Month: September 2020

The Physiological Response

The process of physiological stress response starts from the moment the body realizes the presence of the stressor, followed by the sending of signals to the brain, and to the specific sympathetic and hormonal responses to eliminate, reduce or cope with the stress.

The Nervous System

When your body senses that a particular stressor is present, signals about that stimulus are sent to your brain. The master gland called the hypothalamus is then alerted to arouse the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS is the system which controls most of the major organs of your body: the heart, lungs, stomach, glands and even the blood vessels. With these organs, you’ll readily notice that the ANS is responsible for the unconscious regulation of the heart beat and breathing.

Sympathetic Response

The SNS surely likes things to go very quickly when you are faced with stress. The neurotransmitter noradrenaline is released by the nerve endings and is sent to the SNS so that the latter can:

• Enhance the strength of your skeletal muscles. Have you heard news about people who were able to carry heavy furniture or equipments outside their house during fire? Well, fire is a very stressful situation, and thankfully we have our sympathetic response to aid us during these circumstances.
• Increase heart rate. During stressful moments, your heart beats faster than it usually does so that the parts of your body which are needed to cope up with the stress would be supplied by enough oxygenated blood to remain functional until the stressful situation subsides.
• Shoot up sugar and fat levels. We all know that sugar and fat provides our body with energy. During stressful situations, we need more energy to cope up, and so the SNS assists us to have more energy.

Hormonal Response

Other than the nervous system, the body’s stress response also includes the help of the adrenal glands. Situated on top of each kidney, the adrenal glands are also included in the physiologic stress response because the adrenal medulla (the centre part of the glands) has nerves that connect the gland to the SNS. The SNS stimulates the adrenal medulla to start releasing adrenaline and noradrenaline into the blood circulation. This action results in the “fight or flight” response, which is manifested by the increase in heart rate, dilation of bronchial airways and enhancement of the metabolic rate so more of the stored energy can be used.

The Cognitive Response

Despite evidence that psychological stress is an important risk factor for age-related cognitive loss, little research has directly evaluated psychological and physiological mediators of the relationship between stressful experiences and cognitive function. A key objective of the ESCAPE (Effects of Stress on Cognitive Aging, Physiology, and Emotion) project is to evaluate whether engaging in stress-related unconstructive repetitive thought (URT) is a pathway through which stressful experiences negatively affect cognitive health over the short- and long-term. Over the short-term, we hypothesize that engaging in URT will deplete attentional resources and result in worse cognitive performance in daily life. Over the long-term, we expect that the effects of chronic stress, from repeated exposure to stressors and regular engagement in URT, will be apparent in dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and inflammation. Over time, stress-related physiological dysregulation will result in accelerated cognitive decline.

Cognitive symptoms of stress include:

• Constant worrying
• Racing thoughts
• Forgetfulness and disorganization
• Inability to focus
• Poor judgment
• Being pessimistic or seeing only the negative side

The Behavioural Response

Behavioural responses to stress are evoked from underlying complex physiological changes that arise consequently from stress.

Real or perceived threat in the environment elicits stress response in animals, which disrupts internal homeostasis. Physiological changes cause behavioural responses in animals, including: impairment of response inhibition and lack of motivation, as well as changes in social, sexual, aggression and nurture behaviour in animals. The extent of the impact is dependent upon the type and duration of the stress, as well as the animal’s past experiences. Behavioural responses to prolonged stress can also be transferred across generations.

Behavioural responses

Behavioural responses to stress are evoked from some underlying complex physiological changes that arise consequently from stress.

Impairment of response inhibition and lack of motivation

According to a study conducted by Mika and his colleagues, prolonged stress in rats causes response inhibition. It was evident through their experiment that stressed rats had inhibited premature responses (decreased timing of intervals to food), along with decreased intrinsic motivation to initiate a response. They link the decreased motivation to the stress-associated reduction in incentive motivation, as presented by another study conducted by Kleen and his colleagues. Decreased motivation was also seen in a study conducted by Beery and Kaufer, where they explained that stressed rodents are less likely to be motivated to interact with one another.

Change in social behaviours

Beery and Kaufer noted that social withdrawal and general reduction in social interaction after an exposure to a stressor are evident in rodents. They argue that this is due to the underlying physiological changes that the rodent goes through in response to stress. For instance, the changes that occur to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) hormonal axis is directly related to the changes in social behaviour. Social avoidance is another consequence of stress that can be seen in rodents. Rodents are more likely to avoid dominant rats and avoid social interactions amongst each other after the exposure to a stressor.

