Stress

There are many aspects that factor into the amount of work teenagers put into their lives. Some are positive, some are negative. Some statistics truly show the effects of the teenage workload. The often asked debatable question is ¨Is the teenage workload adding up?¨ well is it? Many sources are saying it might be. Today, high school students are said to be some of the busiest people. Some people may ask ¨why?¨.

A normal day for some high-schoolers includes school, extracurricular activity, work, homework, and then bed. For others, it may be a mix of one or two of those but not all. A study that was as done by APA stress in America in 2014 stated that what they saw in teen’s stress levels was very unhealthy.

What they learned was that during the school and summer months, teens reported higher stress levels than adults. Most students said that on average per night they had about 1.2 hours of homework. From a study that a Standford researcher did, it showed that from all of the homework that teenagers have, two hours of it every single night is worthless. That means if the average time spent on homework is 15 hours a week, half of that is not retained in the average student’s brain.

Many people think that just because teens have school, sports and work doesn’t mean it’s hard, just time-consuming. When students have no time for themselves or no time to do what they like to do, that’s when the stress levels start to rise. Although many adults work a 40 – hour week, most of them do not come home with a load of homework each night. Many of them go to work eight hours a day and come home and either care for their kids (if one chooses to have kids) or do whatever they may want.

To add to this, APA’s stress in America stated that many teen students started to feel depressed or anxious when their stress levels started increasing due to school, work, etc. Stress varies in everyone. Often times when people get stressed and have too much on their mind they can’t think and that can lead to loss of appetite. Not being able to eat is very unhealthy and just to think that all of these stresses are leading to this. School, work, and sports aren’t the only things that make people stressed out. Other stressors might include the amount of sleep one gets per night, the amount of exercise, and home life for some. A study stated that when people 18 and over did not maintain on average 8 hours per night, they appeared more stressed when they awoke. T

he study also stated that 18 percent of teens do no get even close to the amount of sleep per night that they say “is healthy”. Even when people accounted for enough sleep, some say that the amount of stress is the thing making them tired, not the amount of sleep they get per night. Another pass that can come with stress is weight gain or weight loss. Stress is different for everyone and this goes for how much a person eats and what a person eats when they become stressed.

27 percent of adults say that stress management comes from food, specifically unhealthy foods. One may put it this way, that eating the right foods can actually help manage stress, and they’re completely right. Eating foods such as bananas, yogurt, carrots, etc. Some people have special drinks that make them feel better, but sometimes they aren’t the healthiest. Some drinks that may bring down stress levels include tea and milk. These aren’t the only stressors in adults, or teenagers today. Other things might include too much screen time, family, friends, and diet, etc.

Some people ask “how can screen time affect the amount of stress that you have?”. Not only does the amount of screen time have an effect on the amount of exercise one gets or the increased stress levels, but it also can lead to a risk of anxiety or depression. The national institutes of health stated that every 1 and 3 teens will experience anxiety or depression and stress if a big cause of that. Pew research center did a study in California. They stated that 61 percent of teens said that their number 1 stressor in daily life is getting good grades. One may ask the question of how can family and friends cause stress.

During one’s high school years, stress levels are already higher than most with the set in having to deal with grades, sports, and work. Adding family may increase stress levels. For some people, family is a stress reliever. For others, it might add stress to their long list of things. Many people don’t know other people’s home lives. Some people may be going through their parent’s divorce or family death. Many are good at hiding their faces of sadness and eagerness to get out of high school and move on with their lives. Friends tie into that right here. We all know that in high school, that’s where your friends change.

This is where you learn who your true friends are, and this is most likely where you will find the people that will stick by your side. Sometimes having to always “impress your friends” puts a lot of stress on one. Last but not least, diet can be a huge contributor to one’s stress levels. The amount of food one eats and the kinds of foods one eats can make a big difference. Imagine having to go to school every day not feeling well. Imagine making plans that you’re really looking forward to and not feeling well enough to go through with them. That’s what one’s diet can do for stress.

