Danni in the Dark: Stressful Stats about Stress

 

As a Business Psychologist and Business Coach I find the topic of Resilience and Stress Management arising consistently with my work and clients.

With the Government releasing the following statistics earlier this year, we can start to understand why:

  • 526,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety (new or long-standing) in 2016/17 - these are the numbers that we know about!

  • 12.5 million working days lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2016/17

  • Workload causes 44% of work-related stress, anxiety and depression

So the impacts of stress on business are obvious with high absenteeism, poor motivation, high staff turnover and poor performance but what about the impact on our bodies and lifestyles?

The effects on the human body are vast and impact on all components of our person including our bodies, our minds and our behaviour.

Here is a breakdown of the physical, intellectual, emotional and behavioural symptoms of stress that can have an impact on every part of our lives.

Physical manifestations of stress include:

  • Sleep disturbances

  • Headaches

  • Gastrointestinal upset

  • Raised blood pressure/cardiovascular disease

Intellectual impacts of stress include:

  • Loss of concentration

  • Lack of motivation

  • Difficulty with thought process and poor decision making

  • Loss of memory

Emotional impacts of stress include:

  • Anxiety and irritability

  • Depression

  • Fluctuating emotions

Behavioural impacts of stress include:

  • Substance misuse (including alcohol and drugs)

  • Decreased libido

  • Inappropriate display of behaviour

  • Isolation

So you can see, that consistent and continued stress is known to have some very serious and disturbing consequences!

The point of this article is to raise awareness of the impact that work-related stress has on HUMANS and not just the impact on BUSINESS. It is fundamental we look after our employees in order to keep a healthy and engaged workforce who don't feel the detrimental effect of work related stress.

At DH Coaching & Consulting we work with individuals and organisations to support staff and the HUMAN ELEMENT of business to promote stress management and resilience.

Get in touch to learn more by clicking below.

 
Dannielle Haig