Working in private or public institutions, people devote about 8 hours to the labor process, and sometimes even more. Spending much time at the workplace, a person begins perceiving work as an integral part of their life with all its problems and difficulties.

At any work, no matter how good it is, certain difficulties may arise. When employees face them, they experience various psychological problems, which can conditionally be combined into two categories. The first includes the difficulties associated with human relationships, and the second relates directly to work and personal professionalism.

If a person is in a nervous state for a long time, then the brain, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles can suffer. It leads not only to physical health problems but also to substance abuse addictions. Nowadays, women or men only facilities for addiction treatment provide huge psychological support and also help with the causes of addictions. However, it is always better to find out how to prevent stress overload and live in a more present way.

Stress stages

There are three stages of stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion, which are affected not only by individuals but also by entire companies. In the theory of management, there is a biological approach to an organization’s development that is compared with a living organism that goes through the stages of childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age (sometimes the number of stages is increased). 

In some cases, psychologists try to diagnose the stress degree of the entire company. If the company’s employees have been worried about their future in a company for a long time, if people are dissatisfied with their salaries, working conditions, it is the first stage of organizational stress. The third stage occurs when CEOs ignore many employees’ discontent, and they feel tired and irritated at work for a long time. When employers make no conclusions, the third stage of stress sets in and leads to a serious crisis. Irritation becomes universal, conflicts intensify, people begin to get sick more often.

Employees of such large companies become increasingly susceptible to stress, strain, chronic fatigue syndrome. And, finally, they leave the company.

Stress impact on the human body

The negative impact of stress affects all aspects of human life: emotions, behavior, mental abilities, and physical health. People deal with stress differently, that is why its symptoms and severity may vary. However, signs of stress in different people have much in common.

Prolonged stress can easily aggravate many health problems or cause the development of new ones, including:

Hypertension, arrhythmia, heart attacks. People with existing diseases are in a high-risk group since stress significantly worsens their course.

Acquired immunodeficiency. Increased activity of stress hormones, which are secreted by the adrenal cortex, inhibits the functioning of the immune system cells.

Metabolic syndrome. Because of prolonged hormonal imbalance, it would be impossible to control weight, even with the help of diets.

Depression, neurosis, cognitive and behavioral disorders. Hormones of activity suppress stem cells in the hippocampus, there is a violation of the connections between neurons, as well as the formation of new nerve cells and the functioning of nerve chains;

Alcohol and drug addiction. Many studies have shown that there is a connection between the state of constant stress and female or male addiction. It is quite a common case when people start drinking alcohol or even taking drugs to get rid of bad emotions. Unfortunately, many of them can not cope on their own and have to look for help in alcohol rehab for men and women.

How CEOs should help their employees avoid stress

The correct anti-stress strategy of the company begins with a clarification of its Mission. If stress deeply penetrated the company, it means that the feeling of the Mission has been lost, and the employees do not understand what their way in a company is. 

Leaders should ask themselves, and then the team – which goals do they want to achieve together? If the understanding is violated, management should find a way to explain to employees why they gathered, and remind them that they are one team. 

To prevent and minimize the stress of employees, the company management must know the company’s real situation – the degree of workload and the employees’ attitude. It is important to conduct surveys and tests on a regular basis to know the situation and prevent organizational stress. Moreover, this procedure has psychotherapeutic significance. Constant monitoring allows you to timely implement the necessary changes.

A very important element of a company’s anti-stress strategy is job placement testing. It lets you filter people who are stress-intolerant and prevent a large number of such workers from being gathered in one team.

Stress benefits

Hans Selye identified stress with a taste for life. Indeed, the stress in the initial stages carries the intrigue, excitement, risk. If you use the energy of anxiety properly, send it for peaceful purposes, then the boring routine of business life will spark new colors. To do this, you need to learn how to correctly go through all three stages of stress. 

It is necessary to prepare for the alarm in advance, developing a more calm, unperturbed attitude towards those life changes we will not be able to influence. It is useful to learn how to distinguish between a real danger from imaginary threats posed by our consciousness.

To meet stress in a proper way, you need to transfer the second stage of stress, resistance, at the beginning of the cycle, putting it in front of the alarm. One of the best methods of avoiding stress is consciously maintaining yourself in a cheerful, active, efficient state. If fatigue comes, it is useful to observe it from the side, as something that does not belong to us, alien and external.

As for the phase of exhaustion, although it is inevitable, it can be delayed in time and weakened by the strength of its effect. To do this, you need to learn to deeply relax, reduce workloads, and switch different activities.

Treatment with no medications

Normalization of lifestyle is the most important step in the fight against any disease. Here are some easy tips to get out of stress:

Get enough sleep. Studies have shown a close relationship between chronic stress and lack of sleep. You need to teach yourself to go to bed at the same time every evening, trying to sleep at least seven to eight hours. Before going to bed, it is better to refrain from watching TV, using smartphones, and other sources of blue light, which inhibits the production of melatonin – “sleep hormone.”

Add physical activity into your life. It is not necessary to immediately run to the gym. You can start with a daily walk. Workouts stimulate the production of endorphins, which brings us into a good mood. 

Look for psychotherapeutic help. A specialist is able to better understand the problem and teach how to control emotions, and adapt.

Try yoga and meditation. Proper performance of asanas and breathing techniques helps relax muscles and relieve tension. 

Set priorities. Limit your to-do list, understand what is really needed and what you can refuse. This will not only reduce the negative effects of stress but also increase productivity.