Tag Archives: Anxiety

Education, English Literature, Skill Develpment

Bullying at workplace

We humans though imperfect are essentially kind, sensible, good natured creature. But deep down we are wired to be bad, blinked, idle, vain, vengeful, and selfish. There are characters that reveal the darker and less impressive aspects of human nature. One such character is bullying. Though bully may take up his character as impressive but the person who is bullied may be affected mentally, physically and psychologically. 
Bullying is common in our present day society. We see bullying or some likewise activities everywhere. There is no denying the fact that a person undermine another person to show his supremacy, be it in school or an organization. it is often subtle and hidden, profoundly affecting a substantial number of children and people of different age groups. Bully uses bullying to control behavior, personal agenda, or to fulfill his self serving motives. Bully may manifest itself into many forms. It can be physical, verbal, relational, etc. If you are the victim, the shadows of it reflect on your very face the moment you step out of your house for the office or your school. You usually start your day with pinch of anxiety in your head. Then you count down the days until the weekend or next vacation. 


A few examples of bullying include:

•targeted practical joke

•being purposely misled about work duties, like incorrect deadlines or unclear directions

•continued denial of requests for time off without an appropriate or valid reason

•threats, humiliation, and other verbal abuse

•excessive performance monitoring overly harsh or unjust criticism. 

Criticising or monitoring someone’s work is not always bullying. For example- objective and constructive criticism or disciplinary action related to workplace behavior or job performance is not considered bullying. But criticism meant to intimidate, humiliate, or single someone out without reason would be considered bullying.Bullying can be subtle. One helpful way to identify bullying is to consider how others might view what’s happening. This can depend, at least partially, on the circumstances. But if most people would see a specific behavior as unreasonable, it’s generally bullying.


Types of bullyingBullying behaviors might be:


•Verbal-This could include mockery, humiliation, jokes, gossip, or other spoken abuse.

•Intimidating-This might include threats, social exclusion in the workplace, spying, or other invasions of privacy.Related to work performance. Examples include wrongful blame, work sabotage or interference, or stealing or taking credit for ideas.

•Retaliatory-In some cases, talking about the bullying can lead to accusations of lying, further exclusion, refused promotions, or other retaliation.

•Institutional-Institutional bullying happens when a workplace accepts, allows, and even encourages bullying to take place. This bullying might include unrealistic production goals, forced overtime, or singling out those who can’t keep up.According to 2014 research from the Workplace Bullying Institute, people believed that targets of bullying were more likely to be kind, compassionate, cooperative, and agreeable.


Bullying may occur more frequently in work environments that:


•are stressful or change frequently•have heavy workloads

•have unclear policies about employee behavior

•have poor employee communication and relationships

•have more employees who are bored or worried about job security. 


Bullying can have significant, serious effects on physical and mental health.


Physical health effects of bullying

If you’re being bullied, you may:

•feel sick or anxious before work or when thinking about work. 
•have physical symptoms, such as digestive issues or high blood pressure

•have a higher risk for type 2 diabetes

•have trouble waking up or getting quality sleep. •have somatic symptoms, such as headaches and decreased appetite

. 
Psychological effects of bullying may include:

• thinking and worrying about work constantly, even during time off.

 •dreading work and wanting to stay home.

 •needing time off to recover from stresslosing interest in things you usually like to do.

 •increased risk for depression and anxiety.

 •suicidal thoughts. 

•low self-esteem. 

•self-doubt, or wondering if you’ve imagined the bullying. 

How does bullying affect the workplace?

Workplaces with high rates of bullying can also experience negative consequences, such as:


•financial loss resulting from legal costs or bullying investigations.

 •decreased productivity and morale•increased employee absences. 

•high turnover rates.

 •poor team dynamics.

 •reduced trust, effort, and loyalty from employees. People who bully may eventually face consequences, such as formal reprimands, transfer, or job loss. But many types of bullying aren’t illegal.
When bullying isn’t addressed, it becomes easier for people to continue bullying, especially when the bullying is subtle. Bullies who take credit for work or intentionally make others look bad may end up receiving praise or being promoted.
What to do if you’re being bullied at work When experiencing bullying, it’s common to feel powerless and unable to do anything to stop it. If you try to stand up to the bully, you may be threatened or told no one will believe you. If it’s your manager bullying you, you may wonder who to tell.
First, take a moment to remind yourself that bullying is never your fault, regardless of what triggered it. Even if someone bullies you by making it seem like you can’t do your job, bullying is more about power and control, not your work ability.


