Life can be a very stressful thing, and it is fair to say that some people experience more stress than others. Stress is a feeling that one gets when they feel the situation that they dealing with is beyond their capabilities. Essentially, stress is not a good thing, and it can impair people’s performance as they may not know how to cope with it. It usually takes much experience to be able to respond correctly in stressful situations.
Certain professions suffer more from stress disorders like anxiety, depression, and OCD than others. For example, doctors are under a high amount of pressure, but then so are bus drivers. At first glance, you might not think that there is a link between stress disorders and bus drivers, but there is.
Physical and Mental Toll
Being a bus driver is a physically and mentally demanding job as your concentration has to be rock solid at all times on the road. You have to watch out for what is in front of you and ensure that you know where you are going and that you keep clear of any dangers that may be on the road.
This can cause a bus driver to become stressed as they may not be able to cope with maintaining this level of focus at all times, and this can be quite taxing on the mind and body. Also, with being subjected to tight schedules and issues that are directly out of their control such as traffic, a driver may feel like he is not in control of his fate on the job.
Responsibility
Furthermore, being a bus driver means that you are entrusted with the safety of many people, which can seem like quite a big responsibility and a daunting one at that. It can mean that bus drivers can feel a lot of pressure, rightly or wrongly, as they know that they have a crucial job that they have to do as one mistake could lead to someone losing their life.
This is quite a burden to have to carry around every day and one that can never be forgotten, and if you are not prepared for it, this burden can lead to the driver suffering from a stress disorder like anxiety. Stress disorders like anxiety are very common for bus drivers as they are often in a lot of stressful situations, and that does not just include the obstacles that they have to deal with on the road. Being a bus driver, you encounter a lot of different people in your day to day operations.
Passengers
The general public can be quite a fickle bunch, and their attitudes can vary based on the individual’s situation that day. Bus drivers may have to deal with a lot of the flak from customers who may be having stressful days and decide for some reason to share their stress with the driver and other passengers.
Having to deal with heated exchanges from disgruntled passengers or having to resolve conflicts can make a bus driver very stressed indeed. This increases their chances of getting a stress disorder such as depression if they know that they are going to have to cope with much grief and ill-feeling on their shift.
In essence, being a bus driver can be a very stressful profession, and it is certainly one where they are at an increased risk of developing a wealth of stress disorders. There are many factors that come into play that can have an effect on them and the majority are out of their control.
Edrick Hypolite is a clinical psychologist who has worked with many bus drivers over the years who were in danger of losing their job due to the stresses finally getting to them, and comes up with plans to help them cope before it starts to impact them physically. For the routine physical health check every driver must go through, he highly recommends finding a DOT certified physician through http://www.driverphysicals.com/. You can learn more about Edrick on Google+.