Sexual behaviours

Sexual interests change in many species when exposed to stressors. For instance, stressed male and female rats express inhibited mating behaviour, which is evident through the clear increase in the inhibitory hormone RF-amide. Another study suggests that masculine sexual behaviour in male rats is subject to changes in accordance to the type of stressors that the rats were subjected to. The female zebra finch’s mating choice is determined by the stressors that they are exposed to early in life, which remain consistent throughout adulthood. A study about stress effects on female songbird’s response to sexual signal for mating indicated that the response to this specific signal can be impaired if the female is exposed to developmental stress. Behavioural changes as a result from developmental stress impairs neural responses to sexual signals, which reduces mating.

Aggressive behaviours and anti-predator responses

Stressed animals would choose to avoid a novel situation rather than confront it. Aggressive behaviour is associated with sex hormones, such as testosterone, and specific brain regions and systems, such as the medial preoptic nucleus, prefrontal cortex-dependent response inhibition, and anterior hypothalamus. Stress negatively impacts sex hormones, which results in an imbalance and reduction in aggression related hormones and function. Also, chronic stress results in prefrontal cortex-dependent response inhibition. This results in reduction in aggression, thus promoting anti-predator responses.

Prolonged stress reduces parental behaviour toward offspring

Prolonged stress alters parental behaviour toward offspring and promotes parental neglect. According to a study performed by Tilgar and associates, predation stress alters parents’ behaviours, such as the reduction in provisioning rates, which negatively impacts the offspring’s performance. The hormones oxytocin and vasopressin are generally responsible for affiliative and pair-bonding behaviours in many species. Stress alters the level of both hormones, resulting in an abnormal behaviour from parents towards offspring. For instance, levels of oxytocin decrease as a result of prolonged stress, which has been shown to reduce pair-bonding behaviour and increase withdrawal behaviour. Prolactin is another important hormone that is associated with nurture by parents to offspring, and levels of this hormone can be altered as a result of stress. Reduced levels of prolactin as a result of stress decreases behaviours such as suckling, licking, and brooding.

Stress is a common occurrence. While you can’t remove every single stressor from your life, it’s possible to manage stress and maintain your health. This is important because stress can cause mental fatigue, irritability, and insomnia.

But even if you know the physical effects of stress, you may be unaware of the different stages of stress, known as general adaptation syndrome (GAS). When you understand the different stages of stress and how the body responds in these stages, it’s easier to identify signs of chronic stress in yourself.

GAS is the three-stage process that describes the physiological changes the body goes through when under stress. Hans Selye, a medical doctor and researcher, came up with the theory of GAS. During an experiment with lab rats at McGill University in Montreal, he observed a series of physiological changes in the rats after they were exposed to stressful events.

With additional research, Selye concluded that these changes were not an isolated case, but rather the typical response to stress. Selye identified these stages as alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Understanding these different responses and how they relate to each other may help you cope with stress.

General adaptation syndrome stages

1. Alarm reaction stage

The alarm reaction stage refers to the initial symptoms the body experiences when under stress. You may be familiar with the “fight-or-flight” response, which is a physiological response to stress. This natural reaction prepares you to either flee or protect yourself in dangerous situations. Your heart rate increases, your adrenal gland releases cortisol (a stress hormone), and you receive a boost of adrenaline, which increases energy. This fight-or-flight response occurs in the alarm reaction stage.

2. Resistance stage

After the initial shock of a stressful event and having a fight-or-flight response, the body begins to repair itself. It releases a lower amount of cortisol, and your heart rate and blood pressure begin to normalize. Although your body enters this recovery phase, it remains on high alert for a while. If you overcome stress and the situation is no longer an issue, your body continues to repair itself until your hormone levels, heart rate, and blood pressure reach a pre-stress state.

Some stressful situations continue for extended periods of time. If you don’t resolve the stress and your body remains on high alert, it eventually adapts and learns how to live with a higher stress level. In this stage, the body goes through changes that you’re unaware of in an attempt to cope with stress.

Your body continues to secrete the stress hormone and your blood pressure remains elevated. You may think you’re managing stress well, but your body’s physical response tells a different story. If the resistance stage continues for too long of a period without pauses to offset the effects of stress, this can lead to the exhaustion stage.