Begin to take action against bullying with these steps:


•Document the bullying-Keep track of all bullying actions in writing. Note the date, the time, where the bullying took place, and other people who were in the room.•Save physical evidence-Keep any threatening notes, comments, or emails you receive, even if they’re unsigned. If there are documents that can help prove bullying, such as denied PTO requests, overly harsh commentary on assigned work, and so on, keep these in a safe place.

•Report the bullying-Your workplace may have a designated person you can talk to if you don’t feel safe talking to your direct supervisor. Human resources is a good place to start. It’s also possible to talk about the bullying with someone higher up if your supervisor is unhelpful or is the person doing the bullying.

•Confront the bully- If you know who’s bullying you, bring along a trusted witness, such as a co-worker or supervisor, and ask them to stop — if you feel comfortable doing so. Be calm, direct, and polite.

•Review work policies- Your employee handbook may outline steps of action or policies against bullying. Also consider reviewing state or even federal policies about the type of bullying you’re experiencing.

•Seek legal- Consider talking to a lawyer, depending on the circumstances of the bullying. Legal action may not always be possible, but a lawyer can offer specific advice.

•Reach out to others- Co-workers may be able to offer support. Talking to your loved ones about the bullying can also help. You can also talk to a therapist. They can provide professional support and help you explore ways to cope with the effects of bullying while you take other action.


How to help when you witness bullyingIf you witness bullying, speak up! People often say nothing out of fear they’ll become targets, but ignoring bullying contributes to a toxic work environment.
Workplace policies against bullying can help people feel safer about speaking up when they see bullying happen.


If you witness bullying, you can help by:


•Offering support-Support could involve acting as a witness if the person targeted wants to ask the bully to stop. You can also help by going to HR with your co-worker.

•Listening- If your co-worker doesn’t feel safe going to HR, they may feel better having someone to talk to about the situation.

•Reporting the incident-Your account of what happened could help your management team realize there’s a problem.

•Staying close to your co-worker, when possible- Having a supportive co-worker nearby could help reduce instances of bullying.

Bullying is a serious issue in many workplaces. While many companies have a zero-tolerance policy, bullying can sometimes be hard to recognize or prove, making it difficult for managers to take action. Other companies may not have any policies about bullying.
Taking steps to prevent workplace bullying can benefit organizations and the health of their employees. If you’ve been bullied, know you can safely take steps to combat the bullying without confronting the perpetrator. Remember to take care of your health first.

Advertisement
Education

Fat shaming


Some of the people certainly making the fun of overweight people and make them feel ashamed of their weight and eating habits.
People also try to force them to get lesser food and more exercise with this belief that they will look better.

It’s very shameful and disgust behaviour of our society that this society makes fun of them instead of appreciating which leads to some harmful effects. This includes depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders and negativity thinking. Thus, we all should appreciate them to be healthy and chubby instead of making fun and help to grow our society happy and healthy one.

Education

Social media anxiety disorder

What is this : It is a sydrome which effect the mental and physical health of a well being individual because of social media anxiety.

What are the symptoms : There are a lot of changes in their behaviour such as :
✓ Avoid social gatherings

✓ Hasitate while interact with the people

✓ Ashamed on self

✓ Anxiousness, nervousness and discomfort in social situations (online)

✓ Intense fear, racing heart,
excessive sweatingIntense fear, racing heart, redness, excessive sweating

✓ spending most of the time on social media platforms.

Effects on health : There are a lot of adverse effects which might be not seem normally but it does exist:

✓ Introvert behaviour always seeking to please people

✓ Extreme loneliness, love to be alone.

✓ Transformer ownself for virtual world from real world

✓ Low self-esteem

How to overcome : There are varieties of behavioural therapies but a individual can easily come out from this disorder just by some simple steps.


✓ Understanding and being aware of the problem

✓ Love yourself the way you are.

✓ Practice and development of methods that become habitual and automatic

✓ Participation in a social anxiety group to relate with others who have similar issues.

✓ Improve yourself not for only virtual but for the real world

✓ Learn to seek inner peace.

