Stress

• There is no escape from stress in modern life and stress is killing.

• Therefore, we have to find ways of managing and using stress in a productive way reducing dysfunctional stress.

• Stress is a non-specific response of the body to any perceived demand

• Too little stress = bored, unmotivated • Too much stress = overwhelmed, fearful, frozen • Moderate stress = energized, on-task, efficient

• • • •

Eustress: The stress that comes from good sources New marriage Birth of a baby Winning the lottery

• • • •

Distress: The stress that comes from bad sources Difficult work environment Overwhelming sights and sounds Threat of personal injury

• Every transition or change produces stress. • Young adult in the age group of 20 to 30 years of age have been found to report twice as many stressful events compared to older ones. • Stress have been found to be more prevalent among the urban population than the rural ones. • And it is higher among educated persons.

• Types of Stress •

General Stress: Everyone has this stress at any time. It generally resolves within a day or two

•

Cumulative Stress: Prolonged stress which builds up after time and can lead to adverse mental and/or physical consequences

• With increasing time spent on the job, job stress is becoming a painful reality for many workers. • • 40% of workers reported that their job was very often extremely stressful. • • 25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives. • • 75% of employees believe that they have more • on-the-job stress than the generation before them. • • 26% of workers said they were, “often or very often burned out or stressed by their work.”

• Information

society

brings

new

freedom but also new problems – stress and addiction included

• The

most

important

factor

causing

psychological stress is the increasing information work. It loads the central nervous

system,

causes

information

overload and problems in processing the information competences

and

deficiencies

in

• Information work and stress • Professor Jorma Rantanen from the Finnish Institute important

of

Occupational factor

causing

Health:

“Most

psychological

stress is the increasing information work. It loads the central nervous system, causes information overload and problems in processing the

information

competences.”

and

deficiencies

in

• More than 60 % of the Finnish work force use information technology • 70 % of the information technology employees in Finland had difficulties to cope with the large amount of information. Half had symptoms and 7 % severe symptoms of stress • One of the psychological stress problems is net addiction which is recognized as a problem by 87 % of Finns

• Types of net addiction •

(Uncontrollable or compulsive use of net)

•

1. Chat addiction (also SMS)

•

2. Net games addiction

•

3. Net gambling addiction (also day shares trade)

•

4. Net relationships addiction (dating sites)

•

5. On-line sex addiction (also phone)

•

6. Surfing addiction

•

7. Information addiction (news; cf. info-glut)

•

8. Mobile phone addiction (calls, messages, games)

•

9. General addiction on computers and ICT

• Examples of symptoms of net addiction •

unable to control the use of internet

•

stays on-line longer than intended

•

withdrawal symptoms if not using internet

•

prefers internet to relationships, work or study

•

uses internet to feel better

•

conceals the extent of Internet use from family

• There are 3 things we think we can control: • The environment, other people and • Ourselves.

• Guess which one you have the most control over?

• How People Fail to Manage Stress “If I ignore it, it will go away.” • “It” may, but there will likely be more right behind it.

• “Other people cause my stress.” • You control your response to other people. • “Next time I’ll do it differently.” • Unless you plan for changing what you do and learn new skills, chances are you’ll do the same thing.

• “If I just push a little harder…” • Physical and mental health is the basic foundation of all stress management

• Coping with stress:-

• Approach

(functional)

strategy

:

Confront

the

problem of stress as a challenge and increase capability of dealing with it.

• It includes efforts to increase physical and mental preparedness

through

physical

exercises,

diet

management, yoga and creative diversion through emotional enrichment by music, art, theatre etc.

• Escape

or

avoidance

(dysfunctional)

strategy: - To reduce feeling of stress through smoking, alcohol, drug or other escapist behavior which distracts oneself from the stressor.

•

What Influences Coping?

• Skills •

• The more skills you have across a wide variety of

•

dimensions, the more you will feel that you can handle

•

whatever comes your way.

• Health •

• The more fit you are, physically and emotionally, the more

•

energy you will have to devote to dealing with each

•

demand.

• Stress arises because of :-

• Self-role distance : A little introvert person who is fond of studying and writing rather than socializing,

may

find

considerable

conflict

between his self concept and expectation from role if he is assigned a job of salesperson.

• Strategies to cope with :-

• Self role distance: Some people stick to self concept and perform role routinely while others emerge in role and forget original self concept.

• In the first case he is ineffective as a manager and in the second ineffective as an individual.

• A functional strategy will be attempt to role integration.

• He may analyze various aspects of the role that are causing self role distance and may acquire skills to bridge the gap. Or he may carry his own self into the role by defining some aspects of the role according to his own strengths. • Such integration is not easy but can be achieved with systematic efforts.

• Inter-role conflict – Arises due to incompatibility among various expectations from his / her role

• A professor may find an incompatibility between expectations of teaching students

and of doing

research. He may go for role linkage with other professor who is good in research and jointly undertake a research.

• Role stagnation

– arises when individuals get into

new role as a result of promotion or taking over new assignment. He may be apprehensive that perhaps he does not have necessary skills to handle such new role and he prefers to perform his previous role. • A functional way to resolve it is by way of successful “Role transition” through socialization, role clarity and other role transition processes such as training and development.

• Inter-role distance:- It arises in person while occupying more than one role.

• For example an executive often experiences conflict between his organizational role as an executive and role as spouse and parent. • A functional way of handling is “Role negotiation” with others in role set.