From the survey that I conducted, I saw that every night on average students have 1 hour of homework. Out of the 3 people that I interviewed, 2 of them have a job. They all participate in extracurricular activities and they get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. On average that is much better than many teenagers today. The teenage workload has many things that add up to it. For teenagers, this may include school, sports, work, homework, etc. Whether one’s workload is manageable is up to them. Even though we might not want to participate in all these extra activities in our lives, we have to. Since we have to do some things in life, we have to make sure we find a balance between them all.

I took the self-assessment Dr.Oz Real Age test to see what my results would be. I wasn’t able to answer all the questions properly but when I took it I found out that my Real Age was 19.5. That is a year and half older than my calendar age. The reason for me being older I think am I have an tendency to stress over college and personal issues in life. I haven’t been to the doctor’s office in about 2 to 3 years now. I plan to make changes in life so I can become younger and stress less in life and enjoy life instead.

Whenever I watched the video on the discussion board I found it very motivational to myself. I also have a problem about complaining in life thinking life will get easier if I complain but everybody knows that never works. I plan to change that and complain less about life and just do the work I am told to and I have to do. I believe I don’t appreciate life as much as I should because many other people out in the world have it worse than I do. Overall, if I had six months to live I would want it to be with the ones I love and leave my family with happy memories of me and for them appreciate life and work hard to become successful in the future.

Since I do not taking any vitamin supplements or any iron supplements I visited the University of Berkley website and looked at the link of vitamins are good to consume on a weekly basics. I learned taking Vitamin D would help you with growth and the development of bones in young children and adults. Also, I believe I should take Vitamin D because whenever I play basketball or any sport that requires an abundance of running my leg starts to hurt and at times I will get back pain/problems.

This week consisted of working on all my papers in my English class. I use to slack off in high school and I wanted to make the change and finish my work from ahead of time and not procrastinate. I have finished majority of my schoolwork so I could enjoy the weekend with my family. My goal this semester is to get all A’s so I can keep a 4.00 GPA and make my parents proud and myself proud also. My main goal in life is just to be successful in life and retire my parents in the future. The reason why I would like to do this for my family is because their whole life they worked hard to raise me and put to through school so I believe I should return back what they have given me. Ever since college I have been stressing from all the work because I wasn’t use to it but I think I am progress as time moves. I hope I can fulfill all my dreams and make my family happy one day in the future.

These literature review explore the benefits of laughter and demonstrate the effects on your physical and emotional health. Focus on humor and laughter can help you to strengthen your immune system and in addition can improve your person’s spirit and vigor. Other benefits are the decreasing of physical suffering and protection from the development of stress. The finest of this wonderful medicine is that it is free of cost, enjoyable and accessible to do with practice. (Allen, 2014) (Martin, 2002). Laughter is a powerful antidote to pain, conflict and stress. Nothing works faster and better than to bring your body and mind into a good laugh.

Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, cures pain and the most important thing, connects you to others. Laughter is good for your health because it decreases stress hormones and diminishes pain. Laughter increases immune cells, which improve your resistance to disease. Humor might bring positive influence into your physical health. Laughter could also satisfy your emotional states which may cause beneficial effects on your immune system as well. (Martin, 2002). According to Daniel Allen, in his article titled, “Laughter Really Can Be the Best Medicine.” Allen stated that, use of humor can unlock productive and effective relationship between patients and nurses (Allen, 2014). Taking the risk of building a relationship between the nurse and client will bring brilliant results, because the nurse and patients will enter in a relationship of respect, concern and support.

This allows them to be care for each other, which will guide them to try the best medicine which is laughter and humor. In the article titled, “Laughter really can be the best medicine” by Daniel Allen. He talk about how nurse are reluctant to use humor with patients. The reason that cause this issue, is the lack of confidence and the afraid of judgement. Many nurses, don’t challenge themselves to take the risk of make their patient smile. Because the majority of them believe that it’s something unprofessional and inappropriate. Apparently most of the nurses, doesn’t know that the laughter could help them and their clients to build a confidence relationship between both of them. Which will make the treatment to work very easy. Daniel Allen, explained the importance of taking the risk and make your client smile. Allen who writes, “Many of my patients are in their seventies and eighties.

