Psychological issues and prevention techniques

Healthy men and women are subject to human tensions but they are able to find ways to relieve them without excessive anxiety. Among the ways they use: Talking over worries with a sympathetic friend, relative, physician, or anyone else whose judgment they respect.

Getting away for a while, even if only for a short walk

 Working off anger, preferably by discussing it openly with a trusted, mature person; sometimes in some physical activity

 Taking one thing at a time, especially when feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of too much to do. Giving in sometimes, even when certain they are right. Helping others, getting out of the vicious circle that preoccupation with one's own troubles can produce.

Being slow with criticism

 Cooperating, being aware that though we live in a competitive society, many situations call for cooperative effort; and aware, too, that if one competes all the time, one may be too weary and too worn to enjoy success when it is achieved. THE BASIC DISORDERS A useful way to classify abnormal behavior is by dividing it into four broad categories: psychosomatic disorders, neuroses, character disorders, and psychoses. Although there can be some overlapping and intermixing, these four types of ailments can be examined separately. Psychosomatic Disorders These illnesses, which we have discussed in earlier chapters, are understandable to anyone who has ever had a headache after a fight with spouse or employer, or experienced butterflies in the stomach before taking an important examination.

Occasional mild distress of this sort is universal and harmless. But some people experience such symptoms al- most constantly, and their discomfort is intense. Psychosomatic illnesses can assume many forms, including skin outbreaks, stomach upsets, high blood pressure, and asthma. These are not imaginary problems; even when there is no physical cause, pain can be authentic and illness very real. A person with an emotionally produced physical ailment needs psycho- logical help, but he also is as much in need of medical help as the individual whose disease has organic roots.

Stress- Frustration treatment

COPING EFFECTIVELY MENTAL AND emotional stress cannot be eliminated from life. 

Nor does it have to be. In itself it is not harmful. It is not a disease but a normal part of life. It is not so much the amount of stress an individual is subjected to that determines whether he or she will suffer from acute anxiety or depression or psychosomatic illness as it is how the stress is perceived, understood, and handled. And there are measures we can make use of to handle stressful situations in our lives more effectively.

There can, of course, be situations that seem so overwhelming that we may need medical or other professional help if we are to cope with them. Such help, as the next chapter will show, is available. But for most situations we have resources of our own that we can learn to use successfully.

HANDLING FEELINGS OF FRUSTRATION

When we have worries and cannot do anything about them, we have feelings of frustration. Long continued, frustration can take serious physical toll. In a classic experiment demonstrating the physical effects of frustration, rats were strapped to a board-for them, a most frustrating situation. As they struggled uselessly to get out of the situation, large areas of their heart muscles disintegrated and the animals died. Obviously, the one way to have saved the rats would have been to release them. Medication might conceivably have dulled the frustration for them but not released them. Man's frustrating situations are not so obvious. 

But they can be no less exacting. And while there is often a temptation to regard them as insoluble and to dull the feelings they arouse by such means as drugs and alcohol, man's frustrating situations quite often can be solved.

There is usually something that can be done to adapt to the circumstance or to change the seeming circumstance. If, say, your job is a particularly frustrating one, must it remain so? Is the frustration irremovable? There are many cases like that of a man, a successful young executive, or so he had been, who became a victim of painful headaches and insomnia and began to have trouble with associates on the job and with family at home. 

He had recently been assigned to a responsible new position in a division of the company that was in trouble. He worked hard and yet couldn't make as much of a dent in the many problems the division faced as he thought desirable. Increasingly anxious and tense, he put pressure on the people working with him as well as on himself, to the point where he no longer had their cooperation.

He had a gnawing, ever growing fear that his superiors were dissatisfied with his work. Only when he faced up to the fact that it was this fear which was driving him and, at the same time, was frustrating him, making him act in a self-defeating fashion, could he nerve himself for a showdown with the company president. It was a productive showdown. 

Was the president dissatisfied with his work, he wanted to know. On the contrary, the president told him, he thought he had done remarkably well in a difficult situation. And, in fact, so concerned was the president over the possible loss of the young man that he insisted he take an immediate vacation and promised to assign additional personnel to help him in his work. If you feel you are faltering in your job, that you are out of your depth, it mayor may not be true. It's healthy to find out where you stand, to take action rather than suffer along. 

