiences.
Our colleagues can help us diminish our emotional tension and guide us to face the situation with a more effective perspective.
The group of support are other options when a person is “stressed”. A specialist in Mental Health guides the discussions of the group that are usually related with work concerns directs most of them.
These groups are based on synergy (people in the same situation), and provide new feelings: how to be accepted, valued, understood, respected, as well as the feeling of belonging to a group. They also help to get a social identity and constitute a source of information, services and help material.
The work place also has an influence in the appearance of stress. The decoration, the architecture, piped music and silence can even contribute to a calm atmosphere that favours work.
With more people and more means, there would be less stress, although many times, it is impossible and it would be convenient to analyse the way to improve the available resources.
The manager of the work team plays an important role in the stress prevention. This can improve the employees' mental health encouraging understanding, self-control and consequently their capacity to work in an effective way. This support relationship fulfil several functions aimed at the stress prevention, since it provides an opportunity to give advice, offers trust, improves communication, eases emotional tensions and clarifies your thoughts and it make orientation easier.
The manager/entrepreneur should make the staff aware about the risks of professional stress, indicating problematic factors as for example, situations of excessive emotional tension, and giving them advice about its signs. These can be the behaviours or the changes in behaviour related to stress. The valuation of the staff satisfaction is very important to identify their problems and to be able to solve them, since it will improve the quality of work and of cares.
In the following chart, you will be able to consult significant changes in your life and see the stress value.. ANYTHING YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED IN YOUR LIFE FOR THE LAST 12 MONTHS SCORES. Then add it to the total.
Scale of stress for adults |
|
| Stress | Value |
| 1. Death of the couple | 100 |
| 2. Divorce | 60 |
| 3. Menopause | 60 |
| 4. Separation of the couple | 60 |
| 5. Imprisonment | 60 |
| 6. Death of a close relative | 60 |
| 7. Illness or inability | 45 |
| 8. Marriage | 45 |
| 9. Dismissal | 45 |
| 10. Reconciliation of the couple | 40 |
| 11. Retirement | 40 |
| 12. Change in the health of a close relative | 40 |
| 13. To work more than 40 hours a week | 35 |
| 14. Pregnancy | 35 |
| 15. Sexual problems | 35 |
| 16. New member of the family | 35 |
| 17. Change at work | 35 |
| 18. Change in the financial state | 35 |
| 19. Death of a friend (not a member of the family) | 30 |
| 20. Change in the discussions with the couple | 30 |
| 21. Mortgages or bank loan | 25 |
| 22. Problems with mortgage or bank loan | 25 |
| 23. To sleep less than 8 hours | 25 |
| 24. Change of responsibilities at work | 25 |
| 25. Problems with the family in-law or children | 25 |
| 26. I achieve excellent personnel | 25 |
| 27. The couple begins or she stops to work | 20 |
| 28. To begin or to finish the school | 20 |
| 29. Changes under the conditions of life (remodeling, visits etc...) | 20 |
| 30. I change in personal habits | 20 |
| 31. Chronic allergy | 20 |
| 32. Problems with the boss | 20 |
| 33. I change under the schedule or conditions de trabjo | 15 |
| 34. Change of residence | 15 |
| 35. Pre-menstrual syndrome | 15 |
| 36. Change of school | 15 |
| 37. Change of religious activity | 15 |
| 38. I change in social activities | 15 |
| 39. Smaller loan | 10 |
| 40. I change in the frequency of family meetings | 10 |
| 41. Vacations | 10 |
| 42. Time of christmas vacations | 10 |
| 43. Smaller infraction de the law | 10 |
We have asked you you to observe the changes in the last 12 months of you life. This can surprise you. However, it is important to understand that the changes have effects along certain time. It is as throwing a stone in a lake. After the initial " chapuzón ", you will experience small stress waves at least one year after the incident.
Therefore, if you have experienced a level of stress of 250 or more in the last year, still with a normal tolerance you can be in a situation of on-stress. People with a low tolerance to the stress can be on-stresseds at levels of 150 or less.
