What if! General Thoughts About Stress! Part 1
WHAT IF
What if my car won’t start?
What if I’m late for my 10:00 a.m. appointment?
What if I’m early?
What if I spill my coffee?
What if I run out of gas?
What if the road’s slippery?
What if I get lost?
What if I lose my keys?
What if I lose my mind?
What if I snap at my spouse or husband over something that’s not important?
What if I feel everyone’s out to get you?
What if I can’t wait for your next drink?
What if I overreacted to people around you when things go wrong?
What if I blame yourself for things you have no control over?
What if I feel like running away from it all?
What if criticism easily upsets me?
What if I can’t explain what you feel or want?
What if I feel like I am on the edge of a “nervous breakdown?”
What is I can’t concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time!
General Thoughts about Stress:
In this day of high employment and the rising cost of living, everyone feels a certain anxiety concerning job insecurity. Serious difficulties arise when those feelings produce excessive stress. When stress affects the way you feel about yourself, job productivity or life outside of work – it’s time to get help.
Stress relating to job insecurity can result in marital difficulties, financial worries, mental, and physical illness.
Do you experience any of the following?
• Anxiety – you feel nervous while preparing to go to work. At work, you’re anxious to get through the day, still employed.
• Fatigue – you work beyond your energy level hoping to appear indispensable. Actually, the opposite occurs, you become ill and unable to work.
• Avoidance – you stay out of your supervisor’s way hoping that “out of sight” is really “out of mind.”
• Poor Health – you work even when you’re ill because you don’t want to look like a liability by calling in sick.
• Low Self-Esteem – you begin viewing yourself as insignificant and unimportant. Unfortunately, when you see yourself that way, others begin to do the same.
What is Stress?
This invisible enemy is simply a set of physical reactions to a psychological event! The physical reactions to stress include an increase in blood pressure, blood sugar level, heart rate, and adrenaline. Of course, in times of true external danger (e.g., being attacked by a mugger), this reaction could save your life.
Unfortunately, people are stressed by relatively minor, everyday events, such as being caught in traffic or having an argument with a co-worker or spouse. When stress affects someone day after day without relief, it can damage both the body and mind. It can cause a decrease in productivity and an increase in mistakes and accidents. In the long run, stress can cause depression, ulcers and even heart attacks.
Part !! next week!