Sources of Stress and Their Effects on Our Lives by Tom Connelly

On the Job Many people find much of their stress at their jobs. Today's work pace is frantic and when you factor in crazy deadlines, fewer staff doing more work, backstabbing colleagues, domineering bosses, finicky customers, and the commute from hell, it all adds up to a pretty stressful cocktail. If this weren't enough, the modern worker has to deal with things that workforces past never imagined. Today we have corporate downsizing, restructuring, early retirement, and the dreaded offshore and other forms of outsourcing. Even when they do a good job and get favorable reviews, employees can still live in fear of getting a pink slip due to issues totally out of their control. Welcome to the publicly traded company, where employees get to take the quarter by quarter roller coaster of doom! If the company makes or beats the analyst numbers, things might stay clear, or they might still try to tighten belts and lay people off to ensure better numbers for next quarter. If the company misses its numbers, all bets are off. Look for a downsizing or restructuring, which will affect jobs. If they employee is lucky the company has a severance plan. If not, then... Polls have shown that most workers get stressed at work at least once a week, a smaller but still significant number get stressed every day. More employees today believe that their workload has gone up, and with layoffs being so popular in recessions and in publicly traded companies who must constantly do the Wall Street analyst dance, that number will only rise. The number of employees who frequently worry about being laid off is literally through the roof. This all means that the workplace is an incredible and ever rowing source of stress in the lives of working men and women. In the Home The average household has many things that require attention. Many times the family does not eat at the same time. Different work schedules and quitting times, aggravated by projects and the typical overwork scenarios discussed above, guarantees that one or several nights either mom or dad will cook the meal or order take out. The kids have homework, the lawn needs to be cut, groceries must be shopped for and carried home, the bills have to be reviewed and paid, house needs cleaning, and the garbage and other chores must be done. If the kids are active in sports or other structured activities, then pack on another layer of complexity in making sure that they all get to their respective sport or activity venues at the proper time. These times usually are staggered and can make every evening of the week a source of driving around in a state of never ending confusion. Pets add another layer, since doggie must be walked and do his doody outside and be cleaned up after, get a bath every so often, etc. Cats have their litter boxes to be cleaned out, aquarium fish and other pets have their own unique care guidelines that must be followed. Active lifestyles for adults might also include a gym membership where mom and/or dad have to make time for their own health pursuits. Does anyone have time to watch some TV or do recreational Internet surfing anymore during the week? For many, the answer is no. All work and no play makes Jack and Jill a stressed couple. Money Living is expensive. Think about it. The average household has a rent or mortgage payment, taxes, perhaps one or two car payments, car insurance, phone bill (land and mobile), food, water, gas, electric, home insurance, home repair, car repair, school tuition for private schools or college, clothing, entertainments, video game systems, computers, Television and Internet broadband connections which are monthly subscriber fees as well.... I'm sure that you can fill in many that I missed. It's amazing that there is anything left over at the end of each month for savings. Many of us end up worrying about money and our net worth. Worrying about money adds stress to our already hectic lives. It also causes tension between couples and also with the kids. You can even ramp this up (and many of us do) by trying to keep up with the higher earning Jones'. This leads to excessive credit card and other forms of debt as we live beyond our means, which in turn rotates the screws on the stress machine. We Expect A Lot I don't know if it's because people today are more aware or too educated and informed for our own good, but we have the nerve to want satisfaction from our jobs and our lives. Many years ago people were content to be paid for their work and if their marriage wasn't all they thought it would be they stuck with it. Maybe the mass media today fills out heads with unrealistic aspirations, or it's something else, but we are very different to the earlier generations. My point is that not only are we stressed out more than ever, but we are harder to please than ever before. Many people are still unhappy even after attaining many of the outward trappings of success. They are forever searching to fill that void inside, a void of their own creation that they can never seem to fill. Well, that is stressful too. It is stressful to face up to not being happy or satisfied, or feeling unfulfilled, either in your professional or personal life. Divorce Divorce adds unique forms of stress to people who have never faced it before. Having ti untangle lives that have been growing together for however many years is a hard thing, and there is a mourning process involved. You have to deal with feelings of failure, of feeling unloved and unwanted, or a myriad of other complex emotional states. When children are caught up in the mix it, of course, adds that much more sadness. Who will get custody? What will the visitation be? Will the marital home have to be sold? How will the kids' lives be affected by the possibility of having to move away from their home, familiar surroundings, school mates, and other friends from activities and sports? The stress of this process eats away at the parents who have to consider what they must put their kids and themselves through, as well as the children who also have to go through it. It can be traumatic seeing their parents separate. There is uncertainty and fear involved. Divorce also brings in the stress of the real estate market into the mix. Buying and selling a house is a stressful enough time under normal circumstances. Having to deal with that in the midst of or as a result of a divorce is extremely stressful. This is probably one of the most intense stressful periods that anyone can ever go through. Compound that if this must be done due to or in the midst of a job loss. Health Insurance Health insurance is not a worry if you have a stable job in the US or live in a country with a national system. This is not a debate on the merits of private vs national systems, and both scenarios offer some strengths and weaknesses. The reason it is mentioned here is because if you live in a nation where you get your insurance coverage from a job or employer, then pending layoffs add the amazing stress of having to face up to losing your health coverage. In the US there is a COBRA system that you can sign up for and pay premiums for after your job loss, but it is notoriously expensive and if you aren't getting paid you probably have to pass on it and go without coverage. IF you have preexisting conditions or need regular medication for things like high blood pressure or some other chronic condition, then the stress train keeps rolling along. For all of the sources of stress that I just mentioned, I'm sure that many reading this can add their own unique stresses or just other stresses that I could never cover in this short space. It seems that every year a new group of potential stress factors are being introduced, many times in tandem with new technologies. Effects of Stress Stress causes people to be late for work, miss work, get physically sick, give up on marriages, or lose control of their finances with lower credit scores or home foreclosures. Stress can physically manifest in many ways. It can aggravate high blood pressure, make you sleepy or sluggish, cause panic attacks and anxiety, give you the shakes, tighten your muscles and make them ache, cause digestive problems like IBS and GERD, increased perspiration, rashes, hives, biting your nails, lowered sex drive, overeating or under eating, loss of temper and overall bad mood and grumpiness, depression, insomnia, difficulty remembering, and to be honest too many other things to list. It is even hypothesized that stress can promote serious disease like cancer, heart attacks, ulcers, and strokes, to name a few. Medications Stress is usually related to depression and anxiety. These conditions are usually treated with not only counseling, but powerful drugs. Some of these drugs attempt to stop anxiety and panic by depressing the central nervous system, like the bezopine class drugs, such as Lorazepam and Xanax. These can be habit forming and can lose effectiveness over time. Other people are prescribed the more powerful SSRI (selective seratonin uptake inhibitor) which are aimed at keeping more seratonin floating around in the brain thus keeping one calmer and happier. There are many different types of drugs used for these conditions, but I wanted to give them honorable mention since the path of stress can take you down their street. Wrap Up This article is too small to write about all aspects of stress or how to cope with it. Look for other articles which will tackle different aspects of the stress equation in smaller chunks. Thanks for reading this far.