UNEMPLOYMENT – Losing a job is one of the most stressful events you can experience in your career, especially if it happens suddenly. This stress is further magnified if the incident occurs during the coronavirus pandemic. Dismissal not only causes the disappearance of fixed income, but also sometimes generates a feeling of uselessness, deprives us of a routine and of the entourage of colleagues, to the point of affecting even physical health.
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“A lot of times people wonder why they feel so sad and depressed about losing their job, not realizing that everything they’ve lost forms a huge void,” explains Lisa Orbé-Austin, psychologist specializing in professional transitions. “It creates a kind of heartbreak, especially if it’s sudden.”
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Your mind and body are sending signals to you that this unemployment is affecting you more than you think.
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You can’t sleep or you sleep too much
One of the signs that your health is taking a hit is trouble sleeping.
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According to Kristin Bianchi, psychologist at Center for Anxiety and Behavior Change, in Maryland, they can manifest as difficulty falling asleep, too light or too brief sleep,
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It is okay to suffer from insomnia for a night or two, but if the problem becomes recurrent, it should be taken into account. “When the troubles persist over time, it’s not normal,” she continues.
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The stress you felt at work doesn’t leave you once you’ve been fired. Patricia Haynes, senior lecturer in the Department of Health Promotion Sciences at the University of Arizona, has researched the long-term health consequences of sources of work stress during unemployment. One of the studies has shown that people whose sources of stress hinder them in the smooth running of their activity, such as insecurity or organizational problems, are more likely to suffer from insomnia once unemployed.
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“The more obstacles we were told – political or hierarchical, for example, all those things that make it difficult to feel good at work – the higher the likelihood of suffering from insomnia long after being fired,” he says. -she.
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Your mental health is deteriorating
The longer the period of unemployment lasts, the more likely we are to sink into depression, according to a Gallup poll conducted among 356,000 Americans. In this country, 20% of the long-term unemployed (one year or more) were likely to be treated or have been treated for depression.
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Kristin Bianchi says there are two hallmarks of depression in the unemployed: low interest in activities they previously engaged in, and low morale most of the time over a two-week period. “It can be like sadness, depression, or even anger and irritability.”
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Change in your personality and generalized bad mood
A study published in 2015 in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests that unemployment can cause personality changes.
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Of the 6,769 German adults who took part in this study, which consisted of personality tests spread over four years, those who had lost their jobs during the experience reported a large variation in their friendliness, compared to those who had kept their jobs. . In women, each year saw a decline in affability. The men said they were nicer for the first couple of years and then got more and more irritable.
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For researchers, these developments may be due to the change in perspective that occurs after a long period of inactivity. “In the first few months, these people are often encouraged to be friendly, in order to please recruiters or those around them. But when the situation sets in, this encouragement can weaken, ”say the authors of the study.
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Pain, migraines and a smeared stomach
When under stress, your muscles tighten to protect you against a threat; it is the body’s fight-flight response. But the constant state of alert can lead to chronic problems, like migraines. Stitches in the lumbar and upper limbs, in particular, would be linked to professional stress, specifies the American Psychological Association.
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The brain and the belly are constantly communicating, which is why the stress caused by job loss sometimes translates into digestive problems. “Gastrointestinal symptoms often appear with anxiety. We are often told of stomach aches or other problems of this kind, or even migraines and muscle pain, ”explains Kristin Bianchi.
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Your appetite is not the same
With stress, we might as well to gain appetite than to lose the desire to eat. This unusual hunger “can be accompanied by weight loss or gain because our habits are upset,” comments Kristin Bianchi.
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“When you feel like you don’t have much that matters, neither salary nor work, routine can become something to lean on”
– Lisa Orbé-Austin, psychologist
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Some techniques to avoid losing ground during a period of unemployment
Establish a routine. When the framework of a day punctuated by work disappears, it’s important to build a new routine that makes you want to get dressed and start the day, insists Lisa Orbé-Austin. One can opt for physical exercise, a lunch date or breaks in the job search. If the confinement currently prevents you from seeing your friends, do not hesitate to meet up with relatives, for example to play online together.
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“When you feel like you don’t have much that matters, neither salary nor work, routine can become an element on which to rely,” continues our specialist.
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From Patricia Haynes’ perspective, it can be interesting for unemployed people to get up at the same time each day, eat full meals, and develop a personal routine.
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Start a new activity. When you lose your job and the job search stagnates, you sometimes have the feeling of being useless and that nothing changes, no matter what you do, suggests Kristin Bianchi. To combat this feeling, it is important to organize activities that bring pleasure, give the impression of being in control or being efficient.
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“It helps to feel better, and above all, to remember that we know how to do things and that we can continue to live, even if, for the moment, we do not have a professional life. We thus gain in resilience. . ”
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Avoid seeing everything in black. When we feel bad, we sometimes forget to see the positive, says our expert. “Our patients often tend to ignore the things that are going well and focus on negative experiences and disappointments.”
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A very concrete method to combat this distortion of reality is to take an inventory of all the actions that make us proud. “It could be things you did on your own or pleasant events,” adds Kristin Bianchi. When someone gives you a compliment or a loved one hears from you, you have proof that you have created a relationship that is doing well.
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Remember all the good things that have happened to you and that you have done, to “strengthen and maintain a positive image, even in the absence of an element that often helps define us,” she concludes.
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This article, published on the American HuffPost, was translated by Maëlle Gouret for Fast ForWord.
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See also on The HuffPost: Céline Tran: Here’s How To Ease Your Stress In Under Ten Minutes
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