Stress is a normal part of life in general and work in particular. Any perceived challenge puts your body into a state of physiological alert, ready for action.

This is productive in moderate doses. Stress keeps you focused and solution-oriented. It’s a key factor in success.

Prolonged stress, on the other hand, is unhealthy – and common on the job. In fact, workplace stress is now “a worldwide epidemic,” according to the World Health Organization.

The good-stress, bad-stress spectrum
The transition from a positive state of stress to a negative one is gradual, often unnoticed. Everyone takes work home on weekends, don’t they? What’s wrong with some cynicism, it’s just being realistic, isn’t it?

The process can eventually lead to burnout, a state of emotional and physical exhaustion. Burnout reduces productivity and saps energy. It leaves you feeling hopeless, irritable, and resentful. It threatens your job and your relationships. It kills.

Studies at Manchester School of Management in England show that burnout doubles the risk of cardiovascular death and even certain forms of cancer.

(To take the classic do-it-yourself Holmes-Rahe Stress Test, click here.)

Recognition is the key
Fortunately, burnout happens slowly. The earlier you realize that stress is becoming too much and do something about it, the better.

“Life is 10 percent what you make it,” said Irving Berlin, “and 90 percent how you take it.” That’s the key principle in reversing stress back to an optimum level and keeping it there.

I’ve helped many New York professionals develop the ability to manage stress better in a variety of ways. By changing the situation through better communication with others, for example. By changing their outlook. And by altering their responses to stress.

How to tell if you have burnout
If you have already burned out, your symptoms may go unrecognized. That’s a form of denial, and it’s dangerous; you have to admit the existence of a problem before you can overcome it.

Typical symptoms of burnout include:

• Finding worried thoughts about work taking over your life;
• Being distant, distracted, forgetful, or easily angered;
• Thinking about quitting your job, running away, taking a drug overdose, or injuring yourself;
• Feeling depressed, sad, tearful, or that life isn’t worth living;
• Losing your appetite and finding it difficult to sleep;
• Managing your stress level by overindulging in food, alcohol, sleep, cigarettes, or recreational drugs.

Changing your job or career is one way to get relief from problems like these; but unless that’s a realistic option, getting professional help is the right way to go.