New Hope for Work Related Stress and Improving Overall Health


By Liza N. Eversole, An MTN Wellness & Business Solutions Consultant, July 1, 2006

Stress is inevitable in today's workplace. Hectic work schedules, increased responsibility and constant deadlines place huge demands on work life. In addition, the demands of work and family often create conflicting needs and little time to relax and rejuvenate mind and body.

Stress that persists day after day is a mental health problem. Experts also agree that the physiological changes that result from stress contribute to nearly every major illness.

You don't have to be the victim of the American lifestyle- hard work, and stress! Stress can be managed and employees can find help!

The good news is that stress can be managed if employees take the opportunity to assess the effects of stress on their overall wellbeing and to take the steps needed to improve their health and quality of life.

1) The effects of unchecked stress.
2) Take steps to manage stress: Learn to cope with a high-pressure job.
3) How employers can improve their worker's health and quality of life.

1) The effects of unchecked stress:
Burnout due to stress is causing distress for everyone, including employers and employees alike! The body's immune system is badly affected by chronic stress and is a contributing factor to depression.

ATTENTION EMPLOYERS: Take care of your most valuable resource: YOUR EMPLOYEES! Prevent illness, loss of productivity, and increase retention with a healthy, stress-free workforce!

MyTherapyNet and MINDBodySeries have solutions for businesses losing money from work-related stress and depression! E-mail one of our Business Consultants NOW at leversole@mytherapynet.com.

In our fast-paced world, stress is at an all-time high level. Americans are working harder and getting sicker. Work related stress has many consequences if allowed to go on too long. It's no secret that stress influences health!

- If left unchecked, chronic stress contributes to decreased productivity, irritability, and inability to concentrate or make decisions. It also causes difficulties with colleagues and relationships outside the workplace.

- Chronic stress physically weakens the immune system, triggering ailments ranging from gum disease to osteoporosis, causing premature aging and significantly increasing one's risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

- Study after study demonstrates that chronic stress negatively affects not only work performance, but also physical health and overall quality of life.

- Depression ranks among the top three work place issues, following only family crisis and stress. (EAP 1996)

- Depression's annual toll on U.S. businesses amounts to about $70 billion in medical expenditures, lost productivity and other costs. It accounts for close to $12 billion in lost workdays each year. More than $11 billion in other costs accrue from decreased productivity due to symptoms that sap energy, affect work habits, and cause problems with concentration, memory, and decision-making. (The Wall Street Journal, 2001, National Institute of Mental Health, 1999)

- Employees suffer from the impact of depression when working with others who are depressed and when caring for loved ones at home. Fifteen to 20% of US families are caring for an older relative. A survey of these adult caregivers found that 58% showed clinically significant depressive symptoms. (Family Caregiver Alliance, 1997)

- Nearly one-third of adults who have a mental illness say they don't seek treatment because they fear what others might think. That's what a new study by the American Psychiatric Association shows on the issue of mental illness stigma.

- It's hard to put a good estimate on how much untreated illness affects the American economy. But mental disorders comprise four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the United States, and the economic burden of depression alone was estimated at $83 billion in 2000.

The cost of depression for today's businesses CANNOT be ignored. It costs businesses in health expenditures, absenteeism, lost productivity and performance mistakes.

More workers seek help when they know that other workers and management aren't aware they are in therapy. Online Therapy offers this confidentiality.

We will help your business set up an Online Therapy support program to ensure a healthy work environment and high productivity! E-mail us NOW at leversole@mytherapynet.com.

2)Take steps to manage stress: Learn to cope with a high-pressure job

MTN's Wellness and Business Solutions Consultant, Liza N. Eversole, offers tips to help you be better prepared to cope with a high-pressure job.

Increased frequency of high-tension projects and keeping the frantic pace of the corporate rat race could very well leave you feeling exhausted -- physically, mentally and emotionally.

Stress affects everyone, no matter what they do for a living. Most people aren't aware that they are stressed until it's too late. Small steps can be taken to prevent workers from being overwhelmed by the pressures of being the best, most productive and successful employee.

Most employees and employers can relate to the most commonly reported negative outcomes of work-related stress, including:

- Constant fatigue and/or insomnia: Are you just as tired when you wake up, as you were when you went to bed?
- Depression or anxiety: Are you feeling overwhelmed and anxious? Do you have angry outbursts?
- Physical Illness: Do you have a susceptibility to illness? Do you have heart disease, high blood pressure, GI problems, headaches or back pain?
- Are you forgetful and disorganized?
- Are you noticing yourself using alcohol, drugs, tobacco or food more?