They often live alone and are isolated. In most case I am the only person they see all day. If I can make them smile, it will make their lives more bearable. Then they are happier and more willing to comply with their treatment” (Allen, 2014). I’m agree with Allen, if you as a nurse ever have the opportunity to make your patient laugh do it. Because it will be a pleasure for you and even more for them. The majority of sick people are living by themselves without nobody that could give a hug and kiss to them. The worst thing is they are very old, so try to make their days happy making them laugh (Allen, 2014).

According to Allen’s quote, this one concluded and demonstrate that the laughter can really help with your emotional states. Which may cause beneficial effects on your immune system. Because when you laugh, you allow yourself to forget about pains, diseases and sadness. It also prove that laughter can really be the best medicine. The next article is named, ” Is laughter the best medicine? Humor, Laughter, and Physical health by Rod A. Martin. He explored, about the famous idea based on humor and laughter have beneficial effect on physical health. This belief has become increasingly famous in recent years. Martin explained, how might humor and laughter influence physical health. He stated that there three potential mechanism with different functions and they worth. According to Martin the first one presented is, “Laughter might produce physiological changes in various system of the body, which may have beneficial effect on health” (Martin, 2014). In others words, laughter will fabricate and development new physical reaction which may change the system of the body and that will allow your system to receive some benefits for your health (Martin, 2014).

Martin quote the second potential mechanisms from Fredrickson, “”Humor and laughter might affect health by inducing positive emotional states, which may in turn have beneficial effects on health, such as increasing pain tolerance, enhancing immunity and undoing the cardiovascular consequences of negative emotions” (Fredrickson, 200). In otherwise Fredrickson stablished, what are the benefits that humor and laughter produce. These benefits are brilliant because just with a simple smile, you can help your body to bring positive vibes and scape for a while from the terrible pain that you are going through (Fredrickson, 200). L

aughter and humor also can protect you from the development of stress. And if you already are involved with stress, laughter can decrease the reproduction of it and help you to prevent a disease from the stress. Because laughter have the facility to relax your body. To prove this third potential, Martin writes a quote from O’Leary. This author stated, “Humor might benefit health indirectly by moderating the adverse effects of stress on health. A considerable body research indicates that stressful life experiences can have adverse effects on various aspects of health, including suppression of the immune system and increased risk of infectious disease and heart disease” (O’Leary, 1990).

According to O’Leary, he explained the causes produced by the stressful live experiences. Which may outcome with terrible effect that can affect the heart. Guiding you to obtain a disease, and even more worse, have a disease the stress may it worsen the situation. (O’Leary, 1990). if you already In conclusion as both articles “Laughter really can be the best medicine” by Daniel Allen and “Is the laughter the best medicine? Humor, Laughter, and Physical Health” by Rod A. Martin. Stablished and explained the benefits focus on humor and laughter. Both experts are agree about the finest of this amazing medicine. Which is really important and worth for the decreasing of physical suffering and development of stress. In addition as both experts mentioned, humor and laughter can also benefit your immune system by making it powerful. The most important and unbelievable point, is that the best medicine is free of cost. Which is made it for anyone who would like to scape from the disease, stress and problem for a while. Smile, life is beautiful.

Do you remember when you were a teenager? Perhaps times have changed since then; nowadays there are about a hundred and one things that young adults have to stress about. Now you may be thinking that is another long rant by a moody teenager complaining about how unfair their life is, however it’s not, this is such telling you the realities of what teenagers go through.

One of the main issues is stereotyping, we cannot seem to go anywhere without at least one person stereotyping what our life and personality is like. Only 30% of typical stereotypes made on adolescents, such as drug abusing, shallow, rude or violent behaviour, are actually true.

