What You Want to Know About Stress

Undoubtedly, stress is a very common term you will come across through different sources nowadays and it has increasingly become a part of our daily lives. Especially in recent years, Hong Kong is facing tremendous changes in political, economic, organizational areas, and stress is almost omnipresent and has a direct influence in all walks of life. Stress management knowledge and skills are therefore pivotal and help to keep us at float in this bustling cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong.

Recent Study on Stress by The University of Hong Kong

In October 2003, The University of Hong Kong has conducted a study on the relationship between stress and health. A random sample of 610 employees was interviewed over the phone. The findings of the study were very informative. The study showed that 80% of the interviewees felt that their stress was high. The most stressful age group was 18 to 49 years old. The occupation group with heavy stress was administrative staff, professionals and service industry staff. Over 70% of interviewees frequently felt fatigue without apparent reasons, got irritated and lost temper easily. About 50% of them disclosed that they had had insomnia. Some reported that they had digestive problem or constipation. Besides, emotional disturbance, poor memory and headache were also cited as common stress symptoms. Needless to say, the more symptoms one suffer, the more serious the stressful condition one is facing.

As we all know, when facing long-term heavy stress, our body will secrete a kind of stress hormone, which dissolves protein and fats into glucose and provides energy. However, when the level of stress hormone maintains at a high level for a considerable length of time, it will stimulate our brain to focus on coping with potential risks and will lead to anxiety and depression. As a result, we will be overwhelmed by distressful thoughts and become persistently depressed and melancholic. Moreover, the brain cells will be damaged and our memory will be affected and to a greater extreme, diabetes and circulatory problems may develop if stressful signs are ignored.

To keep alert on our stress level, the following ten common stress symptoms (information source from The University of Hong Kong) will help to shed light on our stress threshold:

1. Frequent fatigue without special reasons
2. Anxiety or emotional disturbance
3. Headache or muscle tension around the shoulders
4. Irritated or hot-tempered
5. Poor concentration
6. Digestive problem or constipation
7. Frequent "minor" sickness
8. Poor memory
9. Oversized waistline
10. Insomnia

Stressful Life Events

In addition, you should also beware of the occurrence of stressful life events you have come across recently. Again, the more frequent the stressful life events are, the more tensed a person may become. Usually, changes in our normal life pattern may be regarded as stressful life events including positive and expected changes such as marriage, arrival of new born babies etc.

For your ease of reference, the top ten stressful life events are listed in the following. The point value of the most stressful life events are 100. You can add up the point value of different life events you have come across and may give you an idea of how stressful you are now.

Other common stressful life events are change in health of family member (point value 44), pregnancy (40), business re-engineering (39), change in financial state (38), change in the line of work (36), change in number of arguments with spouse (35), large loan/mortgage (31), change in responsibilities at work (29), trouble with in-laws (29), spouse begins or stops working (26), change in living conditions (25), trouble with boss (23) and etc..

Life is full of challenges. We should always be prepared to embrace ourselves for the changes ahead. Maintaining a balanced state of mind, good health habit, and coming to terms with the stressful life event when it happens are tips to overriding stress in an effective manner. Nevertheless, if stressful feelings linger and signs of fatigue persist, they are signals to prompt you for professional advice and help. Act immediately.