Tips on handling pressure when looking for a job or keeping one

WASHINGTON - The recession has left many feeling stressed about not finding a job or losing one, and now an expert has come up with a few tips on how one can balance out life’s daily pressures.

Psychologist Dr. Jennifer Hartstein appeared on “The Early Show” and shared insight into what can happen if you’re stressing out over work, and what to do about it.

“There’s gonna be a mood change. You might start to feel more irritable, more anxious, more depressed,” CBS News quoted her as telling co-anchor Harry Smith.

“You want to take note of that. You want to start to notice-are you feeling more tense in your muscles? Are you feeling, in your body, are you getting headaches, are you clenching your teeth-those are things to take notice of.

“How about sleep problems, when you start to really have a hard time sleeping when that’s never been a problem before-leading into a sense of apathy: You start to just not care, you don’t care about your job. You don’t care about anything.

“It could really end into that bigger problem of using drugs and alcohol excessively, potentially leading to a violent episode either at home with your kids or at the job,” she explained.

Hartstein likened it to a thermometer whose mercury keeps rising until you get into “the red zone” of job concern, and says that if you feel you are nearing that point, you should reach out for help.You want to start to talk to people. You want to check in and do things that will be relaxing to you and that you enjoy, to help balance out,” she said.

“The more positive stuff you can do, it does balance out the negative, even though it’s really hard to put that into your schedule,” she explained.

She also named some of the biggest mistakes people make when they are in such situations.

“Some of the things they do is that they totally dwell on only focusing on their job or their lack of job, and get stuck in that little bit of focus and don’t see anything outside of that,” she said.

“They don’t check in with themselves or their partner or friends on how they’re doing, how they’re feeling.

“They don’t kind of have open communication, lastly as we just mentioned, they avoid kind of non-job activities. They feel they don’t have the time to do anything that’s enjoyable or fun,” she stated.

In conclusion, Hartstein said that the best thing someone can do to alleviate job stress is to “find things that bring you some enjoyment and relaxation to balance out the stress. As small as it is, it is so important”. (ANI)