In the News
Stress Awareness Month
April is Stress Awareness Month. The campaign has been running for the past 29 years. It aims to increase public awareness about the causes and cures for stress.
Stress is the body’s reaction to feeling under pressure from a situation or life event. Everyone will experience stress at some point – and in small doses it can be motivating and help push us to meet the demands of home, work and general life.
However, if we experience too much stress, especially over a long time, it can have negative affects on our physical and mental well-being. Excessive stress can lead to feelings such as anxiety, depression, irritability and exhaustion. It can also present itself physically and can be linked to health problems such as heart disease, headaches and insomnia.
The pandemic has impacted all our lives. Many people have been faced with circumstances out of their control that have caused them to feel overwhelmed, stressed and anxious. According to research from the Mental Health Foundation, 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. 32% of adults said they had experienced suicidal feelings as a result of stress and 16% of adults said they had self-harmed because of its affects.*1
At Eadon Consulting we are committed to identifying, tackling and preventing the causes of work-related stress and to providing appropriate support and consideration to staff suffering from stress.
Eadon Director Michael Thorogood says: “Promoting a culture of open communication plays an important role in preventing work-related stress. Through training, effective planning and allocation of workloads, we want our staff to develop their skills and confidence and actively encourage them to raise any concerns they have about their work or working environment with us. We also offer flexible working as much as possible and regularly review all team members workloads to ensure they are suitable.”
There are many ways we can help manage stress. The Mental Health Foundation outlines ‘Seven steps to help protect yourself from stress‘. These include eating healthily, reducing the amount you smoke and drink alcohol, exercising regularly, taking time out to relax, practicing mindfulness, ensuring you get enough sleep and being kind to yourself and trying to control your inner critic.
For more information about stress and how to manage it visit The Stress Management Society website here.