Contents

1. Stress of Communication

2. Types of Stress

3. Symptoms and Sign

4. Communication Style

5. Stressor and Types

6. Cause and Communication Pyramid

7. Stress Affect Communication

8. Dealing with Communication Stress

Stress of communication
Communication
But first we understand what communication is?

‘Communication is the process by which communicate our information, ideas, facts, attitude,
thoughts, feelings ,beliefs ,opinions through verbal or non-verbal between at least two people
or with in a group of people ’

Stress
A state of tension resulting from a stress. Stress is any uncomfortable physical emotional
factor that cause the mental tension. Stress is your body way of responding to any kind of
demand it can be cause by good or bad experience when people feel stress going on around
then their bodies react by releasing chemical into the blood.

Stress may be external like environment

psychological and social and stress may be internal
like job tension work tension illness or medical
procedure.

Stress of communication is occur when we are in

tension we cannot communicate properly and not
convert our ideas, information, thoughts and
information to the someone then the problem is
occur and the other one cannot better understand

Types of Stress
As we have discussed the Stress that what really the Stress but we will discuss little more about
effect of Stress on communication.

Stress affects our ability to relate to others because too much stress cause us to be irritable,
which affects our communication skills.

There are four different types of Stress

• Acute Stress

• Episodic Acute Stress

• Chronic Stress
 • Eustress

Acute Stress
The first type of stress is called acute stress. This is the most common form of stress and
normally comes from demands and pressures of the past and future of human life.

For example,
Suppose we have a busy day. we have to drop we niece and nephew at school, stop by the post
office, go to class, take a quiz, get an oil change, pick our niece and nephew up from school,
these are different form which we see in our daily life. But when we will complete these task on
our daily basic then the stress also goes away.

Episodic Acute Stress

It is a more serious form of acute stress. In this type of stress, the person feels stress on a daily
basis and rarely gets relief.

For example,
When you have two or more busy days then it normally
happens like when you have to drop a niece for the
week then it will happen to you normally. You may also
complain about how much work they have so it will
cause stress.

Chronic Stress
It is the type of stress that happens month after month, year after year. This is long-term
stress where people see little way out of a situation.

For example,
A couple who is very unhappy in their relationship? While at one point in time in their
relationship they may have experienced acute stress when arguing, After some days
when these argue goes on daily basic like couple of days then it convert into the Episodic
acute stress, Then a time will come when the situation is out of control then it became
chronic stress.

Eustress
This type of stress is positive stress to help us achieve at a higher level
For example,
We may experience eustress before a job interview or in a class we
have the stress to get the highest position, to score maximum
marks in quiz or class presentation.

Symptoms and Sign

There are some signs which shows that the person is suffering from. By having these one can
easily detect the person is suffering from stress

Nervous Habits
• Raising Your Pitch

• Using Filler Words

• Speaking Too Fast

• Gritting, Grinding teeth

• Increased Smoking And Alcohol

Raising Your Pitch

When the work is not done as according to our desire or we are having some kind of tension
then we usually raise our pitch in communication.

Using Filler Words

A person may start to use the filler words when having some kind of stress in response to some
person like hmm, stop, and ok, how do you and many more.

Speaking Too Fast

In this type the person respond to other person in fast way like not giving accurate answer to
someone. He usually want to avoid contact from peoples.

Gritting, Grinding Teeth

It mostly happens to all of the humans, like if you are studying one night
before exam then you may start to gritting your teeth and even you did
not realize this that you are doing this.
Increased Smoking and Alcohol

Many of peoples think that they will avoid or run away from their stress by
doing smoking and alcohol. So they start to done the things many times in
a day.

Communication Style
Passive communication
This is a form of communication in which the person does not share his or her wants, needs,
desires, or opinions. Here are a few examples of passive communication.

Example,
You order steak and it should be cooked medium but when it arrives at the table the waiter ask
that. If everything is to his liking he say, yes being passive.

Aggressive communication
This is a form of communication opposite on the spectrum in which a person shares his/her
wants, needs, desires, or opinions at the expense of someone else’s wants, needs, desires, or
opinions or right to be treated humanely.

Example,
Take first example again if the food is not according to your wish you explodes yelling at the
waiter about his inadequacies regarding remembering yours order and demanding that he get
a free meal because of the horrible service and incompetent wait staff

Assertive Communication
The best way to communicate with others is the assertive approach let us discuss it with an

Example,
A person orders a steak which should be medium cooked but when the order arrived it maybe
half cooked and the waiter ask that. DO you like the order? SO, instead of say yes or
aggressive.

