'Soft Killing' In The Name Of 'Desk Job' By IT Companies

Suhasini (name changed) is a young, smart and an intelligent IT consultant who has done well for herself. However, despite the success, at the age of 25, she’s having anxiety problems which led her to contemplating quitting her job. All she needed was a little support from her mentor to calm her at her workplace.

Does this sound like a familiar case to you? Then you’ve just discovered a case of hypertension. Changing social norms of smoking and drinking and a lifestyle determined by the closest fast-food joint has led to an alarming growth in a number of young people falling prey to hypertension.

According to the World Health Statistics 2012 Report conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), one in three adults worldwide suffer from hypertension, a condition that contributes to half the number of deaths by stroke and heart disease.

With the fast rise in numbers, the WHO this year has decided to bring the focus on the silent killer, making it the theme for this year’s World Health Day (WHD) which was observed this April 7.

Hypertension is essentially high blood pressure. Those identified with the condition would normally visit a physician.

However, a large part of the cure to the condition has to do with the mental state of being. Dr Zia Nadeem of Oxygen Institute of Psychiatry, though, refuses to call hypertension a psychological disorder. “It is a vicious cycle which starts from a stressful lifestyle which then leads to hypertension and under-performance. That in turn again leads to more stress,” he explains.

On an average day, the doctor consults about five people with stress related hypertension and 70 per cent of them are corporate employees.

“In a corporate life, especially in client service, there is a lot of pressure to deliver on time apart from competing with team mates,” says S Shalini, a human resource executive, adding, “With money as the only driving force, many of us tend to develop unhealthy lifestyles especially with late night shifts, fast food and chain smoking. To stay awake while work, we drink a lot of caffeine which is nothing but bad for yourself.”

Citing the same stress and pressure, she says, “The pressure starts from day one. Once the pressure gets too much, there is nothing else once can do but quit their job,” she adds.

Agreeing with the statistic, Dr Diana Monteiro, director of the Hyderabad Academy of Psychology, says, “About 50 to 60 per cent of my patients complain of hypertension and they are corporate employees. One needs to learn how to manage your emotions or anger.”

What makes hypertension a significantly more dangerous medical condition is that it’s hard to detect until it’s too late.  Many do not not realise the development of hypertension in one self, but symptoms include anger, irritability, short temper, headache, tiredness, lack of sleep etc – things that we more often than not tend to ignore.

So how does one tackle the situation?

A little bit of counselling, physical exercise or diet alteration is all that is required to get back into a healthy routine and calm oneself down. “Medication is not always required. One can do with a little bit of physical exercise, diet adjustments or by interacting with people and sharing your thoughts openly to overcome hypertension,” points out Dr Nadeem.

Many corporate offices also provide recreational facilities within their campuses. But that could be tricky for employees to use given the time crunch they work under.

Says Shalini, “Yes, we have the facilities but who has the time for leisure. You have to take time out for going to the gym or playing physically-intensive games. After 8-9 hours of work, there is no energy left for anything else.”

Echoing similar views is Pranathi Shastri, a software engineer, according to who, many of corporate employees end up working on their day-offs as well.

“Depending on the project and the client requirements, many of my colleagues work on almost all their weekends. I work on at least two of my weekly offs to finish off my work,” she says.

The bottomline however remains that if you don’t manage to find time to unwind from your busy schedule, you could be harming yourself slowly and quietly.

WHO says
The World Health Organisation defines hypertension as high blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. If left uncontrolled, high blood pressure can also cause blindness, irregularities of the heartbeat and heart failure. The risk of developing these complications is higher in the presence of other cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes. One in every three adults worldwide have high blood pressure. According to the World Health Organisation, 9.4 million Indians die due to hypertension every year, with nearly a third of young Indians – 33 per cent of men and 32 per cent of women under 25 – developing the condition.