What are the warning signs of stress?

Excess pressure at work can affect your mental and physical health in many ways: 

Your body: 

• weight loss/gain; 
• skin rashes; 
• muscle fatigue; 
• indigestion; and 
• raised blood pressure/rapid heartbeat

Your mind: 

• anxiety and tension; 
• irritability; 
• forgetfulness; 
• disturbed sleep; and 
• headaches

Your behaviour: 

• fall in performance at work or becoming accident-prone; 
• increased use of alcohol, cigarettes or drugs; and 
• tensions at home. 

Unless the causes of your stress at work are dealt with, these symptoms can develop into much more serious, long-term ill health. 

Your body: 

• digestion problems; 
• diarrhoea; 
• vomiting; and 
• stomach ulcers

Your mind: 

• chronic anxiety; 
• depression; and 
• mental breakdown, even suicide. (Worker safety magazine Hazards estimates there could be as many as 250 work-related suicides each year.) 
• Your behaviour: 
• alcohol/substance misuse; and 
• social isolation. 
• Your immune system: 
• lowered resistance to infections; 
• chronic asthma; 
• chronic dermatitis; and 
• possible increased risk of cancer

Your heart: 

• heart disease; 
• heart attack; 
• stroke; and 
• hypertension