Immediate and Underlying Causes of Stress - Essay Example

Some of the most common ways to handle stress include focusing on the cause of stress, working on what you can control, stopping thinking about negative prospects, believing in your own abilities, and finding pleasure in what you have. If I talk about myself, I would say that stress that directly affects my ability to think or react appropriately. In this paper, I will describe the immediate and underlying causes of stress in my life. The thesis statement of this paper is, ‘whatever the immediate cause of stress is, the primary reason or underlying cause behind all stresses in most of the cases is the way we perceive things.

Stress is a problem that does not have any particular reason to occur. It has unique reasons to occur for all of us (Koplow). It may occur due to personal life reasons or due to some matter related to professional life. In my professional life, one of the main sources of stress for me is my manager’s order to deliver my work quickly. As Akrani states, “excessive workload leads to stress as it puts a person under tremendous pressure” (1). For example, when my manager asks me to upload completed work within a short span of time, I feel stress on me that not only affects the quality of work but also makes me nervous at times. The underlying cause of this stress is often my own personal responsibilities due to which I cannot show required work progress. Because of this, the work continues to compile for me and ultimately causes stress when my manager asks me to deliver it.

Fewer opportunities or chances of promotion in my company is also a source of stress for me that I often feel both at work and at home. I want to make quick professional progress but in the company where I work, I have seen many people working in the same positions for years. I have the aim to reach one of the top management positions in whatever company I work for. For example, if I am working in a call center company as a sales official, I would like to jump onto the position of sales team manager within weeks. I do not want to work for the same position for longer periods. Whenever I see some of my teammates or some other employee getting promotions to some higher level, I feel stressed. The underlying cause of this stress is again my own will to gain promotions as early as possible. It is obvious that one has to work hard for years or at least for a few months to get a promotion. Promotion to the next level is not given on the performance of a few weeks in any company to anyone. I know this fact but still want to make quick progress, which is the underlying cause of stress for me whenever I see someone getting promotions.

Here, I would also like to mention one of the main sources of stress related to my personal life. I cannot put up with criticism of any type from anyone. I want everyone to praise me in whatever I do and when I feel that someone is trying to teach me or guide me about something which, according to my own perception, I am doing right, I feel stressed. For example, while driving my car, I do not want anyone to instruct me on how I should drive. It is my habit to drive a little fast. Often the traffic cops stop my car and say to me, ‘hey, how are you driving, don’t you know the way to drive?’ Such comments from others put me under stress. I know I should not feel such comments because the mistake is at my end in these types of cases but I start feeling pressure on my nerves. The underlying reason for stress in such cases is again my attitude of not accepting the criticism of others.