Healthy World or Unhealthy World?

Anybody else finding it more difficult to wake up to get to work every day? Apparently you and I are not alone. Eight percent of depression [in the entire world] can be attributed to... occupational stress."

Personally, I found this report to be comforting as after my last excessively stressful job I find myself to have little energy. Being this seems to be a grwoing world wide phenomena it seems a good thing to look at the problem before it becomes the accepted norm, as slavery was or ending people's lives for political gain.

In reading a report on stress titled Global Epidemics:The Contribution of Work from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholas, Global Health Initiative, Washington, DC March 5, 2008 I learned "while the origins of mental instability are complex...a number of common threads appear to link the high prevalence of stress, burnout and depression to changes taking place in teh labor market, due partly to the effects of economic globalization." (Gabriel P Lilmatainen M-R. Mental Health in the workplace. Geneva; International Labor Office, 2000.

According to this report, a "good" society has basic responsibility to its citizens. It must ensure:

Good working conditions (see OSHA and requirements required for filing Unemployment insurance to see what those are)

Certain basic standards of living

Collective representation

Controls on Income Inequality

Social and Racial Justice

Good schools, Housing and supports for Children and Families

A Healthy Physical Environment

When the above fails to be provided, we can experience burnout. The symptoms of burnout includes:

"A predominance of fatigue symptoms

Atypical physical distress syndromse

Symptoms are work related

Symptoms appear in "normal" persons who did not suffer from prior pathology

Decresed effectiveness and impaired work performance due to negative attititudes and bahaviors."

The recommendats are deeloping new legislation, workplace democracy, re-designing the job, stress management, and rehabilitation."