Signs of the resistance stage include:

• Irritability
• Frustration
• Poor concentration

3. Exhaustion stage

This stage is the result of prolonged or chronic stress. Struggling with stress for long periods can drain your physical, emotional, and mental resources to the point where your body no longer has strength to fight stress. You may give up or feel your situation is hopeless. Signs of exhaustion include:

• Fatigue
• Burnout
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Decreased stress tolerance

The physical effects of this stage also weaken your immune system and put you at risk for stress-related illnesses.

GAS can occur with any type of stress. Stressful events can include:

• A job loss
• Medical problems
• Financial troubles
• Family breakdown
• Trauma

But while stress is unpleasant, the upside is that GAS improves how your body responds to stressors, particularly in the alarm stage.

The fight-or-flight response that occurs in the alarm stage is for your protection. A higher hormone level during this stage benefits you. It gives you more energy and improves your concentration so you can focus and tackle the situation. When stress is short-term or short-lived, the alarm stage isn’t harmful.

Yoga is a system of mental and spiritual development with a scope of mental transformation. In India, the concept and practice of Yoga originated several millennia ago. Its founders were great saints and Sages, the great yogis gave rational interpretation to their experiences of Yoga and brought about a scientific and practical method within everyone‘s reach. Today is modern time, Yoga no longer is restricted to hermits of saints; it has taken its place in everyday life and has aroused the world wide awakening and acceptance in the last decade.

The science of Yoga and its techniques have now been re-oriented to suit physiological needs and lifestyles. Experts of various branches of medicine including modern science are realizing the role of these techniques in the prevention and management of lifestyle disorders.

The literal meaning of the Sanskrit word “Yoga is to Yoke”. Accordingly, Yoga can be defined as a means of uniting the individual spirit with the universal spirit. This is the primary objective of Yoga i.e. spiritual advancement.

All the diseases arise at mental level and then get manifested physically. Therefore

way to win over diseases is to destroy unnatural lifestyle. In fact, people have some

bad habits which do not let them stay healthy. Some of these habits are-

1. Food related habits
2. Laziness
3. Least use of fine elements
4. Affection with unnatural things
5. Unregulated use up
6. Futile treatment
7. Bad thoughts.

Yoga philosophy is one of the six systems of Indian philosophy. It is the philosophy, science and art of holistic living where the ignoble in man is transformed into the noble. Unlike so many other philosophies of the world, it is a philosophy which completely practical. It is an exact science based on certain immutable Laws of Nature.

Yoga is a process of rejoicing. It is not a suffering. It is a movement through happiness. From one state of joy, we move to another state of joy. It is not that Yoga starts with sorrow, or that it is a kind of prison-house into which we are thrown. We have sometimes a feeling that Yoga is a torture, a suffering, to the normal life of man. Sadhana means a fear, and indicates an unnatural seriousness.

Body needs a certain amount of exercise for its proper function. Lack of, exercise or wrong physical activity can aggravate or cause psychological problems. Asana is the third limb of Astanga Yoga. It consists of the performance of physical postures that release physical stress and tension. The correct postures increase the vital force, which gets blocked by wrong posture, and calms the mind, which is stressed by wrong posture. It refers to sitting postures for meditation, which are the main Asanas mentioned in yogic texts. For any real self-examination, we must be able to sit still and comfortable with an erect spine. This scientifically seen that it allows the ascending flow of energy through which the mind can empty itself out and open up the deeper layers of consciousness. Its regular practicing can aid in releasing psychological tension through releasing the physical and Pranic blocks sustaining it.

Yogic management for stress

Asanas/postures can help to relive stress, tension and anxiety. By expelling the excess negative emotions and adrenaline through physical activity, one can enter a more relaxed, calm state of being. It is one of the most important coping medium to combat anxiety and stress. It acts as a buffer against stress and may thus help protect the cardiovascular and immune systems from the consequences of stressful events. The yogic practices are:

Kriyas: Jalneti, Sutraneti, Kapalbhati, Suryanamaskar

Brisk exercise: Nadisanchlana, Butterfly asana, Pagchalana, Nabichalan.

Yogicasanas: Tadaasana, Katichakarasana, Pavanmuktasana, Sarvangasana, Matsyasana, Gomukhasana, Vakrasana, Ardhamatsyendrasana, Ushtrasana, Shashankasana, Paschimottanasana, Makrasana, Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana,  Shalbhasana, Shavasana.