Education, Guest Post

Ways to make college more fun and productive

Along with passing out of the school comes anxiety, curiosity, excitement, and nerves starts cracking up, as to even think about how and what will be it like going to be a college, which is apparently whole of a new place to be in. There are certain ambitions, and goals;a plethora of feelings just move in and around the head, making the new kid on the block, a bit stressed out.

Going to the college, is like entering into a world, where you have to fight, fight for your identity. The new age teens are abruptly taken into perplexity, chaos and astonishment, at the same time, forgetting that they could make most of their college life by opting enormous number of other course works and activities which they really looked forward, since their childhood. As, college is not just a place where education is to be cramped up, with education comes up many other optional activities that seize to make a apprentice really settle down in the world.

  • Here are some ways in which a fresher can make college a fun place –

Joining into a society –

College is a place with vast array of opportunities, as well as activities, one can opt for anything they desire for. And for the sake of the same, they provide large options to join in any society of their interest, these can be –

  • Music society
  • Dramatics society
  • Dance society
  • Fashion society
  • Debating society
  • Entrepreneurship cell
  • Fine arts
  • Cyber clan
  • Photography society
  • Other academic societies

Joining into these societies is both, fun as well as, a lot of knowledge is gained about every bit of life. Whether it is the team work, or time management, handling the posts, life skills, and makes the person ready to get go for a career opportunity in these fields only.

Activities to take up in college –

If a student feels it hectic or not worth much to be part of any society of the college, many activities are still there that can enhance their knowledge at both the grounds of education and skills. Such as –

  • NCC
  • NSS
  • Sports
  • Joining student union

Taking up these, as a part of their curriculum can make their college life more interesting, and the students could really make these a most important, and integral parts of their college.

Choices out of college –

Sometimes it becomes very difficult for a stranger just to choose what the college offers him/her, and end up hanging on between DOs and DON’Ts. But the societies and activities of college are not the end of the choices life has to offer to them. Opportunities out of college is available to them –

  • Internship programs
  • Language classes
  • Preparing for competitive exams
  • Joining NGOs
  • Providing classes to students at school level
  • Opting for other courses

There is a world beyond books, and to experience that is the best education of all.

Taking up these activities,courses and programs as a part of college education, not only is a chance to enhance knowledge, but can also lead to improve at life skills. Activities as these can also become a a greatareer option for the student, if they really want to be in the field.

It is not difficult to choose what society or activity one has to go for. Just, the student skeeing upto doing something can try and let himself/herself know what they were wanting to do, since childhood, or in which field they best find their career as, which activities attract them the most; or even if they desire to choose something that they have nothing experienced, can also be a good part to take up.

Book Reviews, English Literature, Public Administration, Research Paper, Social Studies

Dealing with jealousy

Oh well! So that’s quite a juicy topic and a very interesting one which is I feel is more of a hush-hush topic, for people know that it exists but they don’t want to admit it publicly, considering it might cause them some sort of an embarrassment or is going to tease their ego a bit and that’s the reason why they are busy silently combating with this one but here I am going to talk about it in a more umm, deeper manner or whatever you may call it.

I am pretty sure that all of us must have experienced jealousy at one stage or the other no matter how much we try to get away with it but I think walking through jealousy is only going to be a successful conquest if, we firstly accept and acknowledge that we have been at points, jealous in our life post which almost 70% of the job is already done. It’s absolutely normal, just a part of human mindset but is deeply rooted in fear and in lack and know that, the feeling of lack is rooted in ego.

Sometimes it is important for us to deeply analyse our emotions and go an extra mile to try and heal them cause unless we heal them, they are going to keep causing troubles for us, leading to absence of mental peace. So why not go into deeper insights and try and figure out how jealousy looks like. It is the general idea that can be taken from the help of sentences that people generally use;  I hate that she has those things, Why does she have them? I wish I had them. Why is he with her? I think I look much better than that girl. Look at me, my Life. I don’t have all these things. I don’t have this money. I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t have xyz and the list would go on and on unless we choose to accept it and embrace ourselves and practice more and more self love and compassion. Might sound difficult at first, but is not impossible.