You may not be out of your depth at all but may have created frustration for yourself by demanding more of yourself than anybody could reasonably expect. If you are out of your depth, the chances are that this will be discovered by others sooner or later; and if you own up to it sooner, there may be something of an immediate wrench but you will save yourself much grief and may well find yourself a happier situation much sooner. 

Muscle care and Fatigue

MUSCLE CARE

The voluntary muscles are the only ones that require your everyday care. Muscles remain in good condition only when they are used. If they fall The Muscles / 195 into complete disuse, they atrophy or waste away. Short of this, if they are used relatively little, they lose strength and vigor and their tone diminishes. Healthy vigorous muscles are important for many reasons: for good posture, graceful movement, and a sense of well-being. The spring in the step of a healthy vigorous man isn't simply a matter of well-developed muscles, but of the contribution that good muscular health makes to overall body health and even to mental outlook. Also, strong muscles protect the bones, joints, and internal organs more effectively against injury. In our increasingly sedentary way of life, unless we resort to special measures, our muscles are victimized by disuse.

Actually, when muscles are not used, they have relatively little need for blood and nourishment; and as a result most of the capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels which supply them, collapse and remain collapsed, out of business most of the time. The greater the activity of muscles, the more the capillaries opens up and, in fact, the more capillaries may be developed by the body to supply the need. With sedentary living, there is little demand. One famed experiment by Dr. Hardin Jones of the University of California has shown that the average sedentary American man is, in terms of muscle circulation, middle-aged by the time he is 26.

Using Geiger counter tests to follow blood flow through muscles in teen-agers and in 500 industrial workers, Dr. Jones established that between the ages of 18 and 25, the flow drops 40 percent; by the age of 35, it is down 60 percent, at which point, in the sense of physical vigor, the average sedentary man is less than half the man he used to be. Because of our sedentary living, deliberate exercise is essential-and this applies to all of us, women and children as well as men. The objective of the exercise should not be the development of big muscles, for muscle size is not a true measure of fitness. A well-founded exercise program should aim at strengthening muscles and also the circulatory system in the interest of endurance-the ability to sustain activity and keep going without quick fatigue. 

SPECIAL FARM AND RURAL WORKING PROBLEMS affects health

SPECIAL FARM AND RURAL WORKING PROBLEMS 

Although it is commonly thought that working on a farm or in a rural area is healthier than urban work, statistics indicate that this is not so, that illness and disability have much the same incidence in both places. In some rural areas, moreover, where doctors are few and hospitals poorly equipped, residents may have more health problems than do city dwellers. 

If you live and work in a rural area, you should know the facts about certain diseases that may occur in some rural areas: brucellosis (undulant fever), tularemia, and typhoid fever, tuberculosis of bones and joints, dysentery, malaria, hookworm.

Rural living provides no particular protection against tuberculosis and, indeed, farmers need to take every precaution listed and some extra ones as well. For example, milk in cities almost invariably is pasteurized, a precaution that helps prevent tuberculosis of the glands and bones, and other diseases such as undulant fever and septic sore throat. 

Unless a farmer goes to the trouble of pasteurizing the milk from his own cow, he and his family are in danger from these diseases. Many wise farmers set an example all might well follow: they either do their own pasteurizing or buy back some of the milk they sell to dairy plants after it has been pasteurized. Home pasteurization is described elsewhere in this blogs.

Farm Accidents The accident toll among rural Americans is high. While there is less danger than in the city from traffic, this is counterbalanced by the frequency of accidents during operation of farm machinery and by other hazards.  Because the accident rate is high and medical care may not be very lose by, every farmer should have a good working knowledge of first aid, and all farm vehicles should carry first-aid kits, including instruction booklets, even small wounds need immediate treatment because of the danger of infection. 

Any animal bites should be promptly washed with soap and water and treated, and they should also be reported to a physician and the animal should be checked for rabies. Tetanus (lockjaw) organisms thrive in the intestines of horses and other grass-eating animals and are therefore found around barns and in oil fertilized by manure. This disease, which can develop as the result of any deep wound such as one produced by stepping on a nail, is a constant threat to people in rural areas.