Pranayama: Nadishodan, Ujjayi, Shitali, Shitkari, Bhastrika, Bhramari.

Meditation: Breath awareness, Om chanting, Om meditation.

Yoga Nidra, with this regular practice is believed to act on the subconscious level to bring about a state of homoestasis in the body and mind.

Behaviour change for reducing stress

• Keep a positive attitude. One should adopt middle path in all dealings. Avoid extremes.
• Accept that there are events that you can control.
• Be assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.
• Learn and practice relaxation techniques; try meditation & Yoga.
• Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit.
• Eat healthy, well-balanced meals. Always take food after digestion of previous meal, according to suitability & in limited quantity.
• Learn to manage your time & speak more effectively according to the occasion with good, true & pleasing words.
• Set limits appropriately and say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life.
• Make time for hobbies and interests.
• Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.
• Don’t rely on alcohol, drugs, or food to reduce stress. Ease up on caffeine, too.
• Seek out social support. Spend enough time with those you love.

New methods for stress assessment were developed in the last years as a result of an unprecedented evolution in consumer electronics and miniaturization. Others were made possible from a better understanding of stress and its effects on the Human being at several levels: physiological, behavioral or physical. The diversity of alternatives, asshown in this section, allows for solutions to be used in specific scenarios with increased accuracy and commodity (e.g. driving vehicles, working at the computer). In this section we analyze in detail the characteristics of each of these new methods and in Section 6 we provide a critical analysis and a comparison between them.

Wearables

One of the latest trends in stress management is being fostered by wearable devices. Indeed, in the last years there was a major development in consumer electronics, with devices being used for acquiring physiological signs.

Smartphones

The evolution witnessed in the field of smartphones in the last years also led to the emergence of a new paradigm: wellness mobiles. Technological developments make it possible for health-care professionals to have access to comprehensive real-time patient data. Likewise, users can also continuously track their health on the go, build a comprehensive history and receive real-time advice or warning.

Indeed, mobile phones have a growing number and variety of sensors that can nowadays be leveraged to produce, in the near future, what can be called as personal wellness dashboards: devices with the ability to measure our heart rate or body temperature and quickly analyze our state of health. This may make personal health care cost-effective, decreasing the use of emergency care.

Some mobile apps take advantage, to some extent, of the sensors currently present in smartphones.

Although, in many cases, some of these apps lack proven scientific validity, their low cost and their availability makes them easily reach a significant number of users.

The majority of existing apps use the smartphones’ builtin sensors. Azumio’s Stress Check uses the camera and light features of the smartphone to measure heart rate. A similar approach is followed by other apps (e.g. StressViewer). There is also a significant number of apps dedicated not to measuring stress but to decreasing or coping with it, namely through breathing exercises, with visual or sound aids. Stress Releaser is one such app. Another example is DeStressify, that is based on music and specific exercises. There are also apps that use specific hardware, such as PIP Relax and Race, which is based on an electrodermal activity sensor. In this specific app, the user takes part in a race where victory is achieved only by out-relaxing the opponents. A generally competitive activity is thus changed into a relaxing one, with real-time biofeedback. Similar apps exist for this specific hardware. DroidJacket requires the use of VitalJacket – a shirt that embeds an electrocardiogram sensor, allowing a continuous monitoring of the patient.

The work described in also uses a specific sensor platform (Personal Biomonitoring System), in parallel with the smartphone, to monitor the level of stress of the smartphone user.

Other smartphone-based approaches are based on the changes in the speech production process, that happen during stress. To this end, these applications use the microphones embedded in the mobile phones. StressSense is one of such applications, based on a classifier that can robustly identify stress across multiple individuals in diverse acoustic environments. There are also authors who look at the behavior of smartphone users for stress indicators. Although not in a conclusive manner, in the authors find significant differences in location traces, visible bluethooth devices and phone call patterns when comparing stressful with stress free periods.

Computer Vision

Many different image sources can be used to monitor stress, the most frequently used being the Human face. Although cultural differences can intensify facial expression of emotions, there is considerable scientific evidence that emotions are communicated in distinct facial displays across cultures, age and gender. These approaches can be classified as two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Their main difference is that the first tries to recognize features directly from a two-dimensional decomposition/transformation of the image, and is generally not sensible to rotations and translations of the face.

