INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / FEBRUARY 7, 1989

 

 

 

 

cH EEE an

Women Learn to Cope with

Stress

In the days when a person’s
work consisted largely of coping
with prehistoric beasts, stress
was prevalent and remarkably
similar to today’s symptoms:
pupils would dilate, the heart
would beat rapidly, and the
body would tense with massive
surges of adrenalin.

But stress in the form of an at-
tacking saber-tooth tiger, for
example, was relieved by one ot
two very physical methods: flee-
ing or fighting. Barring death
from the elements, the cave-
dweller was a healthy creature.

Today we have various
modern saber-tooths breathing
down our necks, but rare is the
profession that allows for flee-
ing or fighting. Stress has
always been with us and is per-
haps a necessity of life. But
what is the best way to control
stress?

Pacific Healthstyles Ltd, in
conjunction with Douglas Col-
lege, has developed a series of
workshops dealing with stress as
it relates to women. Women,
Work and Stress, to be intro-
duced at the College February
16, is aimed at business and
professional women who under-
stand the value of leading
healthy lifestyles and wish to in-
crease work efficiency. Ruth
Krahn, R.N. at Maple Ridge
Hospital, is the instructor.

 

"Stress has only recently been
recognized by the medical
profession and businesses as the
cause for a lot of health-related
problems," she says. "Stress
management has been with us
for some time, but it became a
somewhat trendy subject to the
general public, and the trouble
with that was a lot of people
with no medical or psychologi-
cal background proclaimed
treatment based on the very
wrong idea that stress should be
suppressed or eliminated from
everyday life."

Krahn herself led a stressful
lifestyle years ago as a nurse on
the emergency ward of the Sur-
rey General Hospital. In her
case, the symptoms were in-
creased "edginess" and bad
temper. For other people, the

symptoms are a lot more critical.

"Stress can lead to chronic
fatigue, depression, ulcers," says
Krahn. "For "Type A’ per-
sonalities - perfectionist
over-achiever types - stress can
lead to heart attacks. And there
are a lot of Type A personalities
in the workforce."

A growing number of busi-
nesses are adopting stress
management programs because
of the economic fact that worker
ailments mean increased paid
sick leave and insurance
premiums. In B.C., health
problems have taken their toll:

 

 

 

 

 

 

the 1987 provincial budget
revealed health care costs as
being more than double the com-
bined costs of education and
social services and housing.

Women are particularly vul-
nerable to the debilitating
effects of stress: not only are
they competing in today’s fast-
paced workforce, they are trying
to maintain the more traditional
role of homemaker.

"And beyond that, women
have traditionally been regarded
as peacemakers, which adds to
the pressure in the workforce;
and at home they often carry the
lion’s share of responsibility
with little or no help from their
husbands," says Krahn. “Add
children to that, and you have a
potentially disastrous scenario.”

continued on page 6