Whilst you might believe your teenage years were the golden years in your life, this is not the case for this generation’s young adults, however many parents are oblivious to their teenage child’s worries, insecurities and problems.

Now imagine you’re a fifteen year old girl, when you wake up in the morning you need to spend at least half an hour in front of the mirror, maybe even more on bad days, in front of the mirror. But you just cannot get your hair to be straight enough or for your stomach to look smaller. Once you arrive at school you have to face classmates “subtly” bitching about you like you do not even exist. It makes you feel even worse about yourself as you do not know what you have done wrong or how to make people like you.

When lessons start and as per usual your teachers are comparing you to students in older years, pressurising you to do well in the tests and repeatedly reminding you that your GCSEs are drawing nearer. You just cannot escape this academic pressure set on you. They say that you should just do your best, however what if you’re best is not good enough? What if your best does not make your parents proud of you? You hear your classmates telling each other how drunk they got at the weekend; you’re wondering whether you’re the only one who does not get invited to these parties and gets drunk with the rest of your class or the only one who has not gone far with a boy. This makes you hate yourself more and wish you could be anyone else, but you.

Lunchtime arrives, and it’s the same old dilemma in the canteen: sandwich or pizza? Cake or salad? How healthy is it? How much fat is there in it? How many calories does it contain? You’re afraid to indulge, in case you gain weight, get called the class pig and become even more of a social reject.

Then you get home, time to face your rude, obnoxious parents who try to understand what is going on in your mind, you want to scream at them everything that is worrying you and ask them for help but you know that they will not understand and will just be even more ashamed of you. They blame how you act towards them to hormones and bad attitude, when really it’s down to them; their constant comparing, shouting and criticising.

This is just a minute part of a teenage girl’s life; now imagine you have to go through this every single day. The real difficult thing to grasp is however, is that issues much older people go through seem to be happening to younger and younger people. So just think before you judge or stereotype a teenager you see, think about what they could be going through and if you were in their shoes how you would be feeling.

He himself also suffers from OPTS, and has chapters about his thoughts, feelings, and family intervention when he was writing his memoir. “Speaking of Courage,” tells the story of another member of Tim O’Brien platoon, Norman Booker, following his return to his hometown In Iowa. Booker feels responsible for the death of Kiowa, who literally drowned In human excrement during a firefight when the platoon was encamped in what turned out to be a field of sewage. Frozen in panic, Booker could not bring himself to move and pull the wounded Kiowa out of the stinking sewage.

Now, back in Iowa, he simply drives In circles around town, feeling aimless and out of place. ‘How to Tell a True War Story Is a collection of small stones Interspersed with instructions about “true” war stories. The narrator tells the story of his friend Rat Killed, who writes a letter to the sister of his buddy who had been killed a week earlier. It is a long, heartfelt letter. He waits for two months for a reply to the letter, but the sister never writes back. The story then shifts to commentary. A true war story Is never moral” (O’Brien 65) the narrator Instructs. These two stories contain read examples of different symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, in a way that can further explain them to the reader. The Vietnam War was fought by an ideology against an Ideology, and ultimately solved very little while hurting so many. OPTS is a mental Illness that Is cause by a traumatic event that has happened In ones life and can be easily triggered by a daily activity. Pony close evaluation, Tim O’Brien collection, The Things They Carried, explores the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in relation to Vietnam, since characters possess prone to angry outburst, elapse, and suicidal tendencies. The tragic events that are witnessed during the war in “How to Tell a True War Story’ can cause immediate cases of anger outbursts. Anger is said to be a cover for other emotions such as fear or hurt, and can also be a way of pushing people away in order to protect oneself. However, tendencies for sudden outbursts of anger are Like a manifestation of hyper-vigilance and fear of loss of control.

In “How to Tell a True War Story,” Rat Killed looses his best friend, Curt Lemon, after being blown up while playing a game of catch. This has caused some sadness and anger to build up inside him. Later that day, the troops come across a baby buffalo that the end up bringing with them to s deserted village. After the failed attempt of Rat trying to feed the baby buffalo, “he stepped back and shot it through the right front knee. It went down hard, 1 OFF to hurt… There wasn’t a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo. Curt Lemon was dead” (O’Brien 75).