The authors apply optical computer recognition algorithms to detect facial changes due to low and highstressor performance demands, with the aim to develop an approach suitable to be used by astronauts. This approach takes as input images from the whole face. On a similar approach but on a different field of application, Gao et al. present a system for detecting stress from facial expressions

in car drivers, on the other hand, consider only pupil diameter (together with physiological signals), to assess stress. To this end, they make use of a specific camera-based eye-tracking system. Speech and Other Linguistic Features

This section describes approaches for stress assessment based on vocal cues such as speed, rhythm or intonation. Interestingly, the variability introduced by stress or emotion can severely reduce speech recognition accuracy. Thus, the importance of techniques for detecting or assessing the presence of stress to improve the robustness of speech recognition systems.

The present a hierarchical framework, which consists of three layers of classifiers, for automatic stress detection in English speech utterances: a linguistic classifier, an acoustic classifier and an AdaBoost classifier. The paper presents accuracy rates higher than 90%. In a related approach, Imoto et al. address sentence-level stress detection of English for Computer-Assisted Language Learning by Japanese students. Stress models are set up by considering syllable structure and position of the syllable in a phrase, providing diagnostic information for students.

Eustress means beneficial stress either psychological, physical (e.g. exercise), or biochemical/radiological (hormesis).

The term was coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye, consisting of the Greek prefix eu- meaning “good”, and stress, literally meaning “good stress”.

It is the positive cognitive response to stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfilment or other positive feelings. Selye created the term as a subgroup of stress to differentiate the wide variety of stressors and manifestations of stress.

Eustress is not defined by the stressor type, but rather how one perceives that stressor (e.g. a negative threat versus a positive challenge). Eustress refers to a positive response one has to a stressor, which can depend on one’s current feelings of control, desirability, location, and timing of the stressor. Potential indicators of eustress may include responding to a stressor with a sense of meaning, hope, or vigor. Eustress has also been positively correlated with life satisfaction and well-being.

Eustress occurs when the gap between what one has and what one wants is slightly pushed, but not overwhelmed. The goal is not too far out of reach but is still slightly more than one can handle. This fosters challenge and motivation since the goal is in sight. The function of challenge is to motivate a person toward improvement and a goal. Challenge is an opportunity-related emotion that allows people to achieve unmet goals. Eustress is indicated by hope and active engagement. Eustress has a significantly positive correlation with life satisfaction and hope. It is typically assumed that experiencing chronic stress, either in the form of distress or eustress, is negative. However, eustress can instead fuel physiological thriving by positively influencing the underlying biological processes implicated in physical recovery and immunity.

Measurement

Occupational eustress may be measured on subjective levels such as of quality of life or work life, job pressure, psychological coping resources, complaints, overall stress level, and mental health. Other subjective methodological practices have included interviews with focus groups asking about stressors and stress level. In one study participants were asked to remember a past stressful event and then answer questionnaires on coping skills, job well-being, and appraisal of the situation (viewing the stressful event as a challenge or a threat).

Common subjective methodologies were incorporated in a holistic stress model created in 2007 to acknowledge the importance of eustress, particularly in the workplace. This model uses hope, positive affect, meaningfulness, and manageability as a measure of eustress, and negative psychological states, negative affect, anxiety, and anger as a measure of distress.

Objective measures have also been used and include blood pressure rate, muscle tension, and absenteeism rates. Further physiological research has looked for neuroendocrine changes as a result of eustress and distress. Research has shown that catecholamines change rapidly to pleasurable stimuli. Studies have demonstrated that eustress and distress produce different responses in the neuroendocrine system, particularly dependent on the amount of personal control one feels over a stressor.

Factors

There are several factors that may increase or decrease one’s chances of experiencing eustress and, through eustress, experiencing flow.

• Stress is also influenced by hereditary predispositions and expectations of society. Thus, a person could already be at a certain advantage or disadvantage toward experiencing eustress.
• If a person enjoys experiencing new things and believes they have importance in the world, they are more likely to experience flow.
• Flow is negatively related to self-directedness, or an extreme sense of autonomy.
• Persistence is positively related to flow and closely related to intrinsic motivation.
• People with an internal locus of control, have an increased chance of flow because they believe they can increase their skill level to match the challenge.
• Perfectionism, however, is negatively related to flow. A person downplays their skill levels therefore making the gap too big, and they perceive the challenge to be too large to experience flow. On the opposite end of perfectionism, however, there are increased chances of flow.
• Active procrastination is positively related to flow. By actively delaying work, the person increases the challenge. Then once the challenge is matched with the person’s high skill levels, the person can experience flow. Those who passively procrastinate or do not procrastinate do not have these same experiences. It is only with the purposeful procrastination that a person is able to increase the challenge.
• Mindset is a significant factor in determining distress versus eustress. Optimistic people and those with high self-esteem contribute to eustress experiences. The positive mindset increases the chances of eustress and a positive response to stressors. Currently, the predominant mindset toward stress is that stress is debilitating. However, mindsets toward stress can be changed.