Please, SEE YOUR PHYSICIAN if you experience persistent physical symptoms!

Stress and burnout also show up in not having a healthy well-balanced life. Any of the following experienced over a long period of time may lead to burnout and stress-related physical and emotional illnesses. Are you experiencing any of the following?
- I see sleep and personal time as annoyances cutting into my valuable work time.
- I do not spend much time with family of friends. I would rather work than socialize.
- I work overtime consistently every week.
- Nothing else but work gives me pleasure and work is all I want to talk about.
- My office extends to my car and into my home.
- I have not taken a vacation in years.
- I take work home on the weekends and on trips.

If you answered "yes" to any of the above, log onto MyTherapyNet NOW!

Managing stress is the foundation for wellness: A well-balanced and healthy life. So, in addition to receiving quality therapy at MyTherapyNet.com, please visit www.MINDBodySeries.com for information, tools and products to help you manage stress.

MyTherapyNet has solutions for businesses losing money from work-related stress and depression! E-mail one of our Business Consultants NOW at leversole@mytherapynet.com.

The Cause of Stress: Stress at work increases as the number of responsibilities, choices, and decisions increase. It's difficult to know when to say yes and when to say no. The pressure dealing with a never-ending stream of demands often pressures workers to take work home with them. Employees feel their position may be threatened if they don't have the 24/7 work mentality.

Stress arises from job insecurity and the issues related to bringing in an income. With less full-time, traditional positions and more contracted part-time positions, today's worker and work at home worker experience a new type of stress. Although these more independent work styles have many advantages, there are also many problems, including stress. Oftentimes having less security with regard to income and position in the workplace, these workers feel isolated, dissatisfied, frustrated, insecure, and stressed.

Learn How Businesses Benefit From Helping their Workers Who May Be Silently Suffering From Stress and Depression. E-mail us NOW at leversole@mytherapynet.com.

Strategies for coping with stress:

1. Keep yourself healthy: Take care of yourself physically and mentally. Your energy levels will be much higher if you are getting enough sleep, eating well, drinking enough water, and taking the time to do things you enjoy.
- Exercise regularly (take a walk, ride a bike, or do some gardening)
- Get enough sleep (7-8 hours is recommended)
- Eat a balanced diet
- Slow down
- Stretch and breathe
- Learn relaxation techniques
- Remove yourself from stressors
- Get a massage
- Get help from a counselor or therapist when the mental and emotional stress becomes too much to handle.

2. Have someone who you can discuss work related stresses with.
- Use the Mental Health/Wellness Benefits at work: Therapist, counselor, or coach

3. Prioritize your most important activities. Work smarter, not harder. This will help you keep deadlines and not be overwhelmed.
- Be realistic: Focus on things you have control over and you will be able to increase your self-fulfillment at work.
- Don't get bogged down by paperwork and administrative duties. Keep these low value tasks to a minimum and take on those where you will add maximum value.
- Be able to distinguish between what is important and what is urgent.
- Be able to prioritize the more mundane, yet essential daily tasks by effectively deciding their importance?
- Have the courage to say "no" nicely so you do not take on too much.

4. Work with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound) goals in mind: Break your goals down to the lowest common denominator (be practical when doing this.) For example, you may set a goal to be the top sales person in your company for the month, but it makes more sense to break it into weekly targets. This way you will have the flexibility to change the weekly target based on your day-to-day performance.

5. Don't say "yes" to additional workload and wind up being overcommitted. This only leads to over-promising and under-performing!

6. Timing is everything:
- Procrastination plays a large part in stress. Putting things off so that they're nagging at the back of your mind may drain you of energy. Deal with things, if not immediately because you're too hot under the collar, then within a reasonable time frame - say a week, so things don't slide or get forgotten.
- Schedule yourself for activities that require a high level of concentration when you are at your best. Do mundane, boring work when you are not as sharp. Use your strengths to your advantage by performing the tasks during the most appropriate times.

7. Keep a Work-life Balance: Be sure that you have enough hours each week to pursue personal non-work related interests and activities.
- Spend time on activities outside of work that give you great joy.
- Create and have fun outside of work.
- Do not bring work home on a regular basis. Differentiate between work and home so that you leave work stuff behind you and home is your refuge.

