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If you're stressed you might try...

Or you might try something more productive, such as; make the leap to understanding stress better. Luckily I spent a lot of time in nursing school, working in psych wards, and working as a social worker with homeless youth and disabled individuals. So if there's a way to handle stress, believe me I've likely seen it. First let's look at some basics. 

Understanding Stress:

Everyone experiences stress. Stress can increase until you, or the other person feels that something must be done about it. If the stress goes unnoticed and the other person does not respond to it in a positive way, it can become so intense that the person may react by escalating and “acting-out” with a negative, verbal, and/or physically aggressive behavior.

Stress can come from positive events that happen to you (new job, new relationship, new friend) or from negative events (loss of work, death in the family, forced move).

Internalized Pressures That Accompany Stress:

• Internalized Emotions: When our anger takes over because of stress we experience increased blood pressure, quick breathing, abdominal muscles tighten, and skin color changes can occur. Long-term effects of physical changes may result in peptic ulcers, colitis, headaches and various other illnesses.
• Narrowed Vision: People under stress cannot see the whole picture and tend to have a narrow focus. It’s difficult to see anything other than the stress.
• Hopelessness: People under stress can feel that there is no solution to their problem. They may refuse to listen to advice or reassurance because they can’t see any method of escape.
• Disassociation: People feeling stress can feel as if they don’t belong to their environment. They may feel isolated and nothing else seems as important as the issue at hand.
• Distrust: All of the above can lead to distrust – to the point where others can’t confide or trust in you at all.

Obviously all of the above can affect you at work. If you're stressed, or a co-worker is stressed to the max, it can start to make everyone's life at work harder. So, for the next couple of days, we'll look at stress, some work related causes, prevention tatics (for individuals or employee workshops), and how not to take your stress home with you. 

Stay tuned. Stress is bad, and can make you feel terrible, but there are some ways to deal.

[Stress Comic via Aha!Jokes]