Stress and "burnout": effective methods of struggle

Valery Yudin, Weekly "Pharmacy"Today we want to talk about how to work with the effects of stress, which are often manifested by symptoms such as fatigue, fatigue, apathy, a tendency to frequent morbidity…

We suggest not rushing to be treated and swallowing pills unnecessarily – we offer to sort everything out, and it is likely that psychology will come to the rescue.

And that is why we decided to turn to a practicing psychologist, psychotherapist of the Unified Register of Psychotherapists in Europe, president of the Scientific and Practical Center "DIANALYSIS" Oksana Pridatko, who has extensive experience working with such conditions, experience in conducting special trainings on the development of social intelligence, thinking, stress management and time coaching, including and among pharmaceutical companies:

– Speaking about stress, most often we mean its consequences – distress, which, if we talk about our professional activities, are manifested by the so–called professional burnout: a feeling of emptiness, frustration, indifference to what is happening, disinterest in what previously aroused keen interest and enthusiasm, and many others.

Stress is a natural and unavoidable feature of the life of any living organism, contributing to its survival. However, with the development of society, stress increasingly began to acquire a social connotation and became associated with such concepts as self-satisfaction, success in society and the need to meet the expectations of other people.

I am of the opinion that currently stress is a certain requirement for the adaptive abilities of the human body and mind. It is impossible to say unequivocally that stress is necessarily a negative impact and necessarily carries some negative consequences. So, if these very capabilities allow a person to cope with the requirements and provide satisfaction from external influences, then stress performs a positive function, it stimulates him to act, if not, it depresses our abilities and desire to do something or causes a feeling of boredom and monotony.

As a result of the trainings where we analyze the problem of professional "burnout", I came to the conclusion that a person is negatively affected by both a large amount of stress and their almost complete absence.

I would divide a person's reaction to stress factors into several stages.

The first stage is the stage of anxiety, or adaptation. It is this stage that has a positive meaning, because it supports us – both psychologically and physiologically – in a certain tone, stimulates.

The second stage is mobilization, or resistance, when certain reactions of the body are triggered, which are aimed at three actions: a) flight, b) struggle, or c) fading. As a rule, the mechanism by which a person's reaction to the effects of a stress factor develops refers to the mechanism of struggle.

The third stage is the stage of exhaustion, or directly distress. It develops when stressors affect a person for a very long time and /or intensively, and therefore, as a result of our attempts to overcome stress factors, exhaustion, "burnout" occurs.

Well, since we are talking about distress, it is important to say that it can manifest itself not only on a psychological, but also on a somatic level, since various hormones are released into the blood (for example, adrenaline), and therefore the heart rate increases, blood vessels narrow, which leads to pallor of the skin (in order to to reduce energy consumption for heating the body), blood pressure rises; thyroid hormones are released and the synthesis of sex hormones decreases; the total volume of blood becomes smaller, it coagulates faster, but the load on the heart increases. All these reactions once upon a time prepared the body of primitive man for a collision with danger. When the struggle was over, the body returned to its normal physiological state. And despite the fact that currently there is actually no fight as such, a person's reaction to stress has remained the same and continues in his imagination and thoughts, and the above-mentioned physiological reactions to stress nevertheless have an extremely adverse effect, especially if stressors act for a long time.

Distress also affects at the psychological level, manifested by apathy, fatigue, indifference; cognitive functions (memory, attention, mental operations) change. So, if they worsen at the stage of mobilization in a person, then in a state of distress we often notice distraction in ourselves, since short-term memory is mainly reduced; the attitude towards ourselves and the assessment of the situation changes; we fuss. And just vanity, irrepressible activity are the first signs of distress. And colleagues should monitor this symptom – in this way you can help, support not only the person himself, but also protect the whole team from "infection" with his condition, because the person experiencing distress, as a rule, experiences it emotionally – he is irritable, becomes demanding of others or, conversely, indifferent, etc.

By focusing on the specific causes of stress, a person can set himself up to cope with it in a certain way. This is the so-called coping strategy, or a strategy to overcome stress. So, what can act as a stress factor?

I would single out several possible reasons (although there may be more) that lead to stress at work and which may later become the causes of so-called emotional burnout:

• the uncertainty of the range of professional responsibilities, which makes it difficult to prioritize; the uncertainty of what a particular person should do, as well as how much time should be allocated to solve each task;
• role conflict, when two aspects of our activities become incompatible. For example, when a manager wants to maintain friendly relations with all subordinates, but at the same time he needs to be demanding and tough;
• perfectionism, or very high claims to oneself or the work performed, when an employee cannot delegate part of his powers to another, because he believes that he is unable to cope with the task or will not perform it well enough; this often concerns top managers of representative offices of pharmaceutical companies;
• monotony at work, when employees "get stuck" on their functional duties. To overcome this, some companies arrange rotation, as well as "excursions", when they introduce employees of various departments to each other's work so that each of them sees and understands how the overall result is achieved;
• regular conflicts;
• internal conflict or mismatch of life plans with realities, when a person wanted to be a musician, but his parents insisted that he become a pharmacist, because it is prestigious. In this case, the manager needs to be aware that such employees work in his company and, accordingly, find levers to motivate them and make their work interesting. Otherwise, such an employee will demotivate others and the socio-psychological adaptation of these employees will also decrease.