Ask him to cook it according to my need this could be better to be normal and manage the
stress.
Stressor
A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an
activity that causes stress to an organism.

Types of Stressor

 External
 Internal

External Stressors
External stressors are events and situations that happen to you. Some examples of external
stressors include: major life changes. These changes can be positive, such as a new marriage, a
promotion or a new house. Or they can be negative, such as death of a loved one or a divorce.

 Physical Environment
 Social interaction
 Organizational
 Major Life Events
 Daily Hassles

Physical Environment
Environment stressors in that workplace that force your body to compensate for conditions
that are outside of the norms are known as physical stressors.

These include:
  Noise
 Lights
 Heat
 Confined Space

Noise

Excessively loud laughter, yelling, talking and other workplace sounds.

Lights

Lights that are too bright or too dim also effect communication.

Heat

Temperature that is prolonged exposure to excessive heat or cold causes stress in

communication.

Confined Space

Factors like harmful gases, fumes, excess of oxygen, high temperature or explosive atmosphere
causes stress.

Social Interaction
Social stress is a stress that stems from one’s relationship with other and from the social
environment in general.

These include:
  Rudeness
 Bossiness
 Aggressiveness by others
 Bullying

Rudeness

Rude behavior causes stress in communication.

Bossiness

How you lead or order other people can also affect communication.

Aggressiveness by Others

Aggressive or bad behavior leads to poor communication.

Bullying

Bullying is unwanted or aggressive behaviors that causes hurt or harm to others.

Organizational
Proper rules, regulations and deadlines should be made in organization to overcome the stress
and make communication effective.

Major Life Events

We are greatly affected by the events that are occurring in our lives. These include marriage
death of loved ones, birth of child, moving houses etc. These events either positive or negative
can create a sense of uncertainty or fear which will lead to stress.

Daily Hassles
Daily hassles are most frequently occurring type of stressor in most adults.

It includes:

 Commuting
 Misplaced Keys
 Mechanical Breakers
Commuting

Travel related stress. Stress about a job and commute can lead people to feel less motivated,
be late, absent more often and can lead them to quit.

Misplaced keys

Misplaced things causes disturbance and affects communication.

Mechanical Breakers

Inability to continue or maintain our habits or routine tasks cause lead to stress.

Internal Stressor
Internal stressors are type of stress that are
coming from within your body or your mind. They
include things like whether you are tired, ill,
hungry, hot, cold, nutritional status, your
emotional status, what thoughts you are
preoccupied with your mood and your attitudes.

They include:

 Lifestyle choices
 Negative self-talk
 Mind Traps
 Personality Traits

Lifestyle Choices
A choice of a person makes about how to live and behave, according to their attitudes, tastes
and values.

It includes:

 Caffeine
 Lack of sleep
 Overloaded Schedule

Caffeine
Caffeine can increase anxiety especially in those diagnosed with anxiety or stress disorders.

Lack of Sleep

People experience depression in different ways. It may interfere with your daily work, resulting
in lost time and lower productivity. It can cause lack of sleep.

Overloaded Schedule

Overloaded schedule at your workplace can disturb your lifestyle.

Negative self-talk
Disputing you self takes means challenging the negative or unhelpful aspects. Doing this
enables you to feel better and to respond to situations in a more helpful way. Whenever you
find yourself feeling depressed, angry, anxious or upset use this as your signal to stop and
become aware of your thoughts.

It includes:

 Pessimistic thinking
 Self-criticism
 Over analyzing

Pessimistic Thinking

Pessimism is a mental attitude. Pessimists anticipate undesirable outcomes from a given

situation, which is generally referred to as situational pessimism, or believe that undesirable
things are going to happen to them in life more than desirable ones.

Self-Criticism

It is a voice of self-criticism that says thing to you that you would never dare say to anyone
else. Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself.

Over Analyzing

Situations are cool and simple in general but people are making them complex by over
analyzing.

Mind Traps
Mind trap is a series of lateral thinking puzzle games played by two individuals or teams. These
puzzles often give unnecessary information in order to distract the answer from a simple,
common sense solution, and play on common assumptions.