8. Take breaks throughout the day to revitalize and rejuvenate yourself.
- Take breaks throughout the day away from your office. When you are able to take time away from your work environment, you are able to rejuvenate yourself. This time away gives you perspective and clarity for your situation.
- Get out of the office at lunchtime. Do some physical exercise such as yoga, going for a run or a brisk walk. You can also chill out with a book or wander in a nearby park.

9. Change your work schedule. Such as change, the days you work or switch from working five days to four days a week. If you could increase the number of hours you work per day so you could take one day off a week, this would help you feel rested, restored, and rejuvenated. A change in schedule that allows you to take a day off could make you feel as if you took a vacation because you were able to take care of yourself on your day off.

10. Reward yourself! Create rewards for yourself. Ask yourself, what rewards would give me a reason to complete this activity or achieve a goal?

Article by MTN's Wellness and Business Solutions Consultant, Liza N. Eversole.

We believe that managing stress is the foundation for wellness: A well-balanced and healthy life. So, in addition to receiving quality therapy at MyTherapyNet.com, please visit www.MINDBodySeries.com for information, tools and products to help you manage stress.

We provide Business Solutions through Innovative Health & Wellness Programs that combine Online Therapy with Stress Reduction, Weight Loss, Sleep Loss, and Smoking Cessation programs that work.

3) How employers can improve their worker's health and quality of life.

If your employees do not seek treatment for depression, it costs your business in health expenditures, absenteeism, lost productivity and performance mistakes. A reduction of depression in employees and customers leads to increased profits.

ATTENTION EMPLOYERS: Take care of your most valuable resource, YOUR EMPLOYEES! Prevent illness, loss of productivity, and increase retention with a healthy, stress-free workforce!

MyTherapyNet and MINDBodySeries Wellness Programs are good investments, not only for your company's bottom line, but also for your employees' health, productivity and performance.

- A large percentage of workers with chronic conditions are depressed and need support to prevent their conditions from getting worse, resulting in loss days at work and even leaving their job all together.

- Companies are seeing a consistent return on investment as employees get needed psychological help for the causes and precursors to major conditions, including diabetes, asthma, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease. These causes include depression, anxiety and alcohol/substance abuse.

A growing number of businesses are offering wellness programs to their workers in an effort to encourage physical activity, sensible nutrition habits, and an overall healthier lifestyle. They also are including mental health therapy in disease management programs.

Online Therapy and Wellness Programs, effective business solutions to help employees decrease stress and improve overall health and productivity: Our Therapists, Counselors, and Coaches will help your employees uncover the underlying habits or thoughts that create stress and depression. We then customize comprehensive programs that include Online Therapy, coaching, and tools to move you towards a health and wellness. Workers identified as "at risk" can be helped with Online Therapy and Wellness programs to support stress-management, smoking cessation or weight loss.

This prevents them from developing a full-blown illness. For example, Online Therapy and Weight Wellness Tools can work with someone who is pre-diabetic to lose weight and change their diet so they don't end up needing more intensive diabetic disease management and possibly become a less productive member of your workforce.

What Employers Can Do: Employers with a preventative wellness attitude know that over-stressed workers are actually far less productive than they would be if they were fresh and inspired. They know that it is a better ROI (return on investment) for each employee to have a work-life balance instead of working hectic over-scheduled days. Employees will be more productive, have less illness, and stay at their jobs when they use effective work strategies and stress-busting tips to manage high-pressured demands.

Why employees need psychological help but don?t get it? Confidentiality issues come up for employees seeking help.

Companies have systems in place to take care of the physical and mental wellbeing of their employees. They see the need to provide emotional support through psychological counseling, but many employees are afraid to seek help if they believe that management is ?listening?.

MyTherapyNet helps manage workplace stress with confidential Online Therapy!

More workers seek help when they know that other workers and management aren?t aware they are in therapy. Online Therapy offers this confidentiality.

Article by MTN's Wellness and Business Solutions Consultant, Liza N. Eversole.

Don't let your workers suffer in silence! E-mail leversole@mytherapynet.com to talk to one of our Business Consultants. We will help your business set up a Wellness Program to ensure a healthy work environment and high productivity!

Managing stress is the foundation for wellness: A well-balanced and healthy life. So, in addition to receiving quality therapy at MyTherapyNet.com, please visit www.MINDBodySeries.com for information, tools and products to help you manage stress.