Written by: Evangeline Halim
Edited by: Maggie Huang
Most of us are familiar with having mental strain in the workplace or professional setting. Growing up, many perceive this aspect as “normal” or not much of a concern since most people experience it. To an extent, stress can be perfectly normal, and might even benefit one’s career if it’s at a manageable level. However, it’s important to note that not only can these strains provoke mental health disorders such as Major Depressive disorder, but they can also cause detrimental effects on one’s long-term physical health.
How exactly can stress lead to the formation of psychiatric disorders? As mentioned previously, a limited amount of stress isn’t typically concerning, but studies show that chronic stress is linked to mental health problems and should be avoided. Chronic stress refers to an elongated period of strain on one’s mental/emotional well-being, which may result from work, academia, and even interpersonal relationships. A peer-reviewed study shows that chronic stress is strongly linked to mood disorders such as Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Bipolar Disorder (BD), as well as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a trauma/stressor-related disorder (Davis et al., 2017). Molecular imaging techniques found that chronic stress may dysregulate neurotransmitters (serotonin and dopamine) responsible for mood regulation and emotional processing (Davis et al., 2017). If an individual endures stress to a greater limit than one can tolerate, then this may be an indication of chronic stress, which has proven to lead to these mental illnesses.
Stressors and poor mental health often manifest in the workplace, reaching a point where it’s become familiar to employees all over the world. Fifty-eight percent of work-related disabilities in the Netherlands are related to mental health. In the United Kingdom, an estimated thirty to forty percent of sickness absences are attributed to mental illness, resulting in a high drop in employees (Rajgopal, 2010). Mental health issues contribute to poor outcomes regarding businesses, and most importantly, physical well-being. Mental health issues due to work, such as depression and anxiety arising from stress, are likely to contribute to poor business outcomes. For instance, it may contribute to low productivity and higher human error, while inevitably, heightening rates of worker absences, staff turnover, and accidents resulting from error, which will overall lead to increased costs/lower profits (Rajgopal, 2010). Poor mental health is a detrimental issue in professional settings, which impacts every individual employee’s well-being in addition to the businesses.
After discussing the significant impacts of stress in the workplace, poor mental health has been shown to negatively impact people physically. In a study shown by an elderly Korean population (with a high prevalence of anxiety and depression), researchers found that this comorbidity was associated with an abundance of physical disorders, among them being hypertension, gastrointestinal problems, cardiovascular disease, and asthma (Kang et al., 2017). This study was performed longitudinally, showing the impacts of anxiety/depression comorbidity over time, as physical disorders are highly correlated with mental health issues. This shows that if stress has a high likelihood of developing into depression/anxiety or other mental disorders, then it will likely impact one’s physical health over time.
As chronic stress is prevalent in today’s society, it’s important to be able to identify when one is undergoing long-term stress, as it has proven to be detrimental to physical health, mental well-being, and business productivity.
References:
Davis, M. T., Holmes, S. E., Pietrzak, R. H., & Esterlis, I. (2017, February). Neurobiology of Chronic Stress-Related Psychiatric Disorders: Evidence from Molecular Imaging Studies. Chronic Stress, 1, 247054701771091. https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547017710916
Kang, H. J., Bae, K. Y., Kim, S. W., Shin, H. Y., Shin, I. S., Yoon, J. S., & Kim, J. M. (2017). Impact of Anxiety and Depression on Physical Health Condition and Disability in an Elderly Korean Population. Psychiatry Investigation, 14(3), 240. https://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2017.14.3.240
Rajgopal, T. (2010). Mental well-being at the workplace. Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 14(3), 63. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5278.75691
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