If somebody has something, we need to regard it as a blessing bestowed upon them. For the enormous amounts of hard work that they must have been upto all those years of their life, somewhat like the quote “Work hard in Silence and let your success make the noise”. We don’t know, we aren’t aware how incredibly hard circusmstances they would have endured, how many failures they had to overcome and when the time has come for them to enjoy the reward, the fruit of long years of toiling hard and struggles, what are we doing to them? Are we really being compassionate here? Are we really wishing them luck and positivity. Are we really being good human beings here?No, by being jealous and envious, we arez on top of it, trying to tarnish their success by throwing away negativity and jealousy is a negative vibe. Let’s accept it.

So try and make a smooth transition from jealousy to being inspired by that someone, to that extent, where you also want to work hard to earn that fruit and for that, know that, you would also have to put in the equal amount of hardwork, absorb in the pressure and only then you will be rewarded because if you want to chill in an air conditioned room, you would first have to know the experience of being burnt under the sun. Because, my dear, nothing in this world is ever free of cost. You have to endure some amount of “pain” in order to get some “gain” and notice that when you channelize your entire energy towards this process of trying to gain something, trying to work work hard and fulfill your dreams & desire post setting up goals and following your passion, you would find yourself engulfed in a bubble of positivity and there would just be no room for negativity and even if there are some other things which make you feel low and jealous and if the self doubt tends to creep in, don’t worry. Just soothe your inner child, comfort it and with a tranquil state of mind, affirm and say that I have been working hard and I am sure if I don’t give up right now, I will also get what I truly deserve. Also, be mindful enough to not say that “I will also get to match up with that someone”. That’s where comparison comes into play and this is what leads to jealousy. So remember, that as long as you hold love and compassion in your heart, nothing negative can impact you. I hope it helped.

Education

KEEP BREATHING

“If you want, You can talk with me……from yesterday all are giving status and send messages to their friends family that if you want to share something, express yourself. I feel so good that my friends and family care for me. I think we should be express our feelings with ourselves and of course with near ones. We all have different lifestyles, different kinds of problems in our life. It’s really a blessing you have someone who really listens to you. But I notice sometimes when I need people to talk, they are not there for some of their issues. I am not complaining about that every person has his or her own Life. So I just want to tell you that when you are feeling alone just spending time with your self, you can do the things you like, cooking, drawing, listening to music, exercise, a little walk, reading books. I really prefer drawing colors really make me happy, don’t be sad, cheer up yourself, tell your self YOU CAN DO

Make yourself happy, Do the Things you like

There is some situation came when we avoid people as we don’t want to, on that we really need to cheer up ourselves and should spend time with our friends and families as sometimes things are getting better just spending time with some special people in our life, life is for express. So don’t miss the opportunity to spend time with your old friends, families .

Little chitchat, hanging out with friends and family really freshen up our mood

If you really feel depressed, you feel something wrong with yourself you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, wrong thoughts coming to your mind please get treatment contact with a psychiatrist, doesn’t avoid it, Mental health really an important thing.

Don’t take pressure too much, life is not only all about success and failure,

From the movie CHICHORE

English Literature, Guest Post

🌸Towards being vocal about Mental Health🌸

I am sure we are all shocked, deeply gutted and extremely upset by the news. It’s so difficult to register and almost feels like a personal loss.


A person who looks so content, oozing happiness and vitality in every media gathering attended, amongst each and every small interaction he had and yet somehow we couldn’t figure out what is going on inside the mind of that person. Does it signify our inability to interpret emotions?. I guess, partly it does, but the underlying truth is that people have become so good at pretending and concealing their true innermost thoughts. I think this is where the root of the suffering lies.
Why can’t we be honest? Why can’t we be transparent?.
If we are vulnerable, let us not shy away from the insecurities. Instead we should talk and communicate and just vent out our feelings. Afterall, we have always got so many people around. They may be our friends, colleagues, parents and even if you feel that you are the unluckiest soul on the planet that you don’t have any confidante.
‎Don’t get disheartened dear. Just go and immerse yourself in the divine and you’ll find peace there but you need to acknowledge the fact that you are not alone first. It’s about these initial, little steps towards attaining peace.

Life is so fickle. Practice gratitude daily🙏🏻 you never know what the next moment has in store for you.

Depression and anxiety comes from a set of fluctuating thoughts centered at negativity and that is also quite normal, happens with everyone but varies in terms of intensity and emotional support received. I think it’s really important to to SHARE so that it doesn’t even reach that stage (of suicide) and you never know you can save a lot many lives and maybe your even your own. Let usall be just be nice and kind to everybody around. Even if the person doesn’t seem to be in need, let us always try and radiate positivity and benignity, through our words, to every person that we encounter with cause we never know if that person really needed to hear those words. We might save a life by just being kind so that there’s no room for any regrets.

