CAUSES OF STRESS

Many different things can cause stress -- from physical (such as fear of something dangerous) to emotional (such as worry over your family or job.) Identifying what may be causing you stress is often the first step in learning how to better deal with your stress. Some of the most common sources of stress are:

Survival Stress - You may have heard the phrase "fight or flight" before. This is a common response to danger in all people and animals. When you are afraid that someone or something may physically hurt you, your body naturally responds with a burst of energy so that you will be better able to survive the dangerous situation (fight) or escape it all together (flight). This is survival stress.


Internal Stress - Have you ever caught yourself worrying about things you can do nothing about or worrying for no reason at all? This is internal stress and it is one of the most important kinds of stress to understand and manage. Internal stress is when people make themselves stressed. This often happens when we worry about things we can't control or put ourselves in situations we know will cause us stress. Some people become addicted to the kind of hurried, tense, lifestyle that results from being under stress. They even look for stressful situations and feel stress about things that aren't stressful.


Environmental Stress - This is a response to things around you that cause stress, such as noise, crowding, and pressure from work or family. Identifying these environmental stresses and learning to avoid them or deal with them will help lower your stress level.
Fatigue and Overwork - This kind of stress builds up over a long time and can take a hard toll on your body. It can be caused by working too much or too hard at your job(s), school, or home. It can also be caused by not knowing how to manage your time well or how to take time out for rest and relaxation. This can be one of the hardest kinds of stress to avoid because many people feel this is out of their control. Later in this course we will show you that you DO have options and offer some useful tips for dealing with fatigue.

Downsizing. With downsizing seemingly a routine procedure in many companies, even the threat of layoffs can be stressful.

Moreover, after downsizing, firms often increase the workload of remaining employees, which leads to more stress.

Competition and change. With globalization has come increasing pressure to compete and innovate, which has led to an increase in re-engineering.

Technological change. Employees are often expected to learn new technologies without being given adequate training. Or they are not consulted when new technology is introduced. In addition, employees at all levels are flooded with information because of technological changes. As well, employees are frequently asked to be “on” for their jobs more hours each day: Pagers, voice mail, faxes, email, the Internet, and intranets make it possible to stay in touch with the workplace 24 hours a day.

Research by Professor Christina Cavanagh of the Richard Ivey

School of Business at the University of Western Ontario shows that email is an increasing cause of stress. Individuals receive an average of 80 or 90 emails daily, and devote an hour more each day to handling it than they did two years ago. The frustration is not just with quantity or time.