 It can be prevented by inoculations, and everyone, from childhood on, should be protected against tetanus by much inoculations. No deep wound, however trivial it may seem, should be neglected; an immediate injection of protective serum may make the difference between life and death. Be sure to read further on tetanus elsewhere in this book.

KNOW THE SPECIAL HAZARDS OF YOUR WORK

Smaller ones have first-aid stations and safety or other personnel trained in first aid. A squad of workers can and should be organized and trained to treat minor burns, shock, and cases requiring artificial respiration. Such measures can save lives and help avoid serious disabilities. Electrical hazards can crop up almost anywhere. 

Exposed wires, crossed circuits, and carelessness can lead to serious shocks and burns. If you become aware of any wiring that is defective, waste no time calling it to the attention of someone who can correct it. We would like to stress this here: If someone is unconscious from electric shock, do not give up; artificial respiration and heart massage, continued over a period of hours, have been known to save people who appeared beyond hope of reviving. 

Be careful about floors and staircases wetted by chemicals or other liquid.  if found any danger of slipping, handholds should be provided;  

KNOW THE SPECIAL HAZARDS OF YOUR WORK

 No job is completely free of hazards, and each job may have its own special ones, Even sedentary occupations such as those of clerks and office workers are not entirely safe, Women who work at home should carefully read Chapter 40, in which we discuss danger spots in the home and how to avoid accidents which cripple and kill many people each year. 

In addition, salespeople, teachers, librarians, and others who deal with large numbers of people in the course of their work should know and do as much as possible about the increased danger of exposure to colds and other respiratory ailments.

BASIC GUIDELINES to avoid work related stress-fatigue

STAYING WELL ON THE JOB 

Many companies today have highly organized safety programs and preventive industrial health programs. They employ both physicians and safety experts to direct these programs. Many also employ industrial hygienists to study the hazards of all jobs and develop criteria for safe operation. Safety equipment is specified for new machines and often added to existing ones. 

Workers are provided with safety goggles, safety shoes, and other protective devices. Still, even in these industries as well as in others which have not yet fully caught up with new trends in improvement of conditions of employment, preventable accidents and illnesses occur.

Different jobs, of course, have their individual health problems, and we will take these up after a look at some important basic rules that apply to virtually all work.

BASIC GUIDELINES

Come to work rested.

Fatigue has been shown repeatedly to be a major factor in accidents on the job. Plan your late-hour entertainment- dances, card parties, etc.-as much as possible for the nights before your days off from work. It's a good idea to avoid drinking alcoholic beverages after dinner any night, and especially on nights before work days. It doesn't take an outright hangover, just a feeling of moderate or slight upset and sluggishness, to invite trouble on the job. 

If you have a drinking problem, Beyond reasonable hours, regular periods of rest and relaxation are important. A day or two off each week, with a change of pace, is essential for avoiding mental and emotional as well as physical rundown. So is an annual vacation. Coming to the job fresh and invigorated-mentally, emotionally and physically-helps not only to greatly reduce the likelihood of accident and illness but also makes it possible for you to do a better job and create a better impression. It's important to note here that you should not ruin your days off by doing things to overtire yourself or otherwise affect your health.

Don't have any fears about being considered "prissy" if you make a point, as you certainly should, of finding out and following all safety rules that apply to your particular job. If you start on a new job, don't hesitate to do the obviously sensible thing: discuss precautions with your employer, foreman or other supervisor, and older workers. 

Ask questions, especially about any particular hazards. If a fellow worker is a danger to you or to others, take up the problem with those in authority. There is no room in any job, and especially a job involving any risks, for the practical joker. Every year, people are rushed to hospitals, dying or seriously injured, because "jokers" play- fully but cripplingly pushed a compressed air jet against them, worked a "hot foot" gag, or carried out some other "innocent" practical joke. 

Workers who insist on practical jokes or who don't know how to handle dangerous equipment properly are frequent causes of industrial accidents and deaths. Find out the location of the first-aid station or other nursing or medical facility. Many big plants now have full-time nursing and even medical staffs. 