Sushant starred in the movie Chhichhore and he himself delivered many dialogues regarding how to combat the suicidal thoughts but somehow when you get trapped in the bubble of negativity, you just can’t find a way out. But what we fail to understand is that light is always present, we just need to make an effort to step out of that room of darkness and that cannot be done alone. You need some amount of strength, encouragement and support and that is what your family members are for.
‎
‎It’s time that we learn to be as vocal as possible about mental health and if you feel you cannot afford professional help, then it’s completely okay. There are even numerous pages on Instagram who are there to hear what you want to say without even mentioning about your name. The trick is that when you just let it out of your heart it then just vanishes and you feel so light, so relieved. I am sure you must have experienced this. All I want to say is that life is so precious. It is a gift to us by the almighty and we simply don’t have any right to end what is not created by us. We are the manifestation of the Supreme itself. Feel it, let the power fill the void within. Let us all remember that there’s always a sunrise following the sunset.


My loveliest hugs to all the mental health survivors out there who are fighting a constant battle with themselves and emerging out stronger than ever. You guys are the real heroes and inspiration to so many, trust me. I hope Sushant’s soul rests in the peaceful bliss which we couldn’t give him or he himself couldn’t find in this world.

And THIS🙏🏻

Sharing another heartfelt *string of thoughts* by not a star TV actress or winner of Bigg Boss 12, but a fan of the passed soul!

View this post on Instagram

🙏🏻

A post shared by Dipika (@ms.dipika) on

Research Paper

Determining the influence of preoperative nursing Assessment on patients’ surgical outcomes and anxiety at Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya.

*Lilian Adhiambo Omondi

(PhD Student, UoN, MScN , UoN, BScN, UoN, ORN, KNH, RN)

Lecturer, School of Nursing, College of Health sciences, University of Nairobi

Co authors

Prof. Mary Wangari Kuria

(PhD, Psychiatry, UoN, M.Med Psych UoN, M.BChB. UoN).

Associate Professor – Department of Psychiatry, College of Health sciences, University of Nairobi,.

Dr. Peter Wanzala

(PhD, Epidemiology, MPH, BDS, UoN)

Research Scientist, Centre for Public Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).

*Corresponding Author

This publication is part of PhD thesis of University of Nairobi ethical permit Ref. KNH/UON ERC- P396/11/2010

Determining the Influence of Preoperative Nursing Assessment on Patients’ Surgical Outcomes and Anxiety at a National Hospital

Abstract

For quality surgical interventions and outcomes preoperative patient assessment by perioperative nurses is imperative yet the practice is dwindling.

Aim: To determine the influence of nursing assessment on patients’ surgical outcomes and anxiety

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Study population: Mothers delivered by elective caesarian.

Sampling method and size: Single blinding and random assignment; 60 participants.

Method: Thirty participants were assessed preoperatively using a tool as study intervention. Surgical outcomes of anxiety, care satisfaction, pain experience and wound healing process were measured and compared with that of 30 participants prepared preoperatively using the Hospital’s standard practices. Pre and postoperative anxiety levels were assessed using Y form on day 1and 2, care satisfaction using structured questionnaire, postoperative pain and wound healing progress using international pain scale 1-10 and observation chart respectively for 3 days. All ethical principles were observed.

Data analysis: Multivariate non parametric statistics using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17.

Results: Mann-Whitney U Test showed p<0.05 for five pre-and postoperative anxiety statements except “feeling worried” (z = -1.58, p = 0.114) postoperatively; p >0.05 for pain experience and wound healing progress, Wilcoxon W Test showed p< 0.05 for five care satisfaction statements, except for desire to be visited by theatre nurses before surgery (p = 0.49 > p = 0.05).

Discussion: Intervention group had better surgical outcomes compared to the control group even though there were no significant differences in pain experience and wound healing progress probably because of already established care standards.

Conclusion: Preoperative nursing assessment positively influences patients’ surgical outcomes

Recommendation: Preoperative nursing assessments for surgical patients require restructuring to revamp the dwindling practice.

Key words – Anxiety, preoperative assessment, perioperative nurses, elective surgery, surgical outcomes.