In the article “Anger, Hostility, and OPTS,” written by Roth and Wielded, they say that “as a consequence, hostility causes an increase frequency of anger and aggression. Thus, anger and hostility may reciprocally activate each other and motivate the individual to aggressive behavior against others”(699). Rat Killed tortures a baby water buffalo because he cannot sit with his emotions about Curt Lemon’s death. Skills method of abuse to this animal was very strategic due to the way he stepped back; shot the buffalo in the ear and then the right knee.

The shots were not random, but were very specific and thought through. What O’Brien meant by not wanting to kill the animal, but to hurt it, was that the pain that Killed was leaning he wanted to see someone else feel it to. Rotor’s thought of reciprocal activity is shown through Skills obsession of seeing this living thing suffer, Just as he was suffering from the loss of his dear friend. Skills angry outburst was Just the start of his OPTS that was caused from this traumatic event that he had witnessed, since anger can motivate to lash out with aggressive behavior.

While one can reduce the severe-news of OPTS, there’s always a possibility for a relapse, which is the case for Norman Booker in “Speaking of Courage. ” In the case of OPTS, relapse is the worsening of symptoms or the recurrence of unhealthy behaviors. As a way of marking time, Norman Booker repeatedly drives a loop around the local lake remembering old girlfriends, hoping one day to track down high-school buddies who have moved to Des Monies or Sioux, and how he would explain Kiosk’s death in the field.

When Booker was in “high school, at night, he had driven around and around it with Sally Kramer… Or other times with friends, talking about urgent matters… Then, there had not been war”(O’Brien 132). Booker came home to find hat Sally was married, his friends were gone, and his father was at home watching TV. He made it seem like it wasn’t a problem, but that was when he went “he took [his dad’s] Chevy on another seven-mile turn around the lake (O’Brien 133). According to John H.

Attainment, author of Twentieth Century Literature, Norman Bookers’ “aimless circling works then to demonstrate his inability to settle back into the routine of the world and exemplifies the psychological distance between his former and present selves” (108). O’Brien shows Booker’s relapse by circling the lake before ND after the war, as the relapse is encapsulated by his trip around the lake back in high school with Sally and doing it again after the war, with out her this time.

Booker aimlessly circling the lake shows that he is unable to break free from its pull, since lake triggers a relapse by his inability to settle back into civilization. Booker portrays Attainment’s psychological distancing when he talks about the time before the war. So, the fact that Norman Booker circles the same lake as he did before the war, and constantly is thinking about what he has lost from being at war, shows that Booker is experiencing a relapse as a side effect of his OPTS. Thoughts of suicide are a major symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and are explored in the short story “Speaking of Courage”.

War Veterans experience so much when in combat that their lives can hardly ever be normal and having to adjust to being back home can be a struggle. Booker had two friend, Max and Kiowa, both who which drowned in lakes, which had a major impact on Booker. Norman Booker a time he got out, walked down to the beach, and waded into the lake without undressing. The water felt warm against his skin. He put his head under. He opened his lips, very slightly, for the taste, then he stood up and folded his arms and watch the 148).

In an interview with Tim O’Brien, he mentions that this story “came from a letter [he] received from a guy name Norman Booker, a real guy, who committed suicide after [he] received his letter. He was talking to [O’Brien] in his letter about how he Just couldn’t adjust to coming home. It wasn’t bad memories; it was that he couldn’t talk to any about it (Unapparent 7). That was when O’Brien followed that story with the essay “Notes,” to inform that “three years later hanged myself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown of Iowa” (O’Brien 149).

In “Speaking of Courage”, Booker didn’t go into the lake to watch the fireworks; instead it was a mere thought of suicide, indicated by how Norman was fully dressed, submerging his entire body under water, and opening his mouth. Folding of his arms may hint that Booker is content with ending his life the way his buddies did. O’Brien point on Booker not being able to adjust to coming home, and attempt of suicide could have been a foreshadow of his actual suicide that happen a few years later.