The on-stress it sources illnesses. To load too much stress is as managing the car with alone the reservation of gasoline, to leave the fastened toaster, or to manage a nuclear reactor but there of the allowed level. Sooner or later something will stop to work, he/she will burn or it will explode.
What will break will depend on the person's weaker physical links. This is mainly a hereditary characteristic.
Scale of stress for young and / or adolescents |
|
| Stress | Value |
| 1. Death of the couple, father or boyfriend | 100 |
| 2. Divorce (own or of the parents) | 65 |
| 3. Puberty | 65 |
| 4. I embarrass (or to source pregnancy) | 65 |
| 5. Marital separation or termination of courtship | 60 |
| 6. Prison | 60 |
| 7. Death of some member family (that is not spouse, father or boyfriend) | 60 |
| 8. Rupture of marital commitment | 55 |
| 9. Commitment of marriage | 50 |
| 10. Serious wound or personal illness | 45 |
| 11. Marriage | 45 |
| 12. To enter at university or following level (of secondary to preparatory etc.. | 45 |
| 13. Change of independence or responsibility | 45 |
| 14. Use of drugs or alcohol | 45 |
| 15. To lose work or to be expelled of the school | 45 |
| 16. Change in the use of drugs or alcohol | 45 |
| 17.reconciliation with the couple, family or boyfriend | 40 |
| 18. Problem at school | 40 |
| 19. Serious problem of personal health or of some Member of the family | 40 |
| 20. To work and to study at the same time | 35 |
| 21. To work more than 40 hours a week | 35 |
| 22. Change of career | 35 |
| 23. Change in the frequency of social exits with Members of the contrary sex | 35 |
| 24. Problems of sexual adjustments (confusion in the sexual identity ) | 35 |
| 25. New member of the family (a new brother is born Or one parent marries again) | 35 |
| 26. Change in the responsibilities at work | 35 |
| 27. Change in the financial state | 30 |
| 28. Death of a close friend (non member of the family) | 30 |
| 29. Change the type of work | 30 |
| 30. Change in the number of discussions with the Couple, parents or friends | 30 |
| 31. To sleep less than 8 hours a day | 25 |
| 32. Problems with the family-in-law | 25 |
| 33. Achieve personal substitute (prizes etc..) | 25 |
| 34. The couple or parents begins or stops working | 20 |
| 35. Beginning or end of school | 20 |
| 36. Changes of life conditions | 20 |
| 37. Changes in personal habits (to begin or to leave one Diet, to smoke etc..) | 20 |
| 38. Chronic allergies | 20 |
| 39. Problems with the boss | 20 |
| 40. Change of hours at work | 15 |
| 41. Change of residence | 15 |
| 42. Change to a new school (not for graduation) | 10 |
| 43. Premenstrual period | 15 |
| 44. Change of religious activity | 15 |
| 45. Personal debt or of the family | 10 |
| 46. Change in the frequency of family meetings | 10 |
| 47. Holidays | 10 |
| 48. Christmas holidays | 10 |
| 49. Smaller violation de the law | 5 |
We have asked you to observe the changes in the last 12 months of your life. This can surprise you. However, it is important to understand that the changes have effects in time. It is as throwing a stone in a lake. After the initial " dip ", you will experience small stress waves at least one year after the incident.
Therefore, if you have experienced a level of stress of 250 or more in the last year, still with a normal tolerance you can be in a situation of on-stress. People with a low tolerance to the stress can be on-stress at levels of 150 or less.
The on-stress causes illnesses. To load too much stress is as riding a car with only the last litres of petrol, or to manage a nuclear reactor. Sooner or later something will stop working, it will begin to burn and explode.
What will break will depend on the person's weaker physical links. This is mainly a hereditary characteristic.
(This scale has been adapted of The Scale of Social Readjustment of Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe. This scale was published for the first time in the Journal of Psycomatic Investigations copyright 1967, vol II p.214. It has been used with the permission of Pergamon Press Ltd.)
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