When you ,work a stressful job, it’s easy to assume that it’s the stress of the job that makes you have cold or flu-like symptoms. A stressful job affects your mental health, your emotional wellbeing and your cortisol levels shoot through the roof. When you are overwhelmed and dealing with that freeze, flight and fight response, you are working harder to get those hormones going, which causes some more stress.

You deserve to feel good at the place you work, and when work is too much you may notice that your eyes are strained, your teeth are clenched and your shoulders are carrying a lot of tension. You may have seen ,ophthalmologists to get glasses, and you may have spoken to your dentist about your grinding teeth through the night. Either way, you have to know whether it’s your workplace making you sick or not. With this in mind, here are six signs your illness is caused by your job.

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1. You’re not sleeping well, if at all. It’s one of the biggest signs that you are stressed, insomnia, as your brain cannot concentrate on falling asleep. Sleep deprivation can cause your mood to shatter, your motivation levels to sink through the floor and your immune system to weaken. ,If you aren’t sleeping because of your job, then this is what could be making you sicker.
2. You can’t get out of bed. Sometimes, stress pulls you the other way and it leads you to need more sleep. The constant exhaustion of being at work, straining to see the computer and feeling tense (as well as depression), is not going to help you with your stress levels and your job is behind the depression you’re feeling that is keeping you in bed!
3. You are losing weight. Stress has led you to not eat, which is causing the weight to drop off you. This is not healthy in the slightest and you need to continue to eat. Seeing your doctor if you are dealing with stress is so important as you need to ensure that the time spent in the office is not causing you so much stress that you end up in hospital.
4. Your eyes are failing. Have you noticed that you’re cleaning your eyes and blinking more than usual? Staring at a screen all day in poor lighting is not easy, and when the lighting overhead is poor, you may need glasses. You should be able to go to work and feel good but if you are not, you need to speak to your employer and ensure that you can have a workplace assessment to figure out what you need to make working in your office easier for you.
5. You have no motivation. It’s so hard to motivate yourself when you are feeling pressured and you have that feeling of dread ahead of you for the day. You need to feel as if you can achieve and if you’re less productive it leads to more pressure!
6. You’re feeling the cold – literally. Sniffing, sneezing, coughing – it’s all signs that your job is lowering your immune system and making you sick! Why not talk to your doc if you are feeling sick more often because of your job?