Examples

Eustress is common in the examples below. However, the examples depend on how an individual perceives the stress. The examples below are most often perceived as eustress:

• Meeting or engaging in a challenge
• Desired physical exercise (e. g. weight training, running, biking)
• Intentional exposure to cold water
• Playing sports
• Watching a suspenseful or scary movie
• Riding a roller coaster
• Competing in a tournament
• Gambling
• Wim Hof breathing
• People (e. g. Coaches, Parents)

Factors affecting eustress

In daily life, we often use the term “stress” to describe negative situations. This leads many people to believe that all stress is bad for you, which is not true. Eustress, or positive stress, has the following characteristics:

• Motivates, focuses energy
• Is short-term
• Is perceived as within our coping abilities
• Feels exciting
• Improves performance

In contrast, Distress, or negative stress, has the following characteristics:

• Causes anxiety or concern
• Can be short- or long-term
• Is perceived as outside of our coping abilities
• Feels unpleasant
• Decreases performance
• Can lead to mental and physical problems

As a manager you want your team to do their best. And that naturally means making sure they have all the tools they need. Unfortunately, that new calendar app, communication tool, or project management software might be causing more harm than good.

As the name implies, technostress is the stress and negative psychological impact of introducing new technologies at work.

The term was first used by Craig Brod in his book of the same name back in 1984. Yet while Brod was talking about the widespread adoption of computers in the workplace, our dependence on (and frustration with) technology has only grown since.

1: Perpetual Distraction

The persistent beeping, vibrating and flashing of notifications mean that we are constantly distracted and driven to interrupt what we are doing to check our phones.  Indeed, a UK study found that smartphone users unlock their phones on average 85 times a day; and use it for about five hours each day.  This means we are unable to focus our attention and consolidate things properly into our memory, causing us to feel more and more ‘goldfish-like’, which can be quite distressing in itself.  This is backed up by research which is beginning to show correlations between high smartphone and internet use, and poor cognitive skills such as attention, memory and learning.

2: Sleep Dysregulation

Many of us use our phone at bedtime.  You get into bed intending to go to sleep, but you just want to check your phone (just for ‘a second’) to find out something innocuous like tomorrow’s weather… and then an hour later, there you are watching a totally random video, trying to decide whether you hear a computerised voice saying the word ‘yanny’ or ‘laurel’.  Looking at our phones when we should be going to sleep has the double whammy effect of over-stimulating our brains, making it hard to wind down and switch off, and exposing us to blue light from the screen. Research suggests that blue screen exposure can reduce melatonin production, which interrupts our circadian rhythm (i.e. sleep-waking cycles), making it harder for us to fall, and stay, asleep. Unfortunately, poor sleep tends to mean poorer resilience and higher levels of anxiety and stress.

3: Work/Life Balance

While in the past there was often a clear boundary between where work life ended, and home life began. His area is now very much grey.  Most of us have our work emails on our phones, making us constantly available and contactable.  This makes it very difficult for us to ever truly disengage from work and relax.

4: F.O.M.O

Or Fear Of Missing Out is essentially a type of social anxiety that arises from the fear that you are missing out on something; whether it’s an event, a work or social opportunity, a communication, or a potential connection, or just something cool and ethereal that you might like to see or be part of.  So we want to be connected. ‘just in case’.  To test this, just ask your friends and family if they’ve ever considered coming off social media. Like us, they probably have… but the majority probably decide not to, because of FOMO.  Ironically, the more connected we are, the more likely we may be to experience FOMO, because it is often caused by the posts we see on social media sites like Facebook leading us to believe our friends and acquaintances are having exciting and/or interesting experiences in our absence.  To find out more about research exploring the relationship between problematic smartphone use, FOMO and mental wellbeing.

