What is stress?

Stress is an outcome of lack of balance between the expectations towards certain person and her personal qualities necessary to meet these expectations. Stress is experienced in people's minds, but it can also affect the mental health. It should be noted that stress may be short-or long-term incident. When the high level is maintained for a long time, it can lead to life and health hazards.

The unemployed vulnerability to stress

Stress is a natural reaction of our body. In small amounts it may have positive influence, stimulating to act and make tough decisions. In the case of the unemployed, however, we are dealing with a specific type of stress - long-term unemployment affects destructively not only our wallet, but also our psyche. The awareness of being unemployed and having trouble finding it, have negative impact on self-esteem of the unemployed and their well-being, making it difficult to find work and extending the search.

Stress symptoms

It can be divided into several groups:

• Emotional reactions, to which we include: nervousness and anxiety leading to depression, loneliness, burnout, sleep problems, hypochondria, being prone to conflicts in partner and family relationships;
• Physiological reactions, including: neuralgia (e.g. headaches, stomach aches), weakened immunity, stomach ulcers, heart disease, digestive problems, allergies, chronic tiredness and general weakness of the body;
• Cognitive reactions, which manifests itself through loss of concentration, difficulty in absorbing new information, impaired learning and decision-making ability.
• Behavioral reactions, which may be fatal. They include abuse of alcohol, other drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as destructive behavior.