What to do in such situations? To begin with, it is necessary to periodically ask yourself the question: "What am I doing here?", "Is this the job that I like?", "What do I have from this and what will I have in the future?". By the way, it is interesting that at present, when applicants come to a potential employer, they ask him not only "How much will I get by doing this job?", but also "What will I be like if I have this job?". After all, having a certain specialty or a certain status, we thus build our way of life due to this, which increases its meaningfulness.

If you are out of place and the cause of stress is simply a mismatch of life plans with reality, it's time to take the next step: analyze situations that can cause stress.

Some psychologists, such as R. Holmes and D. In fact, even an evaluation scale of stress factors has been developed, in which important events and phenomena of human life are estimated from 1 to 100 points according to the degree of neuropsychiatric stress caused by them. The most traumatic event (100 points on the scale) is the death of a close relative. This is followed by divorce, serious illness, imprisonment, job loss and other troubles. However, along with all sorts of sorrows and hardships, the scale also includes such events that make us rejoice – for example, promotion, the birth of a child, inheritance, as well as vacation, our own birthday and even Christmas. Pleasant experiences also create a load on our psyche, that is, they act as stressors! Therefore, if your career develops very successfully – from success to success – do not be surprised at the accumulation of stress, because the burden of success for our psyche is not much easier than the burden of adversity.

(The Holmes-Ray scale is added after the article – VM.)

Of course, all this – both psychological and physiological consequences of stress – provoke an increase in the consumption of not only internal energy, but also the consumption of physical forces.

However, it is not necessary to have a Holmes–Ray scale; sometimes it is enough just to analyze the situation and make a list of personal stress factors, and then figure out how to reduce their impact or eliminate them completely.

Next, I would suggest that each of the stress factors identified by you be attributed to one of 3 groups:

• a group for immediate action ("What needs to be done immediately?"). This should include those stressful situations that require urgent action;
• a group of stresses for future actions ("What will need to be done in the future?"). Such situations over time may not actually require any action;
• a group of situations to ignore or adapt, because we can't influence all situations in life, we can't change everything. Most often, we have to learn to adapt to many things.

A significant role in the prevention of emotional "burnout" can be played by the so-called mentor (supervisor, coach). This also applies to the identification of factors that cause stress in this employee, and those coping strategies (coping strategies) of stress that would be adequate at this time and in this place, taking into account the specifics of professional activity. A mentor (coach) is, as a rule, a specialist in the same field, but with extensive professional experience and therefore able to suggest whether the current circumstances should really be assessed as stressful, worry and take some immediate steps, or the situation is such that the solution of this or that issue can be postponed, or from you and nothing depends at all. Thus, the participation of a mentor helps to reduce the threshold of a stressful situation.

And finally, there are methods of dealing with the consequence of stress – distress. One of these methods we refer to spiritual practices. The simplest and most accessible spiritual practice for most is meditation. It trains attention, helps to learn how to establish control over your thoughts and manage emotions, and also promotes physical relaxation.

To do this, you need to choose a place and time where no one will bother you. Make yourself comfortable (for example, in the lotus position), relax. Keep your body straight: shoulders straightened, back almost straight; head should be kept straight, but chest slightly tilted forward; breathe through your nose and avoid opening your mouth when breathing.

Close your eyes and focus on your breathing; don't strain. Turn off your mind, try not to think about anything.

Allow the sensations of breathing to completely capture your consciousness; keep the sensation of breathing as the main focus point. Try to keep this state as long as possible, at least for a few minutes. If you use an account, then count to yourself, from 1 to 10 and then back again.

If thoughts come to your mind, do not follow them and do not drive them away, do not try to evaluate them – just focus on your breathing. A meditation session can last from 10 to 20 minutes.

At the same time, meditation is a good helper, but not a panacea. Therefore, it is important, in addition to the main work, to do something else that you can switch to from time to time - it can be a hobby, interesting and meaningful communication, visiting the theater, cinema, exhibitions, participation in the work of thematic clubs, public organizations, etc., because "burnout" is dangerous by forming dependence on work. To do this, I propose to create my own wheel of life balance. It will allow you to visually analyze how balanced your life priorities are.

To do this, draw a circle and imagine that it reflects your ideal life. What areas of life would you fill it with? Fill it with what you think is most important to you. Each sector will represent a certain area of your life. Evaluate on a 10-point scale how much each of the spheres has been implemented by you: 0 – not implemented at all, 10 – 100% implemented. Display the results in a circle, as shown in the example (Figure). Having received a visual diagram, you can judge what takes up too much space in your life, and what would be worth developing.

Equally important in dealing with stress is also the presence of an external supervisor who would help the company's employees understand the current situations or suggest how to overcome stress, as well as conducting so-called intervention groups (in Japan they are called a quality circle), for example, once a quarter, where employees gather, exchange opinions, discuss professional questions. Such groups allow to increase the motivation of employees, and the owner of the structure (that is, the employer) to look at some working moments from a different angle.

Do you want to assess how stressful the past year has been for you?

The Holmes-Ray scale determines the level of psychological depression. The test form contains a list of 50 everyday life events with different emotional coloring and significance, each of which is evaluated in points on a 100-point scale. When testing, respondents are asked to note those that have occurred over the past year. The scale span is 0-1476 points, When processing the results, the sum of points is determined, which corresponds to the marked events. The adaptive stress level range is from 41 to 260 points.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru29.12.2008