HOBBIES AND OTHER RECREATION as relaxation tecniques

HOBBIES AND OTHER RECREATION

Recreation-refreshment of the strength and spirit after toil-is an extremely broad term. It covers physical activities which can be as vigorous as one likes, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, quiet activities Relaxation. It covers solitary activities and group activities. 

It covers. Cultural activities which can be considered creative and, for a while; it also covers activities that some may consider trivial that any activity which provides recreation cannot be dismissed as a utility. It is a common observation among physicians that patients who have developed hobbies and learned to enjoy recreational activities build to be healthier as well as happier.

And there is nothing trivial about that, ideally, each individual should have an indoor hobby and an outdoor one, both capable of providing genuine satisfaction. Some people prefer 10 change hobbies every year or two and even to relate their indoor and outdoor activities-so that, for example, one year archery may be the outdoor hobby and Indian art the indoor diversion, the next year the combination may be sailing and ship models. 

Others prefer to be casual, about choosing and staying with their hobbies. Hobbies need not be expensive. Some, such as gardening and refinishing old furniture, may be, in fact, more than pay for themselves.

In selecting hobbies, look for those you will really enjoy. Don't be like a businessman who, years ago, because his doctor had advised taking up a hobby, began to collect stamps. Dutifully he kept on collecting them though for him it was a bore. It took many years for him to realize that what he really wanted to do was to paint and that he had been mistaken in thinking that painting would be no suitable hobby for a man in his position.

Today he belongs, with great enjoyment, to a growing group of amateur "Sunday artists." Pick your hobby without regard to what others like or dislike, without regard to what may be fashionable or to what may seem to have some kind of "status." It should be something you like and want to do, something interesting, satisfying, relaxing for you. 

It is worth noting here that adult education is increasingly popular. It provides for some people opportunity to complete degree requirements. For others, it offers opportunities for learning about hobbies and even for acquiring new knowledge or skill for its own sake, as a hobby in itself.

Newspapers and magazines are full of advertisements and notices of adult education courses in colleges and universities. Your local public school board may also offer adult evening courses, ranging from arts and crafts to languages, current events, science, philosophy, and psychology. One of them is almost certain to appeal to you. 

What is relaxation and how to acheive it?

HOW TO ACHIEVE RELAXATION

Someone has remarked that the doctor who tells a tense, nervous, high- strung person to relax might just as well tell him to stop breathing. But the art of relaxation can be learned. If the guidelines we give you here do not work, then some form of treatment is required. It may consist of a few talks with your sympathetic physician or, in extreme cases of compulsive inability to relax, may require psychotherapy.

Any medical advice must take account of individual differences. No two people react precisely the same way to a prescription for digitalis or other medicine. Similarly, there is a tremendous difference in the way people relax; in what makes them relax, in how much relaxation they take, in how much of a toll work takes from them. We know two surgeons who work the same long hours from 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. with some night calls. Yet one ends the week rested, happy, and ready to enjoy a fun weekend; the other ends the week a bundle of nerves, with a body so tired that it takes until Monday morning before he has recovered his stamina for the week ahead. We know two business partners, one of whom returns from a month's vacation perfectly rested while the other returns from his vacation more fatigued than when he left. To achieve suitable relaxation, each person must take an inventory of need.

One chronically fatigued person we know did so and learned that his really effective work span-the time he could work at peak efficiency and without fatigue-was only four hours. He rescheduled his life, put a couch in his office, and with an hour's rest every four hours has increased his work output and become thoroughly relaxed. Consciously or unconsciously, a relaxed person has carried out an inventory and knows when rest and change of pace are needed during his daily work. Some men like to spend part of their lunch hour at a gym or athletic club, taking a swim or engaging in other physical activity; others prefer a nap or a book; still others thrive on luncheon with friends. There is an almost endless variety to activities that can provide restful, relaxing change of pace during the day. It's the change that is important-and at the end of the day as well.