Booker was suffering many symptoms of OPTS, but it is evident that his suicidal thoughts had taken what was left of him, as it does to many war veterans. Angry outbursts, relapse, and suicidal thoughts are only a few of the Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms that are discussed through out Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried, but they are not the only ones that these characters possess. Norman Booker and Rat Killed are two characters that suffer from OPTS. Booker experiences relapse and suicidal thoughts as his symptoms; where as, Killed suffers from angry outburst.

O’Brien is a credible source for authenticating what fines a true story due to the fact he was part of the Vietnam war and he also suffers from OPTS. From the research gathered about OPTS symptoms, it is clear over the struggles that some go through dealing with this disorder. OPTS is a fracture’ in your experience of life, caused by a traumatic event. You and no one else cause this fracture in your mind because it is response for attempting to cope with what happened. But unfortunately, it’s an ill-informed response. So the next time a song is on repeat in your mind, Just imagine it’s a repeat of your most horrific memories.

Stress Urinary Incontinence Jordin Lang West Coast University Urinary Incontinence is defined as leakage of urine that is involuntary. Stress Urinary Incontinence is involuntary urine leakage that is due to weakened pelvic floor muscles. It is most commonly found to be a greater problem in women. Estimates say that upwards of 35% of women 65 and older experience some form of urinary incontinence. Stress incontinence is an involuntary loss of urine that happens because of physical activity, like coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercise.

The strength of the pelvic floor muscles is inadequate to support the urinary tract under pressure. The anatomy of the urinary system involved in continence in women includes the bladder, urethra, pelvic floor muscles and sphincter. Urine is stored in the bladder which fills like a balloon to accommodate up to two cups of urine. When a woman urinates the muscles surrounding the bladder contract to squeeze the urine out. Pelvic floor muscles support the uterus, bladder and rectum. There are also many nerves some of which send the signal to the brain that one needs to urinate.

What occurs with stress urinary incontinence is that the sphincter and pelvic floor muscles when weakened cannot support the closure of the urethra when increased pressure from the abdomen occurs. Such as coughing, sneezing, laughing or exercising. (“Medlineplus stress incontinence,” 2011) Many women under the age of 65 develop issues with stress urinary incontinence following pregnancy and childbirth. Vaginal deliveries and episiotomies often result in stress urinary incontinence that is temporary and frequently clears up o its own within six weeks following delivery.

In addition to pregnancy and childbirth some women may experience stress urinary incontinence during menopause. Estrogen keeps the lining of the bladder and pelvic floor plump and healthy, when estrogen decreases during menopause, some women may develop mild urinary incontinence a result. Risk factors for developing stress urinary incontinence include, being female, childbirth, increasing age, chronic coughing such as occurs with chronic bronchitis and asthma, multiple childbirths, obesity and smoking. (“Merkmanual: Polyuria,” 2011)

Diagnosis of stress urinary incontinence is made after assessment of symptoms and in some women a pelvic exam will reveal the bladder or urethra bulging into the vaginal space. Tests may possibly include cystoscopy (inspection of the interior of the bladder), a “pad test”, pelvic or abdominal ultrasound and tests to measure post-void residual (amount of urine left after urination). Urinalysis is usually performed as well in order to conclusively rule out urinary tract infection. Health care providers may also perform a q-tip test to measure the angling of the urinary tract when resting and under pressure.

An angle of greater than 30 degrees suggests significant pelvic floor weakening. There are three major modes of treatment for stress urinary incontinence. The first is pelvic floor muscle training and behavioral changes such as smoking cessation, losing weight and abstaining from alcohol and excess caffeine. Medications such as anticholinergic drugs, antimuscarinic drugs that block bladder contractions, alpha adrenergic agonist drugs also have been known to aid in the tautness of the urinary sphincter muscles. Surgery is often only indicated after all other treatments have failed.

