{"id":35,"date":"2008-02-11T08:34:01","date_gmt":"2008-02-10T22:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=35"},"modified":"2008-02-11T08:34:01","modified_gmt":"2008-02-10T22:34:01","slug":"health-hazard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"Health Hazard"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Benjie de Ubago<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come to realize that community work can indeed be hazardous to our health! It is definitely not for the faint hearted.<\/p>\n

Stress causes blood pressure levels to skyrocket and there will be numerous stress-related instances. Sitting for hours at meetings means you\u2019re not getting enough exercise. There\u2019s no end in sight except added inches to your back side.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll wonder if you\u2019ve been to a picnic or a meeting as you munch on gastric delights that may cause intestinal chaos and wrap your heart in cholesterol.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While some may be harmless, it is important to consider the more serious side effects of community involvement.<\/p>\n

The raising of your hand to volunteer may be a normal reflex action. It may be a magnanimous gesture on your part but beware that repetitive action may lead to repetitive strain injury (RSI). And if not acknowledged properly and immediately, may lead to more serious ailments such as rheumatism or arthritis.<\/p>\n

It could also lead to other involuntary movements which may cause muscular aches and other body pains. Some examples of these are: head lifting and tilting at an angle, higher than eye level may cause stiff neck and shoulder aches; unwarranted nodding or other facial ticks may cause you to think you\u2019ve got tourette\u2019s syndrome; constant torso bending from \u2018beso-beso\u2019 may also cause problems with joints, waist and lower parts of the body.<\/p>\n

Accepting voluntary work means juggling real work and unpaid community work. This could mean working past waking hours which may lead to insomnia. You wonder whether some are asleep at meetings or they\u2019ve developed sleep walking or sleep apnea.<\/p>\n

Then your vision is blurred which could even lead to tunnel vision despite the fact that you had a 20\/20 vision to start off with. You start seeing things and you can\u2019t see past arm\u2019s length. In more severe case, some can\u2019t see past their noses. Frustration may even give you the pink eye (or conjunctivitis) with the outpouring of tears.<\/p>\n

Next, your sense of hearing goes. You wonder if you heard right? You wonder if that is what they really meant. But as you dare to question, you suddenly realize that everybody is talking one or two octaves higher than usual and you wonder if your auditory senses have been heightened.<\/p>\n

When you start to experience sensurround, you in turn talk just as loud which can put undue strain on your vocal chords.<\/p>\n

Continue to question for sanity sake, reason till your blue, and your mental health is in real peril.<\/p>\n

Egos get bruised, tempers flare and you suddenly realize you\u2019re surrounded by people suffering with attention deficit disorder. In fleeting fits of passion you realize you\u2019re shaking. You see others shaking; people are nodding in unison but not understanding. You may go with the rhythm of the heads even if only to avoid the shakes. Is it Parkinson or are you simply shaking in anger? Just be mindful when you begin to rock. Then you\u2019ll know you\u2019re in the advanced stages.<\/p>\n

However, in chronic cases, you may lose perspective and express yourself to aliens posing as friends only to realize much later that they\u2019ve run off with your ideas. You slip into comatose \u2013 a state of disbelief, wondering if it ever was yours….or was it an error in judgment on your part.<\/p>\n

With further deterioration and frayed nerves, you start second guessing yourself…\u201dhmmm maybe it\u2019s me….maybe it\u2019s the onset of Alzheimer\u2019s ….did I forget…or did they.\u201d Then paranoia sets in when you think you got a response but you really didn\u2019t. Now you\u2019re in real trouble as you get into the \u2018who\u2019s talking to whom\u2019 circle. Hallucination or delusion?<\/p>\n

We advise caution on approach. Prolonged exposure could have serious damages. Should any of the above-mentioned symptoms persist, please seek medical advice.<\/p>\n

As for me, ahhhh, yes, yes, yes! Maybe it\u2019s time to fly for rehab and spend Chinese New Year with friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Benjie de Ubago I\u2019ve come to realize that community work can indeed be hazardous to our health! It is definitely not for the faint hearted. Stress causes blood pressure levels to skyrocket and there will be numerous stress-related instances. Sitting for hours at meetings means you\u2019re not getting enough exercise. There\u2019s no end in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}