Shift workers continuing nightmare ....

Quite recently I had occasion to see a client suffering with very severe anxiety. There was no overt and obvious reason for the periods of mental trauma they were suffering. The only major change in his life of recent times, was that he had become one of the ranks of shift workers who keep our world ticking over twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Of course, his anxiety issue may well be caused by other factors, we are yet to deduce that, but, I suspect that he may be a victim of Shift Workers Sleep Disorder, or, SWSD.

Our body clock and our minds are finely tuned to daylight activity and night time sleep. Tossing us unceremoniously into a clock which is reversed can have little but a negative affect upon us.

Also, a United Nations report found people who work night shifts have a higher risk of contracting cancer.
The study, published in The Lancet and endorsed by the World Health Organisation, found that night shifts were carcinogenic because workers were exposed to light at night, disrupting their circadian rhythms.
The study found that nurses who worked at night and flight attendants who continually crossed time zones had a higher risk of breast cancer than women who did not have their circadian rhythms disrupted, and that constant light, dim light at night, or simulated chronic jet lag could substantially increase tumor development.
So, what is it, this SWSD? It is a sleep disorder resulting from a constant or recurring disruption of your normal sleep patterns. Our bodies are usually adjusted to a natural circadian rhythm in which we sleep at night and are awake during the day. Anyone working nontraditional hours or shift such as 4 pm to midnight or midnight to 8 am are very likely to suffer from SWSD.
In the developed world it is estimated that of the millions of people who work some form of shift work, 25 percent suffer from SWSD. It is even worse for those who rotate through various shifts. Many shift workers find it hard to adjust or do not adjust at all.
Symptoms include insomnia, excessive sleepiness, no energy, frequent headaches and having difficulty concentrating. It is suspected that many accidents can find their true cause in shift work related fatigue, If you have any of these symptoms, discuss them with your doctor. Non-treatment could lead to more accidents and sickness as well as irritability, impatience, anxiety and depression. Ask your doctor for information on treatments. It is not wise to take any drug or over the counter medicine to help you sleep without first checking with your physician.
There are some things that you can do to help you sleep better when you do work shift work. Try not to work rotating shifts such as 4 pm to 12 pm then 8 am to 4 pm then 12 am to 8 am. Your body can not even begin to adjust. Work the same night shift regularly is better as your body has time to adjust. You can also prepare yourself to sleep better even if it is during the day. To keep the daylight from activating your internal clock, try wearing wrap-around dark glasses on the way home from work. Develop a ritual for going to bed and stick to a regular schedule seven days a week. Hit sack as soon as you can after getting home from work. Discuss the problem with your family and set up a quiet time so you can sleep in peace. They should try to avoid all unnecessary noise at this time.
I guess it all boils down to "well someone has to do it", and then managing it in the most healthy way possible. Good rest and relaxation in your down time just has to be a bonus, and the deep relaxation afforded by basic sessions of hypnosis can only be helpful to both mind and body.
Having been there myself, more than once, I'd totally endorse it. Anything which affects your mind and body in a natural fashion has to be a good thing!

Busting Stress with Hypnosis

Modern day pressures are adding an unusual load upon people within the western world in particular. I suspect that given the new global economy it will become more prevalent in other nations quite quickly. Basically speaking, where we have industry + desire for wealth + education we begin to develop this quite unique blend of stressors which can tip us over the edge both mentally and physically.
That's not to say that a Masai tribes person doesn't suffer stress events, I'm sure they do, but its a different form and type of stress to that which we impose upon ourselves.
Stress is a well-known trigger for depression and it can also affect your physical health. So it's important to identify the causes of stress in your life and try to minimise them.
Any sort of loss, from bereavement, divorce and separation to a child leaving home, causes stress, as do long-term illness and disability. But things such as marriage, moving house, a new job and holidays have quite high stress ratings too.
In work, worrying about deadlines or about not being up to the challenges of a particular task can cause stress.

Symptoms of stress
Some common signs of too much stress include:

• Increased irritability
• Heightened sensitivity to criticism
• Signs of tension, such as nail-biting
• Difficulty getting to sleep and early morning waking
• Drinking and smoking more
• Indigestion
• Loss of concentration

It's important to act to relieve damaging stress before it affects your physical or mental health.

