Survey: Americans Need Help Properly Managing Stress

Findings from the American Psychological Association's (APA) newly released 2010 Stress in America survey raise red flags about the long-term impact that chronic stress could have on our physical and emotional health and the health of our families, psychologists said today.

The survey, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive in August 2010, showed that Americans appear to be caught in a vicious cycle where they manage stress in unhealthy ways, and lack of willpower and time constraints impede their ability to make lifestyle or behavioral changes. This is particularly true for those who believe themselves to be in fair or poor health.

Another troubling aspect of the survey findings is an apparent trend where parents are underestimating how much stress their children experience and the impact their own stress has on their children. They also don't seem to realize how much stress they themselves are under, but their children are acutely aware. (Read more about those findings here.) At the same time, children as young as eight years old are reporting that they experience physical and emotional health consequences often associated with stress. Stress management for families is of vital importance!

"America is at a critical crossroads when it comes to stress and our health," said psychologist Norman B. Anderson, PhD, APA's chief executive officer and executive vice president in a press release. "Year after year nearly three-quarters of Americans say they experience stress at levels that exceed what they define as healthy, putting themselves at risk for developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and depression. Stress is hurting our physical and emotional health and contributing to some of the leading causes of death in this country. People are also saying they have difficulty implementing the changes they know will decrease their stress and improve their health. Yet, our health care system is not adequately addressing this issue or providing the behavioral health treatments that can help Americans. All of us, including the medical community, need to take stress seriously since stress could easily become our next public health crisis."

Making healthy changes stick can be difficult for everyone, especially when under stress. When we're stressed, me often tend to crave the familiar, and have less energy for willpower and motivation. However, as we take small steps toward change, we gain momentum toward greater change; as we start doing more healthy things, we tend to crave even healthier changes; and as we start relieving stress in healthy and effective ways, we have less stress to relive, and more energy to try even more new coping strategies. Take a few steps, and begin an upward spiral of stress relief and healthy change.

The following resources can help you make healthy changes and relieve stress with your family:

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Source: www.stressinamerica.org

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