And what does permanent stress do to your health?

If individuals find themselves constantly working under conditions of elevated psychosocial demands, that can’t be healthy. Maybe the people affected will get angry when they are constantly feeling that they are not meeting demands or have only poor work equipment at their disposal, so that work results don’t meet their own (or their supervisors’) requirements. Over time, the employee may also feel powerless and helpless.

Such a state of permanent overload – combined with the feeling of not being able to do anything about it – can pretty much drain a person and is accompanied by increased bodily tension. Recovery and regeneration are missing and, for example, the occurrence of back pain can increase. Finally, permanent stress can even lead to depression.

In the past, it was thought that depression was hereditary or a result of the inability to process sad events. From today’s perspective it is clear that permanent stress can also lead to depression. Being often exposed to high demands increases the release of stress hormones. They may weaken our bodies via, for example, the immune system, and raise the probability for the development of depression.