Dealing with stress

The secret of managing stress is to look after yourself and, where possible, to remove some of the causes of stress. If you start to feel things are getting on top of you, give yourself some breathing space.
Take a day off work, domestic chores, family and everything else that puts pressure on you. Spend the day doing only relaxing things that make you feel good. It can make all the difference, reducing the threat to your wellbeing.
Some ways to cope with stress:

• Accept offers of practical help
• Do one thing at a time - don't keep piling stress on stress
• Know your own limits - don't be too competitive or expect too much of yourself
• Talk to someone
• Let off steam in a way that causes no harm (shout, scream or hit a pillow)
• Walk away from stressful situations
• Try to spend time with people who are rewarding rather than critical and judgmental
• Practise slow breathing using the lower part of the lungs
• Use relaxation techniques

One response to stress can be anger. Find out more about anger management

Work-related stress
Stress caused by work is the second biggest occupational health problem in the Western World (after back problems). Because there's still a stigma attached to mental health problems, employees are often reluctant to seek help in case they're seen as unable to cope.
Many situations can lead to stress at work. These include:

• Poor relationships with colleagues
• an unsupportive boss
• Lack of consultation and communication
• Too much interference with your private, social or family life
• Too much or too little to do
• Too much pressure, with unrealistic deadlines
• Work that's too difficult or not demanding enough
• Lack of control over the way the work is done
• Poor working conditions
• Being in the wrong job
• Feeling undervalued
• Insecurity and the threat of unemployment

When people feel under impossible pressure at work, they tend to work harder and harder to try to close the gap between what they're achieving and what they think they should be achieving. They stop taking breaks and lose touch with their own needs.
Tackling work stress
There are general things you can do:

• Talk to someone you trust - at work or outside - about the things that are upsetting you
• Use whatever counselling or support is available
• Work regular hours and take all the breaks and holidays you're entitled to.
• If things get too much, book a day off or a long weekend
• Use flexitime, if available, to avoid rush-hour travel or to fit in with childcare needs
• Look after yourself through exercise and healthy eating
• Tackle addictions to alcohol, smoking or other drugs

Specific things to do:

• Make your work environment comfortable and suited to your needs
• Discuss problems with your supervisor or manager, and if difficulties can't be resolved, talk to your personnel department, trade union representative or other relevant members of staff
• Treat colleagues with the respect and consideration you'd like from them
• Be aware of company policies on harassment, bullying or racism, so you know how to challenge unacceptable behaviour and what back-up there is

All excellent suggestions. Hypnotherapy is an excellent modality of therapy for such stress events. It can re-colour the way you behave in stressful situations, and help you to divest yourself of that which has been causing the inability to cope.

We can teach you new skills, new ways to relax, I mean really relax! This is a skill which people lose as stress builds up and swallows them whole.

So, recognise it, act promptly, seek professional help. There is a way out.

Anxiety and Panic

If you suffer with an anxiety related disorder, you are one of the estimated 89 million persons worldwide who do so. That's a very loose figure I believe, and could well be in excess of 100 million. Many sufferers either don't know that they are afflicted, and many go undiagnosed. Also, there is still a stigma attached to mental health issues, regardless of efforts by various groups who have endeavored to remove that stigmatic tag.
Anxiety disorder is the most common emotional disorder and is more common than alcohol abuse or depression.
As an indication of depth and intensity of feelings experienced by people suffering with a ‘mind problem’, I have included an actual letter from a woman who has suffered with severe anxiety, and panic disorder for some years. It illustrates in quite a dramatic way that “mind – body connection”. She kindly gave her permission in allowing this to be published, in order that we may all begin to understand this problem a little more fully. For obvious reasons of anonymity her name is not shown. For those of you not familiar with the anxiety based disorders, it may indeed be educational. Take note just how physical the symptoms can be. The letter is printed verbatim, but with her name excluded.

Anxiety at it’s Peak:

Hi Dan, just had to email you to ask you a couple of questions, if you don't mind. For the past 10 days I have been having the worst time, I feel as though I have been living in terror mode. Each day I have been waking up nervous, a shaky jelly mess from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. There is a revving inside that has made me feel terrorized. I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything other than the scared body reactions I'm getting, they feel like they are pulsing through you like bolts of electricity. All the muscles in my body have tightened to the point where they feel like to move is going to break them. There is pain in muscles and bones and I've had these crampy twitches in the whole body. My shoulders are up around my ears most of the time I can’t seem to drop them and relax. I've noticed too that I have had heaps of static electricity in my body as well. I am finding the cold weather is affecting me as well and the revved terror feeling is worse as the day gets colder. My body seems to lock up and when I check my blood pressure it has gone way up and then I start having thoughts like "Oh my god, am I having a stroke or is the pain I feel a heart attack" "is this numby feeling in my hands, feet and legs because my circulation is bad" terror, horror, "am I dying" My mind gets so terrified I cant talk to anyone and my body revs up even more then. I have had bubbly sick stomach and pulsy bubbly heartbeat feeling in my abdomen, as well as foot and leg cramps that tighten the muscles so much they feel like they will break. I get this stiffness in my body that scares me and I feel like I'm on overload that I might just loose the plot one day. The days seem so hard and when I have to entertain, even my family, I feel like I can’t handle the body sensations, I can’t concentrate on conversations even. There are days I wonder if I am going mad, it feels that bad. Are these things I am feeling all a part of anxiety Dan? Because all I know is that I am feeling absolute terror and that terrifies me. If you can shed any light on this I would be so grateful.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your reply.

