If work leaves you feeling exhausted, anxious, and unable to relax, you could be experiencing workplace stress. Stress in the workplace is a common trigger for many unpleasant side effects, from anxiety to insomnia. Thankfully, CBD can help minimize the effects of stress at work and help you to relax after a long hard day on the job.
Common Sources of Workplace Stress
There are plenty of reasons you might be suffering from stress at work, including:
Long Hours
Working too long of hours doesn’t leave enough time in your day for other important items, like eating good meals without rushing, relaxing and recharging through non-work activities, personal hygiene and self care, or sleeping.
Working too much can cause work burnout, unhappiness, anxiety, stress, depression, and other mental health problems, as well as physical issues like foot pain (if your job requires you to stand all day), back pain (if your job requires you to sit all day) and increased chance of heart disease.
Your psychological stress levels and physical ailments caused by long work hours may also impact your personal relationships and family life. The stress can cause irritability, anger, and low tolerance for interactions with other people.
A Too-Heavy Workload
Even if work hours are kept tightly under control, the workload can still be way too heavy for your capabilities. Over time, you may feel the effects of stress closing in as you try to multitask and make each deadline on time.
One out of two workers quits a job because of burnout. Having a boss that either micromanages or provides not enough direction can exacerbate the issue. In these cases, it is not unccommong to mentally disengage from work and grow cynical about the point of it all. Hating your job due to an impossible workload can cause anxiety and depression.
In addition, a too heavy workload without appropriate compensation can feed feelings of anger and resentment. Why are you working so hard when no-one seems to care that you’re skipping all of your breaks and eating lunch in a rush at your desk?
Depression and Anxiety
The feelings of helplessness, agitation, and frustration can build up until they turn into pure anxiety over every single detail of your day. Whenever you experience a small setback or failure, you can be knocked off your course by depression.
These feelings can continue to build up until they start affecting your work. This creates a vicious cycle, as you stress out about work, making work harder to do, which can makes your stress even more.
Your stressed mood and emotional wellbeing can spill over into the rest of your life, making it difficult to get out of bed or go to work in the morning. But missing days of work can mean more is piled up on you to do when you get back, and worries about losing your job just make everything that much worse.
Tight Deadlines
If you work in an environment where every five minutes delivers a new “urgent” task that goes straight to the top of the stack, you may feel like you’re running in a hamster wheel of frenetic energy but nothing ever gets completed.
Employees who have to work with this managerial style often quit their jobs simply because they never get the satisfaction of finishing a task on time. Instead, they experience constant urging to hop on a new item and then beratement for the previous item not being finished.
Staying in a constant hot seat showered with pressure to perform can make anxiety and stress levels rise and depression increase as feelings of uselessness rise. You could hit tight deadlines if new work weren’t shoved at you every other minute, but instead you’re stuck in limbo and never have a chance to prove yourself.
Poor Management
Your boss can be either the best thing about your place of employment or the worst. A good boss leads and motivates employees, asks for and implements feedback, and provides mentorship and constructive criticism when needed.
A bad boss may abdicate their responsibilities entirely, then blame you when something goes wrong, or sit on your shoulder monitoring and second guessing your every move. In either case, the situation can be untenable.
Negotiating with or pushing back against such a boss can be even worse. When conflict seems inevitable, our bodies often go into fight or flight mode, and we have to experience the same emotional and hormonal spike as if we’d encountered a dangerous wild animal.
The constant small activations of your body’s natural sympathetic response to a perceived danger, over and over, do a lot of harm to your body.
Signs of Work-Related Stress
If you’re stressed out from work, you’re likely going to bring it home with you at the end of the day, even if you’re consciously trying not to. These signs of work-related stress should be on your watchlist:
Physical stress symptoms
- Constipation of diarrhea
- Skin problems like eczema
- Constant exhaustion or fatigue
- Tense muscles or muscle cramps
- Chronic headaches
- Racing heartbeat or palpitations
- Sleep disorders like insomnia or nightmares
Psychological Symptoms
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Increased anxiety
- Feeling discouraged or pessimistic
- Depression
- Mood swings, weepiness, or irritability
- Feeling unable to cope with work or life in general
- Trouble with focusing or making decisions
Behavioral Symptoms
- Becoming disinterested in things that used to bring joy
- Missing work because of feeling sick or demotivated
- Having no initiative or creativity
- Performing badly at work
- Having issues in personal relationships
- Lashing out in anger or irritation
- Choosing isolation over socializing
- Getting frustrated or impatient easily
How to Handle Stress at Work
Managing stress is critical for a happy healthy you. If your main source of stress is your workplace, it might be time to start job-hunting – the market is in employees’ favor right now! If you can’t switch jobs, take these steps to reduce stress:
Track Stress Triggers
You don’t have to “keep a journal” if that feels too overwhelming, but a simple app on your phone can help you track when you feel stressed, note what’s going on at those times, and mention what you did to try and calm yourself, like walking away, taking a break, getting a snack, or trying to get outside for a moment.
