“Miss, I can’t stop smoking.  Job Corps is so stressful and smoking helps me to relax.”

Does this sound familiar?  Chances are a student comes to your wellness center daily with stress-related symptoms or with complaints about stressors.  They may cite stress as the reason they smoke or initiate other unhealthy habits.

You and your staff may start to wonder, “Just how stressful can Job Corps possibly be?”.   After all, these students did not live stress-free lives of luxury before coming to the program.  Many Job Corps students have been victims of abuse, poverty, and violence.  Although students are not new to dealing with stressful situations, they face a very different type of stress when on a Job Corps center.  Think about some of the environmental and emotional changes these students undergo throughout their stay on center:

• Job Corps students are expected to follow many new rules when on center.  Many of these students come from upbringings where rules have not been strictly or consistently enforced.  Suddenly, they find themselves in a very structured environment and may not know how to respond.
• Students are expected to be productive and motivated to learn.   In the past, many students have been unsuccessful at school or work and have not had support or motivation from parents or teachers.  This may be the first time in their lives when people put real pressure on them to succeed.
• When students arrive at Job Corps, they find themselves in a completely new environment with unknown factors.  Their normal routine is disrupted and they are placed in an environment where they live and work with strangers.  They are removed from their comfort zone and without family and friends.
• When all of these changes start to take their toll on students, they have nowhere to go to be alone.  Few, if any, quiet places exist on center where students can be alone.  Students live, learn, and work at Job Corps 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  In most cases, they share a dormitory room with several other strangers.
• Leaving Job Corps can also be stressful.  Students in Career Development Period (CDP) and Career Transition Period (CTP) also suffer from stress due to pressure to succeed, fear of change, and the thought of impending responsibility.

Tips for Wellness Staff

When a students acts out or has a change in behavior, take a moment and try to place yourself in their shoes.  Listen.  Watch for nonverbal cues.  Show empathy.  If necessary, give a little space for the student to wind down. Chances are you will learn as much as the student does.  By sharing good listening skills, relaxation techniques, and demonstrating positive employability skills, you are teaching the student skills they can use throughout life in a variety of situations.

Help students learn about stress. Not all stress is bad.  Stress can be positive, negative, or imagined stress (worry).  Stress can be productive and motivating.  However, prolonged stress can cause the body and mind to break down if unrelieved.

Recognize when an ailment is stress related.  Treating the stress will help the student more than treating the somatic symptoms.  Symptoms of stress can be physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and relational.

• Physical: headaches, insomnia, ulcers
• Emotional: worrying, bad temper, fear, overreacting
• Mental: poor concentration, negative attitude, low productivity, boredom
• Spiritual: doubt, hopelessness, emptiness
• Relational: loneliness, distrust, nagging

Students may show signs of stress by acting out, decreased concentration, anger, lack of impulse control, a negative attitude, poor relations with others, lethargy, low productivity, and crying spells.

Teach students how stress can affect employability.  Stress accounted for 20 percent of unscheduled absences from work in 2003.  One million people per day are absent from the U.S worksites due to work-related illnesses: ulcers, colitis, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, heart attacks, asthma attacks, and drug and alcohol problems.¹   Help students learn coping skills before they are in the workforce.  Suggestions for relieving stress include:

1. Identify and remove the stressor if possible
2. Improve your communication skills/manage your time wisely
3. Believe in your ability to cope
4. Get plenty of exercise, rest, and eat healthy foods
5. Develop healthy relationships
6. Develop positive coping skills, use relaxation techniques/CDs/ and videos

Make a commitment to create and stick to a total Wellness program to meet all your physical, nutritional, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual needs.

Quick Hands on Stress Busters

1. The Scalp Soother: place thumbs behind your ears, spread fingers on top of your head, move scalp back and forth slowly in circles with fingertips for 15-20 seconds.
2. The Eye Easer: close both eyes and place ring finger directly under eyebrows, near bridge of the nose. Increase pressure slowly for 5 seconds, release, repeat 2-3 times.
3. The Shoulder Saver: place left hand on the right side of the neck by the shoulder. Press fingers firmly into the muscle while tucking chin in toward chest, exhale, The and hold 10 seconds. Release, repeat on other side.
4. The Palm Pleaser: lace fingers together, leaving thumb free. Slowly knead left thumb into palm of right hand for 20-30 seconds. Repeat other side.
5. De-Stressor: walk, walk, walk! Walking lessens stress, is an easy exercise, is cheap, and can add years to your life.
6. Laugh: laughter is proven to be good medicine and often relieves stress.

Fun Facts about Stress

How can you tell when it’s going to be a stressful day?

1. You wake up face down on the pavement with people laughing at you
2. You put your bra on backwards and it fits better
3. Your twin forgot your birthday
4. You put both contacts in the same eye
5. Your pet rock snaps at you

FACTS and PHOBIAS

• Agateophobia—fear of insanity
• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedalisphobia—fear of long words
• Agliophobia—fear of pain
• Automysophobia—fear of being dirty
• Leukophobia—fear of the color white
• Iatrophobia—fear of going to the doctor

¹ Appalachian Regional Health Care. Customer First-ARH: Stress Management Handbook. 1998.