Sounds terrifying does it not. It is a very physical set of symptoms, and this surprises some folk who don't understand the ailment. Anxiety is not simply "a state of worrying"; it is a state of what I would term unbalance in both mind and body. For those souls afflicted, it is a 24 hour a day ghost which haunts their every waking minute, and to a degree their sleep time also.

Their is a physicality to these symptoms, and the process begins within the brain itself. Two of the main brain structures involved with this problem are the amygdala and the hippocampus. There is still controversy within certain circles as to the exact process which leads to "high anxiety" or panic, but these two organs and other parts of the endocrine system interact to cause the symptoms so well known to sufferers. Here is a partial list of the main sensations:

• raging heartbeat
• difficulty breathing, feeling as though you 'can't get enough air
• terror that is almost paralyzing
• nervous, shaking, stress
• heart palpitation, feeling of dread
• dizziness, lightheadedness or nausea
• trembling, sweating, shaking
• choking, chest pains, distress
• fear, fright, afraid, anxious
• hot flashes, or sudden chills
• tingling in fingers or toes ('pins and needles')
• fearful that you're going to go crazy or are about to die

The programs within the mind which cause this have been learned by the individual. Sometimes it was learned quickly, sometimes over a lengthy period of time. There is now sound empirical evidence that this learned behaviour can be relearned, in a way that does not create the previous anxious response. Joseph LeDoux of New York University and his team have studied these processes in great detail, particularly since the events of September 11th 2001.

One of the fastest and least invasive ways of retraining thought processes is by the use of Hypnotherapy. You can learn about my particular approach via my website, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at your pleasure.

Workplace stress and its results ...

We all know that negative stress can be dangerous and harmful to us. The other life stresses, which may act to motivate us are natural mind processes; they are what makes us get out of bed in the morning. In the workplace, stress can be incredibly counter productive. It can lower moral and destroy the structure of the workplace society from the inside out. Here are a few symptoms of workplace stress, courtesy of Dale Collie.

"It is no secret that stress and related disorders are the most frequent cause of employee disability (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). As far back as 1992, a United Nations report called job stress a "world wide epidemic. Control of workplace stress is a leadership responsibility. Good leaders who recognize the symptoms of stress can control situations to create more desirable workplaces and to improve both productivity and the bottom line. Corporate leaders who have served in the military recognize employee stress when they observe symptoms such as:

1. Anxiety
2. Indecisiveness
3. Irritability
4. Complaining
5. Forgetfulness
6. Loss of self confidence
7. Argumentativeness
8. Insomnia
9. Rapid emotional shifts
10. Physical exhaustion

Symptoms such as these cost companies billions of dollars each year in health care costs, absenteeism, accidents, quality control, personnel turnover, and various interpersonal relationship problems.

Some managers mistakenly try to control stressful problems by increasing demands and supervising details. Increased urgency and focus on details typically generates even more stress. The problems shift from slight distractions, such as back pain, headaches, and inattention, to more drastic reactions such as absenteeism and medical problems, both good indicators that stress levels need attention.

Just as in the Army, most business leaders must be taught to manage stress and to observe for negative stress reactions. All managers need to understand the importance of positive stress in maximizing accuracy and productivity. And they need to know how to control the negative stress for the benefit of those involved and the bottom line.

If you don't have qualified staff in your company, outside consultants and trainers can help you evaluate current stress levels and train everyone involved. Remember, stress control is a leadership responsibility."

Hypnotherapy is an excellent engine of change, and can lower stress levels markedly when used by an erudite practitioner. Basic stress reduction sessions with someone such as myself take little more than one hour in time, and as such are an extremely efficient way of handling this issue.

You'll find all of my Blogs at: http://hypnoidal.blogspot.com/

Workplaces and Stressors ......

The modern day workplace can be large, medium or small. Regardless of the size though, some things are common to every single facility. It's a place where people come together and interact in some way; it's a place where egos and personalities meet, albeit for only a small portion of the day or night. Add to this the pressures which naturally accompany today's 'need to produce' and we have a wonderful, but potentially destructive formula for individual psychological stress. Of course in each place the levels of stress vary; each place has different pressures, personnel and levels of management competency.

According to figures published by Australia's medical insurance company 'Medibank' in 2008, a staggering AU$14.81 billion a year is drained from the nation's economy purely by workplace related stress. The total cost to employers was an enormous AU$10.11 billion! Those figures are mind boggling. Stress directly related to the workplace is affecting the worth of our country in a more than miniscule way. I imagine that figures across the globe in other nations must be similar. A minimum of 3.2 days per employee are lost annually to stress.

