(continued from May issue)

4.1 Concept of Stress

STRESS-INDUCED PROBLEMS AND their MANAGEMENT

Today there are so many aids that the man does not need to work hard physically for his living. He cannot find time for sports etc. to keep himself fit as he has many other more demanding problems to solve at the mental level in his mad rush to adapt to the fast world. Thus, he neither has time for resting or relaxing to set right the autonomic stimulations nor has he time for exercises to maintain his balance.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARNINGS

• Working late or more obsessively than usual, or harder than seems appropriate to the situation. Sleeping at the office frequently is an important sign.

• Difficulty in making decisions, simple or important that a person would normally make easily.

• Making the safe choices, not the best ones.

• Excessive day-dreaming or fantasising; always wishing he or she were elsewhere.

• Sexual or romantic indiscretions.

• Sudden increase in drinking or smoking habits.

• Use of antidepressants, tranquilizers or mind-alerting drugs.

• Vague, disconnected speech or writing.

• Excessive worrying, especially over relative trivia (or ex-treme casualness and unconcern in the face of real problems).

• Constant repetition of the same subject at meetings, especially if the point is not particularly important.

• Inappropriate anger, hostility or outbursts of temper.

• Excessive or irrational mistrust of associates.

• Constant harping on personal failures or shortcomings.

• Constant reference to death or suicide.

• Hypochondria.

• Insomnia (either difficulty in falling asleep or frequent awakenings).

• Missing appointments or dead lines.

• Confusing or forgetting dates, places, times or other details.

• Sudden propensity to commit mistakes.

• Feeling worthless, inadequate, neglected, insecure (these are often hard to recognise, but might be evident between the lines).

• Prolonged period of brooding.

• Difficulty in working along with other people.

SUDDEN REVERSALS OF USUAL BEHAVIOUR

• An efficient worker becoming careless.

• A casual worker becoming obsessively compulsive.

• Lavish spending by a normally frugal person.

• Excessive frugality in a normally generous person.

• Aloofness in a normally friendly person.

• Extreme gregariousness in a normally shy person.

• Tendency to work alone by a ‘team player’.

• Sudden need to be always with others by an ‘independent type’.

• Cheating, dishonesty, or breaches of ethics by a normally upright person.

• Shirking responsibilities usually accepted happily.

(to be continued in the next issue)