Anterior vaginal repair and retropubic repair are most common surgeries to treat severe stress urinary incontinence. (“Medlineplus stress incontinence,” 2011) Stress Urinary incontinence is surely a troublesome and perhaps embarrassing ailment. An ailment that can most definitely can interfere with a patient’s quality of life. With proper medical treatment, prognosis is generally good. References Medlineplus stress incontinence. (2011). Retrieved from http://www. nlm. nih. gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000891. htm Merkmanual: Polyuria. (2011). Retrieved from

1. In today’s smaller Air Force, members are finding themselves doing more with less. This in-turn has caused numerous stressful situations on and off duty. It is incumbent for Air Force members to recognize, treat, and eliminate stress whenever practical to increase morale and mission accomplishment. This paper will cover the emotional, behavioral, and physical signs of stress as well as importance of job stress management in treating and/or eliminating stress.

2. Before we can begin to reduce stress, we must be able to recognize indicators that lead to or

help identify stress. Air Force psychologist Capt. Neil S. Hibler has developed a list of early warning signs (2:19). For our purposes we will discuss only a couple from each category. First, from the emotional category, is apathy. Apathy is the doldrums. Things you normally enjoy are no longer pleasurable. Along with apathy is mental fatigue. Being unable to concentrate or staying focus are only a couple of examples of mental fatigue.

Emotional signs are very important to recognize, because if they are not noticed early on and addressed, behavioral or even physical problems can surface. The behavioral category signs include: being late to work, poor appearance, and being accident prone are just a few examples of administrative problems. Legal problems are even more evident, such as, traffic tickets, indebtedness, and inability to

control violent impulses. As you can see, these signs of stress become more serious the longer

TSgt Adams/H-Flt/0805/pfa/19 Jul 97

they go untreated or reduced. Finally, is the physical category; possibly the most serious of all.

Stress not only effects the psyche of an individual, but the physical side of ones’ being can also be altered. Ailments such as: headaches, insomnia, nausea, changes in appetite, and sexual problems can persist during times of stress. The individual may seek relief from stress by self-medicating and develop a dependence on chemicals that are harmful to the body. These signs are just a few of the more recognizable. Other signs can be very subtle and even more dangerous to the individual and others. This is why it is paramount to detect stress early and if possible treat, reduce, or eliminate before damage is done.

3. Once signs of stress are identified, it is time to tackle them with a few job stress management

techniques outlined in “The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Handbook” (2:211). A 1985 study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics found that more than 50% of workers surveyed experienced moderate to heavy stress on the job. To effectively combat work-related stress, you first need to identify symptoms and sources of job related stress. This can be accomplished by taking and scoring the survey in the handbook. Next, you need to keep a log on how you respond to your specific job stressors.

Label four columns: stressor, feelings, thoughts, and behavior. After you have completed these task, setting goals and motivation is next. Set goals to respond more effectively to your job stressors. Develop a plan to react to stress you can anticipate or even avoid altogether. The idea here is to gain more control of your work environment. Rewards are a very important part of motivation. Create a specific reward for every goal you establish and make sure to give yourself the time to enjoy your reward. The next

area to consider is more difficult for most of us. Dealing with your boss, negotiating with co-

workers, and changing your thinking can be used to your advantage to help reduce stress. Don’t

side step these ideas, use them! The last two strategies to consider in job stress management are; pace and balance yourself, and know when to quit. Pace at your own tempo. Don’t burn yourself out. This is one of the leading causes of stress at work. To effectively integrate job stress management into your daily lifestyle could take months, in just a day you can identify your job stressors and your responses to them. Getting started is the key!

4. We have discussed identifying stress by looking for: emotional, behavioral, and physical

signs of stress. Then, more importantly, we discussed ways to: treat, reduce, or eliminate stress by applying techniques used in job stress management. Job stress accounts for billions of dollars lost annually in productivity, wages, and medical bills. Americans now know that job stress management makes personal and financial sense.