You don't need to be A.Einstein to figure that in a workplace of, lets say 100 employees, working 12 hour shifts (common these days), that equates to a grand total of 3840 manhours of lost production every single year! Extrapolate this figure out to one of our larger employers of let's say 1000 personnel, and it's a huge 38400 manhours every single year. If your the unfortunate individual actually affected by the stress, you may well lose income, or at the extreme, your position, if the situation is not resolved.

It is also interesting to note that figures show that while compensation claims made by Australian employees fell significantly between 1996 and 2004, the number of stress related claims almost doubled. The reason for this is not totally clear, that great gap between physical injury claims and the rise in stress related claims. Whatever the reasons, it seems obvious that in order to improve their workplace morale, output and employee retention rate, employers have a need to address this stress phenomenon.

Hypnotherapy is possibly one of the finest modalities when it comes to stress management. Deep relaxation, and that gentle 'mind defragmentation' which takes place in the hypnotic state is indeed highly beneficial to the stressed individual.

My perspective on this is quite simple. I offer all of our local companies the opportunity to point their stressed employees in the direction of my therapy chair. In what I term "Stressbuster" sessions, I can offer sixty to ninety minutes of powerful stress relief; in these sessions, the clients can divest themselves of the pressures of life and work. They leave my rooms mellow, calm and mentally soothed. This is good! These sessions have given me great satisfaction over the years; it's quite amazing to watch people morph very quickly from a stressed, uptight, disturbed being, into one that's calm, collected and more able to cope with day to day pressures.

I may be contacted via my email of course, which is: hypnotherapy@iprimus.com.au, or, conversely by telephone at 0414 856 278.

Stress, the silent, but deadly killer

I wonder if you've noticed of late that, although we live in a far "better world" than that of our grandparents (in some ways at least), stress is rampant within a great portion of our society. Modern day pressures of living, many of which are imposed by expectation, are growing year by year. Indeed, one could look at the world we live in, and it often feels that we're looking at some strange and foreign play being acted out on a parallel stage in another dimension. As if we're actually not in charge of the whole shooting match, and some strange external force is pushing us toward that dark abyss.

What is psychological stress anyway, and how are we affected by it? What does it do to our body and mind?

Stress is simply a fact of nature -- forces from the outside world affecting the individual. The individual responds to stress in ways that affect the individual as well as their environment. Hence, all living creatures are in a constant interchange with their surroundings (the ecosystem), both physically and behaviorally. This interplay of forces, or energy, is of course present in the relationships between all matter in the universe, whether it is living (animate) or not living (inanimate). However, there are critical differences in how different living creatures relate to their environment. These differences have far-reaching consequences for survival. Because of the overabundance of stress in our modern lives, we usually think of stress as a negative experience, but from a biological point of view, stress can be a neutral, negative, or positive experience. In general, stress is related to both external and internal factors. External factors include the physical environment, including your job, your relationships with others, your home, and all the situations, challenges, difficulties, and expectations you're confronted with on a daily basis. Internal factors determine your body's ability to respond to, and deal with, the external stress-inducing factors. Internal factors which influence your ability to handle stress include your nutritional status, overall health.

Stress comes in many forms and affects people of all ages and all walks of life. No external standards can be applied to predict stress levels in individuals -- one need not have a traditionally stressful job to experience workplace stress, just as a parent of one child may experience more parental stress than a parent of several children. The degree of stress in our lives is highly dependent upon individual factors such as our physical health, the quality of our interpersonal relationships, the number of commitments and responsibilities we carry, the degree of others' dependence upon us, expectations of us, the amount of support we receive from others, and the number of changes or traumatic events that have recently occurred in our lives.

There is now evidence that points to abnormal stress responses as causing various diseases or conditions. These include anxiety disorders, depression, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease, certain gastrointestinal diseases, some cancers, and even the process of aging itself. Stress also seems to increase the frequency and severity of migraine headaches, episodes of asthma, and fluctuations of blood sugar. There also is scientific evidence showing that people experiencing psychological stress are more prone to developing colds and other infections than their less-stressed peers. Overwhelming psychological stress (such as the events of 9-11) can cause both temporary (transient) and long-lasting (chronic) symptoms of a serious psychiatric illness called post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

So, as you can see, stress can transmute from something totally mind related into something deeply physical in nature. It can make us very ill indeed, with some of our commonest diseases such as diabetes exacerbated, or possibly even created by stress.

In order to allay these physical ramifications, we need to act. We need to participate in something which confronts this stress reaction. Being a hypnotherapist, I can think of no better way than by the use of therapeutic hypnosis. It is a wonderful way of divesting yourself of the cares and worries you've accumulated. The best way that I can explain it, and to use a modern terminology, a session with me, for stress relief, is somewhat akin to defragmenting your computer. In your case of course, your HardDrive is your mind.

You may wonder if it can help you. There's only one way to find out ...........