The SaVVy Club® is an exclusive social events club run for the professional executive. We always strive to bring you articles of interest and therefore we have invited Recovering Workaholics to contribute to our blog.
The first thing to understand is that stress in itself is not a bad thing. It is how we react to stressful situations that make the difference.
Stress can cause major health problems or in extreme cases be fatal. If you are experiencing any health problems brought on or made worse by stress or if you are feeling significantly unhappy it is extremely important that you seek professional health advice. You should always seek the advice of your medical practitioner before any significant change in diet or exercise routine.
Stress is sited as the cause of over 500,000 days of absence a year in the UK alone. It represents a huge cost in both economic and personal terms. In order to deal with it we must first understand what it is and what causes it.
Below are definitions for the word “stress.”
“Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.” (Attributed to Richard S Lazarus)
“Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature “
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(medicine)
“An emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and capable of affecting physical health which can be characterized by increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability and depression.” http://www.achenet.org/resources/glossary.php
There is no doubt that people generally respond well to a challenge particularly if they are involved in creating or something they find exciting. Where those involved believe what they do matters, and they feel they have some ownership and control over their situation, there is a positive payback even when working extremely hard over long hours. We could debate whether the pressure involved in such situations constitutes stress.
Where stress is detrimental, people are often in situations where they feel they have little control, feedback is non existent or overly negative, failure, humiliation, lack of support results in the person feeling that what they do has little value or they themselves are not valued. Sustained exposure to such negative situations can have serious implications for the health and well being of the individual and ultimately for the organization as a whole.
Gina Gardiner, Recovering Workaholics, http://www.recoveringworkaholics.com
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