Karoshi - The Death of Stress

Here are my thoughts on the death of stress.

Physical symptoms and psychological

The Japanese word "Karoshi" is, for example, "death from stress, and is an important source of mortality among Japanese workers, especially in the Middle Ages of" white-collar men. Stress kills, or directly into their bodies breaking or indirectly, from depression and suicide. In all cases, stress is bad news and it is no exaggeration to say that your life is at stake in a situation of stress. chronic stress affects the heart and arteries, your digestion, skin and hair, the immune system and your brain and nervous system, and virtually all other organs of the body.

Stress is also a variety of mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, fatigue, drugs, domestic violence and occupation, and suicide. And even if the stress has been shown not to personality disorders such as schizophrenia, more complex and therefore more difficult to treat.

Of course, stress is a major chronic health problem, and nothing more, be taken lightly. To say openly, stress can kill as surely as cancer.

Our biological heritage

If stress is harmful, why in the world, we are so sensitive to them? You may think that the changes could not be revoked? In a sense, the stress, there are millions of years, long before the man, as an adaptation to life in a dangerous world. To explain this paradox, we imagine one of our many years of avant-level ancestors from Africa, which has suddenly and a leopard in the area of the head. In less than half a second, without conscious thought, the brain records the image of Leopard and the class as a threat to life. Then the brain starts to mobilize the body of escape or defense.

Fight or flight?

When the brain perceives the leopard in tree, and decides that it is dangerous, it sends a signal to the adrenal glands, which affect your kidneys. In response, the adrenal glands two hormones: adrenaline and cortisol after first. Adrenaline is a very rapidly to almost every part of the body. The heart starts to beat faster and higher, the small blood vessels of the skin of the Treaty (which is why the "white as a sheet, after the fear), the digestion of food in the stomach and stop your vision narrows to a "tunnel." All of these changes for some time, stronger and faster than usual - so far in Leopard.

How far from Leopard, the adrenal glands to start a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol acts to increase the amount of sugar in the blood of energy fast, and you have to flee, for days and days without eating, cortisol helps to transform your body muscles and bones to power. The combined effects of adrenaline and cortisol is the energy that we need to communicate with danger - and that is why the fight / flight response, in the first place.

When stress is entering?

How long, how the body reacts to a leopard in a tree, everything is in order: you escape from stress and hormones begin to disappear after an hour or so. But if you can not flee from danger or fight, and the values of stress hormones do not go. Adrenaline is your heart beats strong, and the reduction of cortisol keeps muscles and bones, its high level of sugar in the blood. If you go beyond a few days at a time, the impact is felt: the changes in the bedroom and eating habits, tunnel vision, abnormal fatigue, and anxiety and discomfort. What we call stress the common perception of the body's physical reactions to hormones.

Why does stress cause?

"Now, one might ask: 'It is very beautiful, the response to the leopard in the structure, but my work to a reaction to stress - I have not found all the leopards. It seems that the brain is not very demanding of danger: not responding to the head of a madman, or a future appointment or an office in Bully just how they react, leopardo: Starting with the mobilization of stress hormones or fight or flight. But the office, you can not one of them - you can not punch people in the nose, and you have to go tomorrow, even if you do not want. This combination of risk and perceptions can not solve anything against stress at work increases, and will not stop until you can fight or flee.

More control means less stress

If the lack of stress is worse, it follows that the control against the stress. "As in control" means different things to different people. For some workers, it means that only they who decide when to break and have some flexibility in planning. For others, you decide, as the work: What is the machinery or parts, as the most effective. But for all workers, to decide how and when to do their job of reducing the sense of danger, which reduces stress and improves health.

Learn conquered stress
Many, many studies show that one of the best things you can do for your stress is to learn something new. At best, it should be something new to work, but not necessary. If you click on stress at work, of course, one evening, or even listen to Books On Tape help have regained control of your life, and as we saw, more controls produces less stress.

Social support helps fight stress
The last thing you can do for your stress is responsible for the formulation of a number of friends for you. Studies show that when the assembly is allowed to speak and develop their work, the level of stress, and the quality and speed of their work. Similarly, if you walk from room-and-drop a friend for a five-minute conversation, social contact is to reduce fear and stress related to it.

What does all this mean for you?

We started with the thought generates fuzzy concepts like "good stress", and we have learned that stress is inherently wrong with you - very bad. We found that stress is not just in your head - is that changes your whole body. And we are, why we emphasize in the first place - it is only a reaction to the perception of risk, situations like today from toxic environments. And we have learned, at least three possibilities to reduce the burden - more control, learn new skills and develop a social network for care. The essence is: you need to increase work-related stress seriously, because it can kill, and there are measures that can be alone, as your stress.