5: Social Comparison

We can’t help but compare ourselves to others, and social comparison theory suggests that we use these types of comparisons to evaluate how we think and feel about ourselves.  Social Media, by its nature, actively encourages social comparison, as it is littered with information that can easily be used as metrics of apparent social success (e.g. friends, likes, shares, followers and so forth). These metrics are problematic in themselves, because if we don’t get enough likes to a comment or picture we have posted, or if someone has more likes or friends than us, it can make us feel inferior.  Furthermore, the disparity between real life and what people actually post on social media means that we tend to only see an extremely edited ‘highlight reel’ of other people’s lives. This effectively gives the false impression that others lead a more exciting/perfect/interesting life than our own, which, in reality has its fair share of ups, middles and downs for everyone. increasing the likelihood of negative social comparisons being made, which can have serious consequences on our wellbeing.

Causes of technostress

Technostress isn’t just about specific tools or apps. To understand its true impact, we can group the stressors that cause technostress into five categories:

1. Invasion: “Technology is taking over my life!”

Hands up if you’ve ever taken work home with you. Thanks to smartphones and high-speed internet, jobs are rarely restricted to just the workplace. With technology invading our work and home, it shouldn’t be surprising that we’re getting more stressed.

2. Overload: “I can’t keep up with all these tasks!”

Even when work somehow stays at work, we’re often overloaded by interruptions. With the average office worker receiving 121 emails every day (and who knows how many IM notifications), people often feel under fire and overworked.

3. Complexity: “This technology is too complicated!”

Many workers inexperienced with technology find new tools unnecessarily complex and intimidating. Every app comes with new “helpful” features and its own unique jargon that you need to learn. Even Gmail has so many different options and settings you probably won’t know about them all without a guide.

4. Insecurity: “If I can’t work out how to use this technology, I’ll get fired!”

Unfortunately, most workers are expected to learn the tool by themselves as they go along, without any additional training (or even time) provided.

Worse still, many feel that if they can’t keep up-to-date with the latest technology they’ll be replaced by someone who can. This results in performance anxiety and a very real sense of insecurity, putting even greater pressure on workers.

5. Uncertainty: “Wait, is this how this technology is supposed to work?”

Finally, as technology keeps advancing, many feel a sense of instability and uncertainty about what their work (and life) will look like tomorrow. Even we writers aren’t immune, as headlines of AIs taking our jobs become increasingly common.

Looking at the five categories of stress, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that highly innovative companies that are constantly pushing the boundaries had the highest levels of technostress.

Interestingly, though, those who only use technology occasionally are more likely to suffer from technostress, as people who regularly use technology seem to develop the necessary coping skills.

Along with burnout, technostress can cause a wide range of other symptoms, such as:

• Headaches, sore neck, back, and shoulder muscles, an inability to relax, and hypertension are just a few of the common physical symptoms of technostress.
• Workers feeling overwhelmed by technology have increased errors, worse productivity, more difficulty concentrating, and low morale, and they can become depressed, mentally exhausted, and cynical toward technology.
• Technostress can cause panic/anxiety attacks, feelings of isolation, and irritability. It can also lead to less time for sustained thinking, work/life imbalance, reduced job satisfaction, and increased mental and time pressure.

Pair these with all the other things that can contribute to workplace stress and that new technology you brought in could be doing more harm than good.

Even worse, your team might not even be using the thing. Studies found technostress can lead to workers ignoring or avoiding tech-related procedures. So rather than saving time and money, that new tech could be costing you without any actual benefits.

Audit in medical practice is now an accepted part of established procedure and is a tool which can be applied to all aspects of practice.

Audit can be performed in two main ways:

• External: An outside auditor examines how work is being carried out and
• Internal: Those who actually are employed in the workplace carry out the assessment.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these and the tool which is used depends on several factors including the purpose of the audit, the competence of those carrying it out and available finance.

A stress audit may be carried out by someone who is medically trained or by someone with a different background. Management consultants are increasingly involved in stress because of the close links between management style and stress problems. Other specialists and non-specialists may also offer audits and treatment services.

Stress Audit

Stress might affect job performance either because working conditions are stressful or because of personal stress factors outside work. A stress audit should be designed to differentiate between these. There are several reasons why a company may decide to tackle stress. Many organizations take action without having first established whether or not stress is a problem or indeed whether or not work-related stress occurs. An analogy might be made with prescribing medication without having made a diagnosis. A wise employer should endeavour to find out whether or not stress is a problem in their working environment, identify whether or not such stress is primarily due to working conditions and quantify the extent of the problem before deciding on any measures to combat the effects of stress. This means carrying out a stress audit

There are several levels at which a stress audit may be conducted:

• Evaluation of organizational dysfunction;
• Identification of work stressors such as work overload, job insecurity, poor channels of communication, ineffective management, constant change and frustration;
• Measurement of stress-related illness in employees and
• An evaluation of indicators such as absence or staff turnover

Significant stress is often associated with organizational dysfunction and a stress audit should concentrate on management style and gain an overall picture of the health of the organization and the way in which it is run in order to be effective.