The sedentary worker may benefit from a long walk or some jogging or other physical activity; on the other hand, the person whose work is physically demanding may need a quiet hour, stretched out, perhaps napping briefly, or listening to the radio or watching TV. Some fathers find relaxation with their children; others need to be insulated from the demands of the children-and possibly from any of the wife-when they arrive home. The housewife, too, is entitled to, and no less needs, change of pace. And it doesn't matter what the change involves, so long as it is restful and relaxing to the individual woman. A break for coffee or tea! Fine. A pause to watch a favorite TV program, call a friend, read a magazine or book-all good if the individual finds them rewarding.

No less than the man who works away from home, the woman who works at the demanding job of running a home and caring for children needs to make her inventory of need and find activities that diminish her fatigue and renew her zest. And for both man and woman, important elements in relaxation are recreational activities, sports, and vacations. 

Importance of rest and relaxation

A better understanding of the importance of rest and relaxation has been made possible by advances in neurophysiology providing new in- sights into what happens in the central nervous system. Investigators have been able to establish-by actually picking out the structures in animals and stimulating them with electric currents-that there are structures which have a damping or inhibitory effect and are in fatigue, and there are other structures which make up a system. 

If we sum up the vast amount of Neuro-physiological research, we fit this picture: An individual's mood-his ability to perform-at the given time depends on the degree of activity of the two systems. Inhibitory system dominates, the individual is in a state of fatigue; in the activating system dominates; he is ready to step up performance. This concept of fatigue helps to explain many symptoms otherwise difficult to understand.

All of us know, for example, that a feeling of tiredness can often disappear immediately if something unexpected happens or if a piece of intelligence or train of thought produces an emotional change. In such cases, the activating system is being stimulated. But if the surroundings are monotonous, if we are bored by what we are doing, the pitch of the activating system is lowered and the inhibitory system is in the ascendancy. 

And it is this that explains the fatigue that ran occurs in monotonous situations even when there is no stress. Monotony, by definition, is a wearisome sameness, a lack of change in the variety. And whatever the work we do, it can be considered monotonous work if it goes on without pause or change of pace.

We all are aware of the need for a good night's sleep, but too few of us recognize the need for rest and relaxation during the day. Many of us businessmen, professional people, and others-who not only work hard but are under heavy stress could live more comfortably without sacrificing efficiency-indeed, with increased efficiency-and probably live longer if we managed to take breaks during the day and take them without guilty consciences. 

Work stress and Relaxation Tecniques

Work stress and Relaxation Tecniques

Many things enter into the art of living, and relaxation is certainly one of them. It is valuable not only in and of itself for the enjoyment of life but also as a means of preventing undue physical fatigue, boredom, and tension, and for actually making work easier and 'more enjoyable. Ours is an age of rapid change, of increasing complexity in social and industrial organization. We are busier with mental and less with physical work. We live at a faster pace. 

There are more and more challenges and opportunities-and perhaps, more and more stresses, pressures and, deadlines. How people react to stress depends, of course, upon very many things, and certainly included among them are general health, physical fitness, fatigue, and emotional well-being. And relaxation is an important influence on all of these.

Almost everyone knows from experience that pronounced tiredness from day to day can, if extended, produce chronic fatigue. When this occurs, the weariness sensations are intensified, appearing not only at the end of a day but during the day and even early in the morning. Along with the weariness, there may be increased irritability, a tendency to lapse into depression or blue moods, a general lack of drive and loss of initiative. Many people have the idea that they can't afford to take time for rest and relaxation, that in the modern world it's essential to work long and hard or you won't keep up. 

But this is to overlook, for one thing, the relationship between performance and working hours. While more studies are needed of the relationship between mental work performance and working hours, there are guidelines to be found in the many investigations carried out in factories.

They have shown repeatedly that when working time is shortened, hourly performance improves, whereas lengthening the work period has the opposite effect. In many cases it has been observed that after more than ten hours of work, overall performance falls off decidedly, because the slowing down of working speed due to fatigue is not compensated for by the longer period worked. Longer working schedules are frequent in wartime and boom conditions. 

But the overtime worked often proves of little value because productivity fails to increase to the extent that was expected. Various studies have shown that overtime work not only cuts down on performance per hour but also leads to a characteristic increase in absence due to illness and accidents.