• Role overload: arises when the occupant feels that there are too many expectations from the significant role senders. • Most executive role occupants experience role overload particularly when there is absence of delegation of authority and power. • A functional approach is to redefine the role and see which aspects of the role may be delegated to others who may be developed to take up the delegated roles. The process is called “Role slimming”.

• Role erosion:

Arises when role occupant

feels that some of the functions that he is supposed to perform are being performed by others. • A

functional

approach

may

be

“Role

enrichment”. It may be done by analysing the role systematically and helping individual various strengths and challenges in the role.

• Role isolation:-

It arises when each role occupant

play his or her role most efficiently

but avoid

interactions. He confines himself to his own role – role boundaries to avoid conflicts. We find some highly competent

executives

do

not

take

corporate

responsibility and his linkage with other roles is very weak. • A functional strategy is Role negotiation.

• Resource inadequacy • Personal inadequacy

• Burnout:

Stress is like electric power. It can

make a bulb light up and provide brilliant illumination. However, if the voltage is higher than what the bulb can take, it can burn the bulb out.

• Burnout is end result of stress experienced but not properly coped with.

• The opposite phenomenon of “glow up” takes place when stress is properly channeled,

resulting

in

a

feeling

of

challenge, high job satisfaction, creativity, effectiveness and better adjustment to work and life.

• Type A personality is more prone to burnout.

• Recent study indicates that two specific elements in type A personality contribute more to burnout – cynicism (low inter personal trust) and a sense of loneliness.

• A few other personality factors are low self esteem, rigidity and Machiavellism ( manipulative orientation).

•

General Adaptation Syndrome

• Alarm reaction •

The first stage of the general adaptation stage, the alarm reaction, is the immediate reaction to a stressor. In the initial phase of stress, humans exhibit a "fight or flight“ response, which causes one to be ready for physical activity. However, this initial response can also decrease the effectiveness of the immune system, making persons more susceptible to illness during this phase.

• Stage 2 - the stage of adaptation or the stage of resistance.

•

During this phase, if the stress continues, the body adapts to the stressors it is exposed to.

•

Changes at many levels take place in order to reduce the effect of the stressor.

•

For example, if the stressor is starvation (possibly due to anorexia), the person might experienced a reduced desire for physical activity to conserve energy, and the absorption of nutrients from food might be maximized

•

Stage of exhaustion

•

At this stage, the stress has continued for some time. The body's resistance to the stress may gradually be reduced, or may collapse quickly.

•

Generally, this means the immune system, and the body's ability to resist disease, may be almost totally eliminated.

•

Persons who experience long-term stress may succumb to heart attacks or severe infection due to their reduced immunity.

•

For example, a person with a stressful job may experience longterm stress that might lead to high blood pressure and an eventual heart attack

• Short term Physical Stress Symptoms •

•Dry Mouth

•

•Cool skin

•

•Cold hands and feet

•

•Increased sweating

•

•Rapid Breathing

•

•Faster heart beat

•

•Tense Muscles

•

•Feelings of nausea, or 'Butterflies in stomach

• Long Term Physical Stress Symptoms •

•Insomnia

•

•change in appetite

•

•sexual disorders

•

•aches and pains

•

•frequent colds

•

asthma

•

back pain

•

digestive problems

•

headaches

•

•feelings of intense and long-term tiredness

• Behavioral Stress Symptoms •

•Yawning

•

•Talking too fast or too loud

•

•Fiddling and twitching, nail biting, grinding teeth, drumming fingers, pacing, etc.

•

•Bad moods:

•

Defensiveness

•

Irrationality

•

Being irritable

•

Being critical

•

Aggression

•

Overreaction and reacting emotionally

• Behavioral Stress Symptoms •

•Reduced personal effectiveness:

•

Being more forgetful

•

Being unreasonably negative

•

Making less realistic judgements

•

Making more mistakes

•

Being more accident prone

•

•Neglect of personal appearance

•

•Changing work habits

•

•Increased absenteeism

• Performance Stress Symptoms •

•It interferes with clear judgement and makes it difficult to take the time to make good decisions.

•

•Where you need good physical skills it gets in the way of fine motor control.

•

•It can seriously reduce your enjoyment of your work

•

•It damages the positive frame of mind you need for high quality work by:

•

narrowing attention,

•

damaging self-confidence,

•

promoting negative thinking,

•

disrupting focus and concentration and making it difficult to cope with distractions •It consumes mental energy in distraction, anxiety, frustration and temper.

• THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF •

DIET - LOWER SALT, REFINED CARBOHYDRATES, SUGAR, AND

CAFFIENE.

NEED

MORE

VEGETABLES,

FRUITS,

COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES, AND VITAMINS. •

REST - 4 HOURS CONTINUOS

•

EXERCISE

-

20

MINUTES.

IT

INCREASES

ENDORPHIN

PRODUCTION. •

TALK - FAMILY, FRIENDS. PEERS

•

PLAN/ORGANIZE/DELEGATE - SPOUSE, KIDS, FRIENDS

•

YOGA, PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION, MEDITATION

• THINGS YOU CAN DO AT WORK • BE GOAL ORIENTED, BUT BE FLEXIBLE - YOUR WAY’S NOT THE ONLY WAY • APPROPRIATE

WORKPLACE

INTERACTIONS

–

FRIENDS REDUCE STRESS/ENEMIES ENHANCE IT, DON’T GOSSIP • ESTABLISH A ROUTINE • COMMUNICATE WITH EVERYONE SUPERVISOR, PEER, SUBORDINATE • MAINTAIN A SENSE OF HUMOR