Nearly 1 in 3 Adults Feel Extreme Stress

(WebMD)  Nearly a third of U.S. adults report "extreme stress" in a new survey from the American Psychological Association.

The results include:

32 percent report extreme stress

Nearly one in five (17 percent) reach their highest stress level 15 or more days per month.

Almost half (48 percent) say their stress level has risen over the last five years.

Stress didn't come as a surprise. Most participants indicated that stress is a natural part of life.

But the survey shows that participants are suffering physically, emotionally, professionally, and personally as a result of stress.

Stress and Health

Most participants -- 82 percent -- say they manage their stress well. But they also admit that stress causes problems with their physical and mental health, relationships, and work.

More than three out of four participants -- 77 percent -- said that within the previous month, they had had physical problems due to stress.

Those problems included fatigue, headache, upset stomach, muscle tension, change in appetite, teeth grinding, change in sex drive, and feeling dizzy.

Almost as many participants -- 73 percent -- reported stress-related psychological symptoms in the previous month, including irritability, anger, nervousness, lack of energy, and feeling on the verge of tears.

Losing Sleep, Eating Badly

Stress kept nearly half of participants -- 48 percent -- awake at night during the previous month. They reported losing 21 hours of sleep during that month.

Almost half of participants -- 43 percent -- said they had overeaten or eaten unhealthy foods because of stress in the previous month. Candy and chocolate were their most popular comfort foods.

Two-thirds of smokers said they smoked more when they were stressed, and 17 percent of drinkers said they drank too much within the previous week because of stress.

Sources of Stress

Work stress and money stress were common. Almost three-quarters of participants noted those stressors, up from 59 percent last year.

Housing costs (rent or mortgage) stressed about half of the participants (51 percent).

Here's how the stressors ranked. Participants could pick more than one source of stress.

Work: 74 percent

Money: 73 percent

Workload: 66 percent

Children: 64 percent

Family responsibilities: 60 percent

Health concerns: 55 percent

Health problems affecting spouse, partner, or children: 55 percent

Health problems affecting parents or other family members: 53 percent

Housing costs (e.g. rent or mortgage): 51 percent

Intimate relationships: 47 percent

Women, middle-aged adults, single adults, teachers, health care workers, people on the East and West Coasts, and people with low incomes were more likely than others to report extreme stress.

The online poll, conducted by Harris Interactive in late August and early September, included 1,848 adults. It has a 2 percent margin of error.

Stress Management Tips

Nearly seven out of 10 participants indicated that a mental health professional could help with stress management, but only 7 percent said they've sought such help to manage their stress.

The American Psychological Association provides these stress management tips:

Understand how you experience stress. Everyone is different. How does stress affect you?

Identify your sources of stress. What events or situations stress you out?

Learn your own stress signals. For instance, you might get irritable, lose energy, have trouble concentrating, get headaches, or feel muscle tension when you're stressed.

Recognize how you deal with stress. Are you making unhealthy choices because of stress?

Find healthy ways to manage stress. Examples include exercise, meditation, or talking things out with friends or family.

Take care of yourself. Eat right, get enough sleep, drink plenty of water, and engage in regular physical activity.

Reach out for support. Accept help from supportive friends and family. If you continue to feel overwhelmed by stress, you may want to talk to a psychologist for pointers on managing stress and changing unhealthy behaviors.
By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario
©2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved

[erasmus6]

"Accept help from supportive friends and family."

Sometimes that isn''t so easy. My sister-in-law has problems with stress and depression and her family and friends aren''t very supportive of her. I have always told her she can phone and talk to me, and she does, but as far as the rest of her family goes they are USELESS. Actually I think it''s her family that is causing her stress and depression.:)

Over the years though I have noticed that people don''t like to get involved with people that have problems, they avoid them. They don''t want to hear their problems. It was the same with my neighbor, she would phone me and tell me all her problems because no one else wanted to listen to her.

I think people have become very selfish, friends aren''t what they used to be. People don''t want to hear about others problems because it brings them "DOWN". Also there is the fact that there is more stress in today''s world and I guess if you yourself are very stressed, you might find it hard to deal with others stress.

Awhile back I read where they did a survey and they said that more and more people are keeping to themselves. They were asked if they had a support system of friends and family that they could share things with and there was a good many that said they didn''t.

[grazinggoat]

This is the kinda democracy we''re gladly willing to transmit to the Iraqis, and now Iranians, the Middle-Easterners and the Muslims. We want more slaves to keep the production machines running and utilities to be maintained. We''re becoming their God, we want Allah out and us in. Why not after all we have a great success story with the South Koreans. Production, Production, and more Production... with less time to Reproduction. Way to go America!

[tnt1954]

peasants happily tilling the land on feudal estates
while the landed gentry enjoy the fruits of the
peasants labor. supervisors come by and tell
the peasants to pick the speed up a little bit.
hoe those rows faster. hurry up and get to work,
so you can hurry up and work, so you can hurry up
and have lunch, hurry up and make money so you
can hurry up and pay for gas, and hurry up and
get home, so you can hurry up and go to sleep so
you can hurry up and get to work the next day.
a lifetime of stress, so you can hurry up and die.
treadmill to nowhere. the unemployed and disabled
have it made. they''re the idle poor, who are just
like the idle rich. kings of the road. thing to
do is not be materialistic,be blaise, phlegmatic, with
a ''so what'' attitude. what the heck,its only money.
all that hassle in the castle for what? planning
for the future? it may not even get here. best
laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. due to
unforeseen events. good luck. enjoy the rat race.

[brianbwb-2009]

It is telling that "lack of work" and "lack of money" are not offered as choices. Include the unemployed and underemployed people and your numbers would likely double. What good is a social statistic that doesn''t represent all people, or is limited to one socio economic class?