Develop Healthier Responses
It’s common to use food, alcohol, or cigarettes to battle work-related stress. However, overindulgence can harm your physical and mental health, too. So, instead, consider trying a simple exercise or stress-buster routine – this could be at-your-desk yoga, a stress-ball, or listening to music. Work on lessening stress outside the workplace by eating healthier, getting to bed at a decent hour, and taking steps to improve your sleep quality. Prioritize time with family and friends to keep personal relationships strong.
Establish Firm Boundaries
Finding work-life balance means setting clear boundaries of what happens when you “clock out”. Resist demands from your workplace that you stay “constantly on” and decide to not answer calls or emails when you aren’t working. If this is a real struggle, considering getting need different cell phones for personal and work to make this division happen.
Take Time For Yourself
You need “you time” to function well when it’s “everything and everyone else time.” Plan your vacations so they aren’t just adding to stress. For example, have a staycation that’s focused on pampering yourself: checking into a local hotel alone can be amazing. Catch a nap, order room service, read that book that’s been on your nightstand for ages, and just enjoy the chance to breathe.
Relax and Recharge
Meditation isn’t for everyone, but it can be a useful tool for distressing and relaxing your brain. When you’ve got a lot of anxiety, it’s hard to turn that inner voice off, so take it slow and simple at first. You don’t have to empty your mind: try being mindful instead. You can get up a tiny bit earlier to sit and marvel at the sunrise, or take a quiet moment to really enjoy a special hot beverage or carefully prepared meal.
Ask For Help
If your work-related stress seems insurmountable, and nothing you’ve tried works, it may be time to request assistance. This might mean talking to a superior at work, visiting HR to see what employee support services are available, or even seeing a psychiatrist to discuss therapy for your anxiety or depression.
CBD for Occasional Stress
For occasional work stress, CBD products might help you offload some of that anxiety in a safe, natural way. CBD acts as a holistic stress reliever by helping with the balancing of your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS).
Your ECS responds to endocannabinoids that your body makes, but it also can respond to phytocannabinoids that come from plants, like CBD. The CBD helps boost your body’s natural endocannabinoids, making them more effective and long-lasting.
For some, a lot of their stress related issues may be eased with the help of CBD. For example, many people use CBD for better sleep, often adding a natural sleep aid like melatonin for optimal results. CBD helps your brain and body relax enough to fall asleep naturally, and then stay asleep so you get all of the shut-eye you need to face the next day.
With the help of some high quality CBD, your ECS can also manage your body’s natural responses to stress, helping to reduce anxiety, improve appetite, and induce feelings of relaxation and contentment. It’s not a cure-all, but it can help you deal with the residual effects of occasional workplace stress.
Best CBD for Work-Related Stress
Choosing the right CBD product to help you deal with your work-related stress is key to success. Yummy CBD products are derived from legal organically sourced industrial hemp, with high CBD content and less than the legal THC trace amount limit.
Choose from infused oils or convenient gummies, all made with organic hemp-based CBD.
Yummy CBD Oil Tinctures
Yummy CBD oil tinctures contain CBD infused into MCT coconut oil then flavored with orange or mint. One bottle of oil contains 30 mL of tincture, and the usual starting dose is around ½ to 1 mL. That’s about 20 drops of oil, but you can use the marked dropper we provide for easy measuring.
Yummy CBD oil tinctures come in two different strengths.
- Orange Zest Organic CBD Oil has 33 mg of CBD per mL, meaning there is around 1,000 mg of CBD in each 30 mL bottle.
- Mellow Mint Sleep CBD Oil has 67 mg of CBD plus 1mg of Melatonin per mL, so that’s around 2,000 mg of CBD in each 30 mL bottle.
Start with the smaller dose, and slowly increase it, tracking your results as you go. Make sure you note what kind of stress you’re feeling, and how long it takes to feel relief.
The best way to take CBD oil is to put it under your tongue and let it soak into the sublingual soft tissue. This gets it into your bloodstream fast.
Yummy CBD Gummies
Yummy CBD gummies come in a pouch instead of a bottle. Each batch includes a mix of watermelon, green apple, pineapple, and grape flavors. Both original and sleep gummies contain the same amount of CBD, 24 mg per gummy, and there are 30 gummies in a pouch (totalling around 720 mg of CBD.)
Choose one or buy both types of gummies so you can benefit from both the Original and Sleep formulations:
- Fruity Delight Original Gummies for use anytime, anywhere (keep out of reach of kids!).
- Fruitful Dreams Sleep Gummies with an added 1mg of Melatonin per gummy, best used before bed.
Gummies take about double the time to get into your system than CBD oil, because they have to pass through the first stage of metabolism as you digest them. Keep this in mind when tracking results.
Ready to learn more about how to deal with stress at work with CBD? Check out our comprehensive Buyer’s Guide. Then head over to our SHOP page and explore your options!