Alleviate Workplace Anxiety

May 20, 2011
Written by: Julie Bosche, Filed in: Corporate Wellness Programs

You do your best to help your employees alleviate work-related stress.

Successfully doing so facilitates a more effective, well-adjusted, better-functioning staff. But what about when garden-variety stress breeds anxiety?

Anxiety can stop even the best employees in their tracks. It affects sleep, lifestyle habits, and quality of life, all the things that combine to make or break wellness.

It also has the potential to drag down work performance and productivity, not to mention those health care bills you’ll be footing when all that anxiety causes or worsens existing medical problems.

So make sure your workers are aware of the risks of anxiety and preventive measures that can be taken as well as healthy ways of coping.

These tips from the American Academy of Family Physicians may help in dealing with anxiety:

Schedule 30 minutes each day to think about the things that are concerning you. Save your worry for those designated times. Think less about what will happen and concern yourself more with what’s happening now.

Practice relaxation techniques such as muscle relaxation or deep breathing.

Get plenty of regular exercise and enough sleep.

Don’t abuse drugs or drink alcohol.

Restrict or eliminate caffeine.

Deal with things that have caused you anxiety in the past. Start by visualizing how you will deal with these factors. Doing so will help you deal with them for real.

Talk about your fears with your doctor. He or she can help you devise a plan for how to better cope with your anxiety.

Health News This Week:
Simple Fitness Test Could Predict Long-Term Risk for Heart Attack, Stroke in Middle-Aged People

Scientists find “master switch” gene for obesity

Allergy Self-Diagnosis Leads to Misdiagnosis

Relieving Back Pain May Help the Brain

Taking Measure of Weight-Loss Plans, and the Studies of Them