Stress Management at Work: Practical Manual for the Court Enforcement Agents and Their Associates

The concept of stress started to be studied in the middle of the 20th century. According to some authors, stress is one of the most researched problems in labor psychology, together with work satisfaction and leadership. Stress at work is a significant factor that influences work satisfaction, work capability, absence from work, or leaving the work organization. The stress is an unavoidable phenomenon and a part of human life. It is frequently mentioned, especially in medicine, even when it is difficult to determine precisely the etymology of an illness. The average person, in the course of their life, when performing activities or communicating with people, is always faced with the possibility of being under stress, especially if the person takes their work responsibly, has strict obligations with deadlines, and gives quality performance of their tasks, and while doing this encounters obstacles that cause anxiety. Hans Selye, in the 1930s, took the term "stress" from physics and used its broad meaning to define the effects of long-term influence of various factors over living organisms. He defined stress as a synonym for general reaction, i.e., a sum of non-specific reactions of the organism as a response to any request for adaptation to changed conditions of the external environment, in order to maintain the internal homeostasis necessary for survival. Selye marked this reaction as a "general adaptation syndrome." The general adaptation syndrome has three consecutive stages: the alarm stage, the stage of resistance, and the stage of exhaustion. The alarm stage is a condition of general mobilization of the organism, as preparedness of the body for increased physical and psychological events. It is a part of our biological heritage, in order to improve the capabilities for action – or "fight or flight." The speed of all bodily reactions is increased, especially of the muscles. Thinking is fast, more efficient without clumsiness. The stage of resistance is the body's attempt to calm down the usage of energy, the nutritious substances, and the exhaustion of the functional systems. Instead of the sympaticus, the parasympaticus starts to act, and instead of the core of the suprarenal gland, the cortex of the suprarenal gland is activated. The distressed condition in the body continues, but everything is calmed down, in the attempt to save the reserves of the body. The stage of exhaustion is the negative influence of the stimulations from the environment that overcome the defense forces of the body, making it temporarily incapable of normal functioning, which can cause the development of a disease. In drastic cases, it can even cause death. The stage of exhaustion is realistic if the first two stages last very long, causing full destruction of the functional systems of the body, the harmonic link is weakening, and the balance of the body starts to fall apart. The potentials of the human body, including psychological, physiological, and biological aspects, are very strong. They condition all the variations of the changes of the person to be kept within the optimal borders, in a balance, which is weak, but does not step over the borders of endurance. The stress activates the whole body in each of its segments. There are three communication systems in the body: the blood circulation, the endocrine system, and the nervous system or cerebrospinal and automatic system. The blood circulation, the cardiovascular system, is the basic transport system for metabolism and life. Each change of the body requests accommodation of the metabolism, and that means that the condition of the cardio-vascular system is changed (blood pressure, heart rate, minute volume of the blood, the width of the blood vessels, etc.). The fast reaction of the communication with the outside world, but also within the body itself, between the separate systems and organs from those systems is performed by the nervous system. The endocrine system, with the hormones, starts acting later than the nervous system, but it stays active longer. The autonomous nervous system gives fast reaction, and immediately afterwards, the slower hormonal modification of the functions in the body comes in place. The signals of the nerves and hormones are swiftly accepted by the cardio-vascular system. They act together – united. The general adaptation syndrome takes place through the axe hypophysis – in the cortex of the suprarenal gland, which explains the increase of concentration in the cortisol in the blood plasma. Today, it is known that the hypothalamus is included in this axe and that the reaction to stress takes place through hypothalamus-hypophysis-cortex of the suprarenal gland. In the same processes, equal participation has the axe that connects the sympathetic nervous system and the cortex of the suprarenal gland.