ABSTRACT
Stress affects the whole of society; doctors are not unique in reporting escalating levels of stress and low morale. Pressures and problems at home often overflow on to how someone feels and performs at work, and the effects of stress at work are often taken home and unfairly dumped there. The causes of stress are not in any order of priority. They have been identified by some general practitioners and practice managers as causes of stress at work for staff. Stresses at home and in the environment may be intermingled with stresses at work and it could be difficult to separate out exact causes and effects. In medicine, caring for others creates additional stresses from daily exposure to human distress and ill health, from the desire to alleviate all suffering, and from striving to be perfect and never making mistakes. The main way of identifying what provokes stress is to become more aware when symptoms of stress occur.
