stress & burnout

This week we discussed topics revolving around the concept of stress, including:

• the problem of stress
• eustress
• distress
• general adaptation syndrome
• alarm reaction 
• resistance
• exhaustion
• methods of coping
• role stressors/conflict
• burnout
• levels of preventions strategy
• reducing and managing stress
• Gig
• flight attendant

eustress- type of stress that provides challenges that motivate individuals to work hard and meet their goals

general adaptation syndrome (GAS)- a nearly identical response sequence to almost any disease or trauma (poisoning, injury, psychological stress); identified by Hans Seyle

burnout- extreme state of psychological strain resulting from a prolonged response to chronic job stressors that exceed an individual's resources to cope with them

primary prevention strategy- stress prevention strategy concerned with modifying or eliminating stressors in the work environment

Reaction

This topic was well planned for this point in the semester and ironically for the events going on in my personal life. Stress caused by classes, work, personal life add up and can really cause someone to become overwhelmed and ill if they don't seek help to manage and relieve that stress. There are different types of stress but the one most damaging is distress.

distress- type of stress resulting from chronically demanding situations that produce negative outcomes

Those negative outcomes include:

• behavioral consequences (ex. absenteeism, alcohol, drugs, information processing)
• psychological consequences (ex. anxiety, depression, fatigue, depersonalization)
• physiological consequences (ex. blood pressure, digestive issues, lowered immune system)

Without management, these can consume an individual's life and cause them to not be able to function at their highest level. 

Analysis

This past week brought about a variety of issues that arose in my personal life. These issues caused me a great deal of distress that sparked behavioral, psychological, and physiological consequences. I'm still recovering from these consequences even though I have moved on to a new chapter in my life. This is a great example of why my post is late today- my memory is shot this week from dealing with everything which is a behavioral consequence of distress. In class we weren't sure which stage of memory was affected by stress- either something to do with how we encode the information or not forming cues to be able to retrieve that information later.

These things ran over into my abilities to properly function at work and in class. It's ridiculous how much stress can do to a person. After noticing how utterly down I was, my supervisor made a call to someone (social support) who could help remove me from the situation (problem-focused coping).

social support- the comfort, assistance, or information an individual receives through formal or informal contacts with individuals or groups

problem-focused coping- directed at managing or altering a problem causing the stress

It wouldn't be emotion-focused coping:

emotion-focused coping- directed at reducing the emotional response to a problem by avoiding, minimizing, or distancing oneself from the problem

because we were trying to get me completely out of the situation causing me stress not trying to change my emotional response to the stress.

I realize the stress wasn't initiated by the work environment but my stress outside of the work environment did impact my ability to perform well in my work and class tasks. However, the same concepts can apply since we are dealing with the topic of stress.

Reflection
So many components go into how to manage and prevent stress. There are many outlets for individuals to seek in order to better deal with, eliminate, or prevent stress. An example from our classroom discussion:

employee assistance program (EAP)- counseling provided by an organization to deal with workplace stress, alcohol, or drug difficulties, and problems stemming from outside the job

It is important for organizations to understand the causes and effects of stress on an individual. Because the likelihood of those overlapping into the work environment are fairly high. Organizations need to be sure to educate their supervisors and all employees to know the signs of stress and what resources are available to handle it.