Dinah Bradley - Breathe, Stretch & Move: Get Rid of Workplace Stress

A S YOU READ THIS CHAPTER, TAKE A SIP FROM A GLASS OF COOL WATER EACH TIME YOU TURN THE PAGE.

Here I was, 32, successful, doing all the right things (perfect diet, regular gym, beautiful relationship). But I was tired all the time, and I didnt think this was right. I loved my job but it was very fast-paced, even manic at times. My GP had tested everything all OK but sent me to a neurologist to be on the safe side because Id been a bit light-headed, which scared me. This guy picked it straight away. I was an upper chest, or reverse, breather par excellence!

LUCY, 32, JOURNALIST

I ts no news to most of us that feeling under pressure at work changes the way we behave, react and breathe. Sometimes this is invigorating and we achieve well, experience a healthy tiredness at the end of our working day, and enjoy a refreshing nights sleep. But for increasing numbers of people too much pressure across the working week is causing a great deal of harm. Deadlines bring on headaches. Traffic jams send blood pressure soaring. Too tired to cook means skipping meals or wolfing down unhealthy fast food. To combat our flagging energy levels we reach for stimulants. Too much coffee or alcohol and we start to shake. Sleep patterns are shot. We end up exhausted and prone to desk rage. Our breathing stays in overdrive.

Most of the original Western research on stress-related breathing problems came from studies of soldiers in active combat. As early as the American Civil War in the 1870s, stress and breathing disorders have been recorded and studied, as thousands suffered the ravages of dreadful food, sleep deprivation and mortal danger in combat. These disorders have been given a number of different titles, from Soldiers Heart (chest pain), Effort Syndrome (tired all the time) and Shell Shock (flashbacks) to the more recent Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Gulf War Syndrome.

As time went by, more and more was learned about the physiological consequences of changed breathing patterns on peoples body chemistry, and about their varied ability to cope under pressure. It also became clear that people in the workplace were affected by environmental stress. While the Industrial Revolution saw people working long hours in often noisy and confined spaces all year round, with no seasonal breaks (unlike traditional agrarian work) and in increasingly polluted urban environments , by the end of the twentieth century the electronic revolution had taken over as an equally potent source of workplace stress.

During the First World War a diagram called the human performance curve was used to illustrate what was happening to soldiers, both physically and emotionally. In the 1980s a modified version was developed by a London cardiologist, Dr Peter Nixon. He found that the majority of his patients with heart problems, women as well as men, had a history of prolonged physical or emotional stress preceding their angina or heart attacks. The message of the human performance curve is as relevant today as it ever was.

T HE HUMAN PERFORMANCE CURVE
( REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION FROM D R P ETER N IXON )

The curve shows the stages we go through when we are put under sustained mental or physical effort. The energy we have to summon to do certain tasks is guzzled up under pressure, and soaring adrenaline levels add anxiety to the mix. Normal fatigue is overtaken by exhaustion. If insufficient time is taken to recover, a feeling of being constantly under par is followed by ill health as we become run down and susceptible to colds and flu, chronic nasal congestion, anxiety, gastric problems, panic episodes, disturbed sleep and exhaustion, to name just a few of the conditions that are likely to strike. Whatever their level of intensity, these distress signals take their toll. Total burn out or P (breakdown the point at which recovery will not occur with normal rest) hammers down the final nail at the end of the downward slide. While healthy tiredness following extra effort may take two or three days to recover from, once burn out is reached, recovery time can be months or even years.