Rheumatoid Arthritis and Work stress : How They Affect Each Other.

This blog post is specially for people who have rheumatoid arthritis or would like to help their family members, friends to deal with it. The focus of this post will be inclined towards managing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at work place which will comprise of development and precautionary management measures. Now let us start with, what is rheumatoid arthritis, it is a typical arthritic condition where, abnormality in immune system is observed. It is not just wear and tear of the joints or cartilage but it is a systemic disease. This disease affects more than one joint causing stiffness, pain, swelling and also lead to fatigue, occasional fevers and energy loss. The major drawback of this disease is, lack of exact potential diagnosis on time, still nowadays, there are many tests available in the most of accredited diagnostic labs to detect rheumatoid factor or other factors responsible for the progression of this disease. 

Work stress & RA

The connection between rheumatoid arthritis and work stress is vice-versa as according to recent survey people with rheumatoid arthritis who need to take important work related decisions are often found to be at higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. On the other hand stress can make rheumatoid arthritis worse in the number of ways. As stress, inflammation, immune system abnormalities, and rheumatoid arthritis are all closely inter-related. Managing a chronic condition like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is stressful enough but dealing with stress at work can really add to one of our daily challenges. The symptoms such as swollen and stiff joints, pain, inflammation, limited hand and leg movements, nausea, loss of focus, all these can cause stress at work. Also, to add on to it many arthritic people face discrimination at work because they may seem weaker than any one. For these reasons stress management plays crucial part in taking care of your arthritis. Learning stress management or how to cope with stress in a positive way is a skill needs to be practiced.

One of the most common diseases which is observed in many RA patients that they fear to disclose their condition at work as they feel disheartened due to different treatment which they will receive. But, in reality it is very important to share if you are suffering from arthritis because you may get few special facilities to certain work accommodations such as flexible working hours, easy access to rest rooms, etc. So, if you are suffering from RA do not hesitate to tell someone and ask for help but if you don’t then you will be responsible for building up of stress, making your condition even worst. Hence, feel free to talk about your RA first.