Last Updated on June 3, 2023

— Are you stressed out about work? If so, you are part of a whopping 65 percent of Americans who say work is an important supply of stress in their lives, in accordance with the Stress in America report, released by the American Psychological Association (APA) yesterday.

That is only one of the numbers that has been revealed in a study that demonstrated that Americans are struggling to maintain their anxiety levels lower and measured attitudes and perception of strain.

Americans consistently report anxiety that exceeds what they consider to be healthy:

• 35 percent of Americans say their stress has grown since last year
• 74 percent of people with high pressure say stress management is vital
• 31 percent with high tension say they never discuss stress management with health care providers

Even the younger generation is stressed out! 39 percent of millennials (folks within their twenties) say their tension grown last year and 44 percent reported irritability or anxiety as a result of pressure.

The study pointed a finger in the health care sector for not offering effective and consistent stress management.

“Pressure is a big dilemma for a sizable part of Americans,” says David Ballard, PhD, a clinical psychologist and Assistant Executive Director for Organizational Excellence. He says Americans are challenged in regards to managing their stress. They know it’s a problem. They’ve targets for improving their lives, but have really not yet reached them.

Ballard says we have to begin to accommodate environments and the systems all. “We have to address pressure on all levels,” he says. “It’s a shared duty. We need to address it in the health care system in addition to creating healthier environments in our workplace.”

When a Small Amount Of Stress Might Help

A bit of stress can inspire and motivate — notably at work while exceptionally stressful scenarios can do us in, for a few folks. Judith Gerberg, MA, LMHC, a New York City-based career counselor, says that we can all profit from what she calls euphoric stress.

You need a certain amount of anxiety,” Gerberg says. “It’s like when you are a performer and also you go into the excitement phase, where all your hormones are firing off, in a superb manner.” She says when you are without a chance to recharge within an agitated, excited state the problem with anxiety appears. ‘That is burn out,” she says. The excitement of stress that is euphoric can get you started on jobs, but pressures, deadlines, and demand to get a fast turn-around can start to wear your down, particularly when there’s no restorative time.

That’s when stress may possibly make you sick.

Unhealthy Anxiety

In a press webinar yesterday to discuss the Tension in America report, Norman B. Anderson, PhD, CEO, and executive vice president of the APA reported that, “People with chronic illness see their health care provider at least three times a year or more, but only get marginally better stress management support.” He indicated that stress has an adverse effect on long-term health issues, from arthritis to full-blown AIDS.

“It’s not the pressure that kills us,” says Frank G. Sommers, MD, psychiatrist and author of Lose Weight, Stop Stress, and Make Better Love (Pathway Health). “It?’s our reaction to it.”

He explains that anxiety as well as our reactions can really add to serious health problems.

“All strain is mediated by the same biochemical pathways and nerve pathways in a human being,” he says. “We only have one nerve pathway through which all pressure is mediated, thus regardless of the sources, or where it comes from, anxiety is damaging.”

“It is damaging to the cellular level. It is damaging in the way the autonomic nervous system works. Tension, through cortisol, makes individuals more prone to growing situations like diabetes and hypertension and activates certain problems with sugar metabolism. Typically when we’ve cellular damage we can not forecast whether that’s going to lead one man to one manifestation to a long-term ailment of some type.”

The American Psychological Association stated the healthcare system has fallen short on stress management plus they said there was a difference between what people with chronic illnesses desire, and the care they have been receiving.