It Includes:

 Unrealistic expectations
 Taking Things Personally
 All or nothing thinking
 Exaggeration
 Rigid Thinking

Unrealistic Expectations

Dealing with unrealistic expectations is an issue affecting many people. Sometimes we feel
burdened by the expectations placed on us by others. Sometimes we are the ones who place
unrealistic expectations on those around us.

Taking Things Personally

Stop worrying so much about what other people think of you. Become more confident.

All or Nothing Thinking

All or nothing thinking is one such distortion. It refers to thinking in extremes. You are either a
success or a failure.

Exaggeration

The fact of making something seem larger, more important, better or worse than it really is.
Exaggeration is a representation of something in an excessive or overstated manner.

Rigid Thinking

Cognitive rigidity is “Difficulty changing mental sets”. Rigid thinking is associated with poor
mental health, not least because it can give rise to obsessive worry.

Personality Traits
Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Personality traits imply consistency and stability someone who scores high on a specific trait
like different situation and over time.

It includes

 Perfectionist
 Workaholics

Perfectionist

Perfectionism, in psychology, is a personality trait characterized by a person’s striving for

flawlessness and setting high performance standards, accompanied by critical self-evaluations
and concerns regarding other’s evaluations.

Workaholics

A workaholic is a person who works compulsively. While the term generally implies that the
person enjoy their work, it can also alternatively implies that they simply feel compelled to do
it.

Causes of Communication Stress

Communication stress is caused due to many factors. In our homes we have taught that we don’t
speak unless we have any need to speak. If you don’t have any nice word to say than you have
no need to speak. A person who has the power of speaking or communication with others, wins
and you don’t have any kind of such power so you don’t have to speak. This kind of learning
causes communication stress. We learn different kind of values and cultures from our
backgrounds which plays an important role.

Communication stress is also caused by some other factors like fear of upsetting others. We have
a fear inside us that the audience will upset due to our speaking and we get communication
stress. We also have another fear which is rejection. We afraid that other people will reject us.
We feel that we are responsible for the others and get stress. We think that our self-image is very
much lower than others.
Some times when we face a huge crowd of listeners in front of us we get stress.
We don’t get any idea to face that crowd in such situation.

There is another cause of stress that we cannot prepare our self to face the audience and to
answer the audience. It happens when we not prepare our speech or presentation or we are not
mentally prepared.
Sometimes we lose our confidence and get communication stress when see our audience.

How Stress Effect Communication

Stress is one of the greatest barriers to successful communication.
When your stress levels are high, you give off confusing non-verbal signals, lose control of your
emotions and are highly likely to misunderstand what other people are trying to tell you.

By rapidly reducing stress and returning to a calm state, you can decide whether to continue
the discussion or postpone it. Maintaining a calm state also helps the other person keep their
cool.

An Example of Stressful Communication: Talking with Your Teenager

Whether you are weary from butting heads with your teenage darlings, or remember the pain
of parents not listening during your own teenage years, it’s clear that parents and teens often
forget to talk to each other, and instead, end up talking at one another. This isn’t fun for
anyone.

As a parent of teenage children, I’m approaching this scenario from my own perspective.

Three Quick Parent Tips:

Make it a conversation. Parents often feel their teens don’t want to talk to them, but actually,
they’re unaware that teenagers don’t want to sit and be lectured. Try to listen more.

 Remember thinking this when you were a teenager? ‘I get the point! Stop talking!’ Dr Carol
Maxym, a family counselor, urges parents to remember what she calls the 50% rule:
“Almost every parent says at least 50% more than he or she should. Shut up.”

 Be an adult. Depending on the topic, teens may be embarrassed to be having the chat in
the first place. Don’t make it worse by trying to talk like they do with their friends –
although there’s no harm in getting a quick crash course in what teens really mean when
they say things.

How to Reduce Stress in communication

When dealing with disagreements between family members, colleagues, friends or strangers,
there’s a good chance discussions may become heated. Your stress levels will rise, and if you
want to avoid saying things you’ll regret, you’ll need to quickly control this rush of strong
emotions. Cultivating a relaxed, alert state of awareness allows you to calmly engage with
people, even when dealing with upsetting situations.

 First, you need to realize you are getting stressed. Your body reveals many telltale signs
which indicate if you’re becoming stressed as you communicate. Has your breathing pattern
changed or become irregular? Are you clenching your fists? Does your stomach feel tight?

