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Improving mental health at work

Stress and Anxiety at work? We can help you!

Experts say that one in four people in the UK will have a mental health issue at some point of their lives. Mental health is about how we think, feel and behave to an event or thought. Daily life, work and the pandemic are the most common triggers of mental health problems. Mental health has become a matter of  worry for employers due to its consequences for the general wellbeing of their staff, but don´t worry!  There are different treatments available to help your employees avoid, reduce and treat stress and anxiety in your own office.

What is mental health?

As I mentioned before, mental health is about how we think, feel and behave to an event or thought. The most common mental health problems are depression and anxiety. These are often a reaction to a difficult (or not, that depends on how you think about it) life events, such as bereavement, physical health problems or money issues. However, the last few decades have shown that work-related issues are the most common causes of stress and anxiety (and mental health problems in general).

What is anxiety and stress?

  • Anxiety is a feeling of worry, fear or unease due to a certain situation such as a job interview, an appointment or a medical procedure. Also, it can be the result of a traumatic event or fear. Anxiety can remain even if the stressor is no longer present.
  • Stress is the way your body responds to an external stimulus such as a deadline, big test or a threatening situation.

Most of us experience stress and anxiety often in our lives. It is totally normal as it helps us to prepare for stressful situations such as job interviews, return to the office during the pandemic and big tests, etc. However, prolonged stress and anxiety can start to interfere with daily living which can have a negative impact on our physical and psychological well-being. For that reason, it is important to treat them as soon as possible.

Stress and anxiety related disorders:

These kinds of disorders can occur due to frequent experiences of stress and anxiety even if the stressor is no longer present. Those are:

  • Panic disorder – causes panic attacks which are events of extreme fear. Some symptoms are: shortness of breath and pounding in the chest.
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder – causes you to repeat a specific action/actions or have the same thoughts on a regular basis.
  • Generalised anxiety disorder – is when people frequently worry without the ability to control it. Reasons for worry can vary from thinking that something terrible might happen, but not being able to specify a reason at all.
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder – results in remembering a life experience from the past, which was terrifying or gave you a significant distress at the time, and is having a negative impact on your daily living.
  • Social phobia – is the disorder where one is unable to interact with people, in a social setting, due to an intense feeling of anxiety.

What are symptoms of stress and anxiety?

The most common signs and symptoms of stress and anxiety:

  • Headache.
  • Sweating.
  • Fatigue.
  • Shaking.
  • Difficulty concentrating.
  • Feeling of impending doom.
  • Irrational anger.              
  • Restlessness.
  • Panic, particularly in a social setting.
  • Muscle tension.
  • Stomach-ache.
  • Low mood.
  • Insomnia (difficulty sleeping).
  • High breathing rate.
  • High heartbeat rate.
  • Change in appetite.

What do statistics say?

In short, we can say that: 

  • In 2020/21, 822,000 workers suffer from work-related stress, depression or anxiety (new or long-standing). 
  • The Coronavirus pandemic has increased these numbers.
  • In 2020/21 stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 50% of all work-related ill health cases.
  • The most affected areas are: industry, education, human health and social work activities (among others).
  • The most mentioned factors of stress and anxiety are; workload pressures, including tight deadlines and too much responsibility and a lack of managerial support.

How can you help your employees?

You can help your employees by offering different options to relieve stress and anxiety at the workplace, for example chair massage, talk groups (to share their feelings and thoughts), etc. But most important, humanise jobs! Sometimes, we are so focused on numbers, outcomes and profits so much that we forget that we work with people and they have worries, needs and problems as we have. So, take into account their needs and worries. People who feel welcomed and sheltered work better and are more productive.

What treatments do we offer for stress and anxiety?

Here, at the Perea Mobile Health, we offer chair massage. It is a relaxation treatment that you can offer to your employees in your own office without disturbing their daily activities, actually it is the perfect pause from work. This treatment is so beneficial that your employees will return to work feeling better and with a general sensation of well being.

How can chair massage help?

 Chair massage as massage in general is great when it comes to managing stress and anxiety. Regardless of type of massage, the benefits are achieved by:

  •  reducing the muscle tension, 
  • promoting the relaxation,
  • reducing cortisol levels, stress and anxiety hormone,
  •  increasing the release of endorphins which are the ‘feel good’ hormones.

.We hope this information is useful. If you need advice or have any questions about our treatments, please contact us. You can find us 3 mins away from Angel station in Islington. We are always happy to help!

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References:

https://www.nature.com/articles/npp200983.pdf 

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2018/stress-gen-z.pdf 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gwen-Jones/publication/250959494_The_Effectiveness_of_Massage_Therapy_Intervention_on_Reducing_Anxiety_in_the_Workplace/links/53fbbb8b0cf2364ccc044195/The-Effectiveness-of-Massage-Therapy-Intervention-on-Reducing-Anxiety-in-the-Workplace.pdf 

https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.561.6922&rep=rep1&type=pdf 

https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress.pdf

https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/mental-health.htm

Yaneth Perea

Yaneth is the business owner and also the senior therapist at Perea Clinic for over 25 years of experience.

yaneth-pereaImproving mental health at work