Every now and then something catches the ear on National Public Radio that causes you to sit down and take notice. On Monday there was just such an epiphany. The segment was about the prevalence of stress in American’s lives.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Harvard School of Public Health, and NPR conducted a two month survey on the impact of stress in daily living. A summary of the results was presented on the Monday, July 7 airing of Morning Edition with additional information to be added in the coming weeks. All this can be accessed at NPR.org and selecting the program you want; you can read the text or listen to the broadcast.
One of the striking findings was how such a large percentage of the population lives with stress. The survey showed that 1 in 4 reported they had been under major stress in the past month and almost half acknowledged that stress had been a large problem in the past year. That comes out to about 115 million of us. As big as that number is, it’s just the tip of the stress iceberg, says Princeton psychologist Elnar Shafir. “Everything I know suggests that this is a pretty massive underestimate.”
The study gives a detailed analysis of what types of stress are the most prevalent, what age groups are affected, and the deleterious effects on our health. Dr. Shafir suggests this is just the tip of the iceberg since many are unaware of how much stress is present in their daily lives.
What makes the list of major stressors contains the usual suspects, but surprisingly, health concerns are the most common; that was true even among the younger cohort. Other contenders were single parenting, raising teenagers, loss of a loved one, money, job pressures and dissatisfaction, family strife, and a host of others.
A surprising finding was that respondents had not discussed with a healthcare professional how stress has a negative effect on their lives. The consensus seemed to be that it was just the cost of living, so to speak, and there was little that could be done about it.
Over 70% reported that changes in sleep patterns were a big problem. Who hasn’t found that worries seem to grow disproportionately when the lights go out and, instead of resting, anxiety raises its ugly head. On waking in the morning, fatigue is more often the product of a restless night than the enthusiasm of starting a new day, the common early morning feeling of a non-stressed sleeper.
But all is not gloom and doom. One in 7 reported that they lived with no stress. It’s hard to imagine how that can be and my reaction is that they are in the group that is unaware of the tension that surrounds their lives.
Given that health concerns are so ubiquitous it would not be surprising if the data further reveal that is a larger problem in an aging population. When life becomes more restricted because of physical difficulties the loss of independence is an issue that must be faced. Too often it is ignored and decisions postponed that will surely lead to additional difficulties if not addressed in a timely fashion.
This is to be an ongoing series on NPR and new information will be helpful. The take home message from this introductory summary is that stress is present in all of us. Ignore it at your peril and seek ways to reduce it before it begins to reduce us.
– Hayden Hollingsworth