 This is the perfect time to take a moment to calm down. You can decide whether to
continue the conversation or delay it until things are more relaxed.

 The most effective way to quickly relieve stress is by utilizing your senses: sound, sight,
taste, touch and smell. Everybody reacts differently to sensory input, so find the right
soothing cues for you. Take deep breaths, tense and relax your muscles and try to
remember a calming, sensory-rich visual image.

 Laughter really is great medicine and when things are becoming too serious, try and find a
way to lighten the mood. Sharing a joke or a funny story can be a great way to reduce
stress, but only when it’s appropriate to the situation!

 Look for a compromise. Meeting someone halfway reduces stress levels for everybody and
is a positive investment in the future of the relationship.

I know I’m repeating myself, but that’s because it’s so important – people with excellent
interpersonal communication skills are usually happier and more successful. They build
better relationships by understanding others, while being understood themselves. Learn how
to spot and quickly stop the build-up of stress in your communications and you’ll celebrate a
double-win for reducing stress level.

An Article by “Big Think For Business.Com”

One of the most frustrating experiences one can have is when we are not able to understand
each other. The most common but also less frustrating situation is of course travelling to a
country we don’t speak the language of or when meeting a tourist in our town who does not
speak our language.
Being an expat, I have been living in France for five years now, and I still have these moments
on a regular basis. I would say that my French is nowadays at a “Full professional proficiency”
like they say on LinkedIn, and I am pretty sure that most of my French contacts would agree.

I speak French on a daily basis in both my social and private life but also in a professional
context. But there is this phenomenon of the German accent.

Amongst my friends and also in a work related situation, I have never encountered any
problem or even confusion. To the contrary, French people actually appreciate when us
foreigners speak French with them. There is one odd scenario though.

At least once a month and particularly during summer time when all the young, untrained
summer jobbers work in the bakeries and supermarkets I get stuck in a dialogue, even multiple
times per week.

I call this phenomenon the “accent kill switch”. As soon as I order something and the person
behind the counter notices that I speak French with an accent, the kill switch clicks and they
think that they cannot understand me, supposedly because I was not speaking French.

Yes, I know I am pronouncing some French words a little differently than the locals but there is
really no objective reason that it could not be understood.

It then usually takes me three to four times to get the message across, sometimes longer when
the other person tries to activate his or her English. Sometimes the situation gets so far that I
start to doubt my ability to speak French.

Stress seems to have a severe impact on our ability to think clearly and a natural reaction is the
need to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

While those everyday life situations are frustrating but not harmful, there are also situations
that go far beyond the usual problem of not speaking or understanding a foreign language.

How do you deal with a speech disabled person or how to deal with the local population in a
war zone where clear communication can even decide over life or death?

Today, technology can play a key role in lowering the stress in for most people unusual
situations, from the local coffee shop to a mountain village in Afghanistan. Let’s take a look
some examples.
MyVoice - Location based App for the Speech-Disabled

MyVoice can best be described as a mix between Foursquare and a text-to-speech dictionary.
Depending on the location the speech disabled person is at the moment, MyVoice will
recognize different locations like supermarkets, hotels or restaurants around and provide a set
of useful phrases for related situations like ordering coffee.

The app will evolve over time as the user himself or his family can add new sets of phrases to it,
even remotely over the Internet from the other side of the country.

Verbally - Assisted Speech for the iPad

Verbally is an application for the iPad, making use of the bigger screen and full keyboard
layout. The speech disabled can either choose words from a word grid or type phrases on the
keyboard. There are multiple features to make the process of writing sentences quicker like
predictions of the words written or pre-loaded sentences. The app also features a text-to-
speech function.

TripLingo - Dari iPhone App

This iPhone app is created for the soldiers and NGO workers in Afghanistan. TripLingo creates
culture centered travel applications that features a set of useful phrases in four different
versions from formal to casual and slang up to crazy. The Dari app features 750 phrases and
500 common words with pronunciation. To put all this into context, users can also learn about
the culture, customs, etiquette and religion of Afghanistan.

To sum this up, technology especially the new mobile devices can give us a feeling of security
which leads to less stressful situations which then helps us to open our mind for the really
important part of human interaction, to listen to and to understand and communicate with the
other side.

