1.1 Explain the origins of stress and anxiety
In our modern lives, many of us have created additional anxiety and stresses by putting pressure on ourselves, finding little time to take care of ourselves physically, emotionally and psychologically. Stress and anxiety are frequently the reason for people taking sick days from work as well as affecting their ability to socialise, succeed at work or preventing them from enjoying life. They may suffer from Acute stress or the more serious Chronic Stress, requiring specialist help. Clients may experience phobias and panic attacks and in some cases their health may significantly deteriorate and may lead to them suffering a variety of illnesses including skin complaints, asthma, hypertension, migraines and gastrointestinal symptoms to life threatening and immunocompromised conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Stress and anxiety is our body’s natural reaction to fear and change. The subconscious is responsible for our survival and will react to potentially frightening, threatening and sometimes new situations with the “fight or flight” response, where we may feel we need to run away or to face a situation where we feel threatened with an aggressive response. During stressful events our adrenal glands release adrenaline, a hormone which activates our body’s defence mechanisms causing our hearts to pound, blood pressure to rise, muscles to tense, and the pupils of our eyes to dilate. In practice this may mean that we perceive a meeting with our boss, the same way that we would have felt when faced by a predator in prehistoric times! In this situation we have to decide whether we run or fight. We have to constantly balance how to manage a situation to stay safe, because obviously it would not be appropriate to run away from my boss, the consequence of which would cause me more anxiety and stress.
Some anxiety can be useful and work as a motivator. At work I am frequently required to give...