Even when they recognize that there is a problem, some employers are reluctant to agree to an audit because they fear that this may expose their deficiencies. The situation is particularly delicate when senior executives are aware that management style is likely to be a major factor in stress causation.

Methodology for carrying out a stress audit

The first task is to decide on a clear objective for the audit This might be to ascertain whether or not stress presents a problem, the extent of stress-related illness in the organization or identification of the causes of stress in a particular work environment.

Most audits are carried out using a questionnaire distributed to a study population. There are those which have already been validated (such as the Occupational.

Stress Inventory and the Occupational Stress Indicator) and it is sensible to use one of these. Otherwise, it will be necessary to carry out a pilot exercise to validate the questionnaire. The study population may be the entire workforce or may concentrate on a specific department or problem area.

Alternatively, one-to-one interviews may be carried out with a sample population. These will give a more in-depth view of staff feelings regarding stress but, realistically, only a small number of staff can be interviewed in this manner because the process is time consuming.

Evaluation and feedback

Computer-based scoring systems are increasingly used. These allow ease of collating results and have the particular advantage that, depending on the programme which is used, comparisons of different departments and other key issues can be accessed.

A report should include recommendations which give the employer action points and goals to achieve within a certain time-frame and which lead to the development of a stress policy if the employer does not have one already.

Feedback to the employer is vital. This may be the hardest part of the exercise if issues need to be raised which are not likely to find favour. However, the auditor must give an honest appraisal of the findings and encourage a positive viewpoint. The consequences of not being honest are that the auditor may be held responsible if the employer is subsequently found negligent for not tackling stress and can show that he was not aware of the audit findings. Ideally, there should be the opportunity to repeat the audit after a period of time (for example, one year) in order to evaluate what measures have been put into place and their effectiveness.

Stress could manifest as a result of increased pressure from work. It could also stem from bullying, harassment or discrimination.

No matter the cause, if left unaddressed stress may become overwhelming. This can lead to other physical, mental and emotional problems.

There are various ways to manage and support employees experiencing stress or other related symptoms at work. This post focuses on counselling for work-related stress.

While stress is a normal part of life and in some cases even manageable without the need for professional assistance, this may not always be the case.

Stress and anger management counselling is the process of talking to a professional psychotherapist about issues an employee may be experiencing.

Within the workplace, an employee assistance programme (EAP) can provide this support for employees. It allows them access to an independent and confidential helpline for them to discuss their issues with trained counsellors.

Counselling for stress at work aims to identify the causes of an employee’s work-related stress. When conducted in a private and judgment-free environment, it can help the employee to understand the cause of the stress, and find steps to manage and reduce it.

It’s common for people to experience stress at work. But it can affect everything from your mood to the way you treat friends, family or colleagues.

Extended periods of stress can be a risk factor for other underlying issues, such as depression or anxiety. This is when it might be helpful to consider counselling for stress.

As well as helping with identifying the causes of stress, counselling can also help to understand the role that your thoughts play in increasing your stress level.

The process also provides employees with a sounding board to talk about issues that they’re experiencing. It allows counsellors to work with them to develop better ways to manage these issues.

Talking to an experienced professional can provide you with a specific programme based on your particular situation and needs.

The benefits of stress management counselling

Talking is a tried and tested method of overcoming stress, anxiety or depression. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) offers employees an outlet for any negative thoughts or feelings, which can reduce stress as well as maintain their mental health.

Other benefits include:

• Better self-understanding: With the help of a therapist, employees are able to better understand themselves and find solutions to their problems. This leads to an increase in self-confidence.
• More engaged workplace: While talking to a therapist may not fully eliminate stress, it’s proven to drastically reduce it. Employees may find it easier to cope with, they’re also likely to be happier and more engaged with their colleagues.
• Reduced absences and turnover: When staff are less stressed, they’re unlikely to take extended time off work for mental health reasons. And because they’re aware you care about their wellbeing, they’re also less likely to leave your company for a competitor.