Could you be heading for a hospitalized breakdown this December Holiday?
It hits in the holidays. Come December or extended Easter vacations, traditionally quiet coastal hospitals and doctor’s rooms are inundated by marked increases of what is now termed Executive Stress Disorder. A complete physical, mental and psychological collapse of some of the most successful young executives in the country.
Why? Why, at a time of leisure and relaxation would this insidious monster fell the mighty? Surely the high pressured boardroom would make more sense?
Executive Stress Disorder Burnout
Stress is cumulative. Imagine driving your car with the Rev Counter in the red zone – continuously. Your car will certainly sound powerful and will have the momentum to get places very quickly...but the moment you switch the engine off, the hard driving you have done will have its effect. Oil and water levels run low, overworked moving parts with little lubrication lend to the chance of engine seizure or blow-out.
Similarly, business executives who drive themselves hard for extended periods of time are wearing essential body parts to shreds. It is only when turned off i.e. day 2 or 3 of an extended holiday, the full impact of the damage is revealed. Executive stress disorder burnout is endemic in the corporate suite.
Most common is a persistent bout of ‘flu’ for the duration of the holiday. Illness ensures you must slow down, go to bed, take it easy. Increasingly common is more severe physical and mental exhaustion – sufficient to land the individual in hospital for several weeks under psychological observation.
Synapses, the finger-like extensions of brain neurons, will actually wither and retract when exposed to excessive stress for long periods. It takes 3 weeks of complete relaxation for these synapses to grow back.
TO PREVENT BURNOUT:
Life is a longer time. First World Life Expectancy Statistics increase on average 6 months every year. In 1900 you could expect to reach your 46th birthday. Currently you can expect to reach your 78th birthday. Millennium babies can expect to reach their 100th birthday. Why Hurry? Take your time. Enjoy everything you ever wanted to do...but give it time to develop.
Up your B Vitamins. Forget the store brands with miniscule quotas like 2 mg of B6! Go for reputable brands from your health store with Optimum Vitamin quotas: o B1 (Thiamine) for energy and brain function 35mg o B2 (Riboflavin) for great skin, hair and energy 35mg o B3 (Niacin) for brain function, cholesterol and blood sugar control 85mg o B5 (Pantothenic Acid) for anti-stress hormones 100mg o B6 (Pyrodoxine) natural anti-depressant 75mg o B12 not readily available in foods, excellent nerve tonic 25mcg
Play! Getting drunk at your local and exchanging the same 20 year old stories is not play. That is sad! Goof off at the movies, treat yourself to a double double chocolate thick milkshake or play hide and go seek in the dark with the kids. Boogie Board in the shore break or roll in the grass. Play – like children do it.
Words: Rae Dengler, Health Specialist