Reduce stress and make effective

communication:
It can be difficult to communicate effectively during stressful times. However, being able to
communicate more often and well will allow you to manage the stressful situation better and
help others deal with it, too. If you can ensure you’re calm, learn to listen well, be clear and
honest, and avoid blaming, you’ll be able to communicate better during stressful situations
both professionally and at home.
Ways to improve communication:
 Check-in with yourself. In stressful times, make sure you’re relatively calm before
communicating with others. If you’re too angry or too
distracted, you may shut down and not listen to
others as well or say what you mean. Check in with
your body for these clues to see if you’re too stressed
to talk:
1. Muscle tightness
2. Stomach ache
3. Clenched fists
4. Rapid or shallow breathing
5. Flushed face

 Try to get calm. If you notice any clues in your body that you're too stressed to interact
with others, try to get calm first. Practices like meditation, yoga, and deep breathing
may help with stress management long-term, but might not be easy to implement in the
moment if you feel like you're in the middle of a crisis. For quick stress relief, try to
engage or focus in on one of your senses. By focusing in on a sensory experience, you'll
feel more calm and re-invigorated to face the problem at hand.

For example, you might try:

1. Rubbing your neck and shoulders.
2. Petting your dog.
3. Lighting a favorite candle.
4. Sipping a warm decaffeinated beverage.
5. Going for a short walk.

 Pause to think. You should also give yourself some time to calm down your thoughts
before communicating with others. It’s important you’ve thought through what you
need to say in order to get your points across to others well. This is particularly
important during times of stress or crisis, when people may be more emotional,
impatient, or prone to misunderstand you.
 Be clear and concise. Be specific about what you need or about what the problem is. Do
not get off track and bring up more than one point at a time, or you'll confuse the other
person. Try to speak with an even, clear tone of voice in order to get your point across
more effectively and avoid upsetting who you're with.
  Learn to listen actively. If you want to communicate effectively when you're stressed,
you’ll need to learn to listen well, too. To truly listen, you’ll need to try to understand
both the words and emotions behind what someone is saying. Listening well will actually
lower stress for both of you and leave you both feeling like you understand each other.
To listen well, you should:

1. Avoid checking your phone or looking at other things while they’re talking.
2. Avoid interrupting.
3. Nod, smile, or say “yes” periodically to show you’re following along.
4. Reflect back what they said to make sure you understand.

 Try being more assertive. Being assertive is essential to communicating well with
others, but does not mean you have to be mean. When you assert yourself, you're able
to calmly and honestly express your needs, as well as listen to and respect what others
need. To be more assertive, remember to:
1. Value your own opinions, needs, and wants just as much as anyone else's.
2. Say "no" and stick to your limits.
3. Ask for help and feedback.
4. Recognize and seek clarity on the other person's needs or emotions.

 Pay attention to your non-verbal. Make sure that your nonverbal behavior, including
body language and tone of voice, matches with what you’re saying. Adjust your tone of
voice so that you’re not yelling and making the other person scared, uncomfortable, or
more stressed.[10] Some other non-verbal you should pay attention to are:
1. Pacing
2. Clutching objects
3. Crossing your arms tightly
4. Making poor eye contact

 Check in for understanding. Don’t ever assume that you’re understanding what the
other person is saying without checking in with them first. Checking in will help to avoid
misunderstanding. You can ask:
1. “What did you mean when you said…?”
2. “Did you mean/say…?”
3. “You feel___. Did I understand that right?”

Other tips to help manage and reduce your stress levels;

  Avoid Caffeine, Alcohol, and Nicotine.
 Indulge in Physical Activity.
 Get More Sleep.
 Try Relaxation Techniques.
 Talk to Someone
 Keep a Stress Diary
 Manage Your Time
 Learn to Say ‘No’

Conclusion
People experience stress while communication. Poor communication lead to unnecessary
stress more often then we realize. Stress caused by many factors like physical environment,
social interaction, organizational, major life event, noise, light, heat, space. Everything’s
matter when you are in stressful situation. Communication stress is also caused by other
factors like fear or upsetting other, and self-image. Stress is the one of the greatest barrier to
successful communication.

Some symptoms and signs which shows that the person is suffering from stress is as; Posture,
Gesture, Eye contact, hand movement and etc. These are can be the sing of having stress and
can by judge easily. We can improve over communication by Check-in with yourself ,Try to get
calm ,Pause to think, Be clear and concise, Learn to listen actively, Try being more assertive,
Pay attention to your non-verbal ,Check in for understanding.