Modern life is stressful. Workers, bosses, and even children are apparently suffering. But could stress be something that's actually good for us?
Over the past five years, more than a million people have moved from working for a living to claiming benefits, a "large majority" of them suffering from "stress-related illnesses".
The Health and Safety Executive estimates that work-related stress, anxiety and depression costs about 13 million working days a year. The TUC says trade unions are currently handling around 6,400 stress-related potential claims against employers.
Life, relationships, money - all have been blamed for the stress epidemic. Richard Exell, labour market expert at the TUC, says it's because people are being more closely supervised at work.
How can a few phones going off be more stressful than seeing the plague carts go past?
Stress specialist Angela Patmore
But it isn't only those who are being watched who are suffering. Last month a survey found bosses were stressed too. Two-thirds of 870 senior businessmen and women surveyed said they worked more than 45 hours a week, and 53% claimed to be suffering from stress, largely caused by "having too much to do in too little time".
If all this talk of stress at work is making you think wistfully of the "best days of your life", think again - it seems that even schoolchildren are tense these days.
Last month, a lifestyle survey found that six in 10 children aged 16 and under often feel "stressed out". More than a quarter of children aged four to six - not normally considered a fraught period of one's life - said they occasionally felt "stressed".
The pressure shows?
Even those charged with running the country are not immune to the stress epidemic - former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik left office in 2000, saying there was "too much work and stress" involved in running a country.
Amid concerns for Tony Blair's health, Dr Lewis Moonie MP, former armed forces minister, claimed the seriousness of the PM's heart scare last year had been downplayed by a nervous Downing Street. And Sir Cliff Richard revealed that he offered the Blairs the use of his villa in Barbados last summer after becoming alarmed at the stress he was showing over Iraq.
Harder lives?
But what is the cause of all this stress? Have life, work and even playtime really become much harder to cope with than in the past? Some experts doubt it.
Children too have their burdens
According to academic David Wainwright, co-author of Work Stress: The Making of a Modern Epidemic, life has not necessarily become more stressful. Rather, he says, in our "therapeutic age", where we tend to view ourselves as fragile creatures in need of a self-esteem boost, we are encouraged to see even minor problems as potential crises and to underestimate our ability to cope without official help.
"Stress theorists say there is a 'stress epidemic' because we are all facing greater psychological demands, for instance balancing increased job demands with childcare commitments," says Mr Wainwright.
"There is some truth in this - but it doesn't explain why there was no stress epidemic in, say, the 1930s, when working people faced significantly greater physical and psychological demands both at home and in the workplace."
Mental resilience
According to Mr Wainwright, the contemporary obsession with stress is a result of cultural shifts, rather than workers - or children, for that matter, living harder lives than their ancestors.
"The recent stress epidemic results from cultural changes in our beliefs about mental resilience," he says. "We live in a culture that constantly bombards us with the claim that the trials and tribulations of everyday life are likely to cause 'emotional scarring' or 'psychological damage'.
"This inflation of the threat posed by everyday life is matched by a diminished sense of our capacity to cope. Taken together, these changes in Britain's emotional script, if you like, lead us to believe that we are incapable of overcoming virtually any form of personal hardship," says Mr Wainwright. In short, we are almost "encouraged to become stressed out".
The 'fight or flight' response is designed to galvanise us into action
Angela Patmore
Stress specialist Angela Patmore has also noted that today's "stress epidemic" cannot possibly be explained by life becoming harder - because it hasn't. Contrasting today's claims of widespread work stress with what people had to endure in the past, she asks: "How can a few phones going off be more stressful than seeing the plague carts go past?"
Ms Patmore is concerned about our tendency to view stress as an illness. Stress management theory is based on the idea that stress is a disease which should be managed or potentially cured. But Patmore says the "stress response" - where our heart rate and blood pressure go up, our muscles tense, and our pupils dilate - in fact helps us to cope with and overcome adversity.
"The stress response is actually a survival mechanism of some importance," she says.
"Triggered when we face challenges to our wellbeing, this 'fight or flight' response is designed to galvanise us into action. For a short time it enhances our mental and physical skills, and it is associated with brainwaves, focused attention and creativity."
Rather than getting stressed out about stress responses, says Ms Patmore, we should embrace them as "helping us through hard times".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3532635.stm
Over the past five years, more than a million people have moved from working for a living to claiming benefits, a "large majority" of them suffering from "stress-related illnesses".
The Health and Safety Executive estimates that work-related stress, anxiety and depression costs about 13 million working days a year. The TUC says trade unions are currently handling around 6,400 stress-related potential claims against employers.
Life, relationships, money - all have been blamed for the stress epidemic. Richard Exell, labour market expert at the TUC, says it's because people are being more closely supervised at work.
How can a few phones going off be more stressful than seeing the plague carts go past?
Stress specialist Angela Patmore
But it isn't only those who are being watched who are suffering. Last month a survey found bosses were stressed too. Two-thirds of 870 senior businessmen and women surveyed said they worked more than 45 hours a week, and 53% claimed to be suffering from stress, largely caused by "having too much to do in too little time".
If all this talk of stress at work is making you think wistfully of the "best days of your life", think again - it seems that even schoolchildren are tense these days.
Last month, a lifestyle survey found that six in 10 children aged 16 and under often feel "stressed out". More than a quarter of children aged four to six - not normally considered a fraught period of one's life - said they occasionally felt "stressed".
The pressure shows?
Even those charged with running the country are not immune to the stress epidemic - former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik left office in 2000, saying there was "too much work and stress" involved in running a country.
Amid concerns for Tony Blair's health, Dr Lewis Moonie MP, former armed forces minister, claimed the seriousness of the PM's heart scare last year had been downplayed by a nervous Downing Street. And Sir Cliff Richard revealed that he offered the Blairs the use of his villa in Barbados last summer after becoming alarmed at the stress he was showing over Iraq.
Harder lives?
But what is the cause of all this stress? Have life, work and even playtime really become much harder to cope with than in the past? Some experts doubt it.
Children too have their burdens
According to academic David Wainwright, co-author of Work Stress: The Making of a Modern Epidemic, life has not necessarily become more stressful. Rather, he says, in our "therapeutic age", where we tend to view ourselves as fragile creatures in need of a self-esteem boost, we are encouraged to see even minor problems as potential crises and to underestimate our ability to cope without official help.
"Stress theorists say there is a 'stress epidemic' because we are all facing greater psychological demands, for instance balancing increased job demands with childcare commitments," says Mr Wainwright.
"There is some truth in this - but it doesn't explain why there was no stress epidemic in, say, the 1930s, when working people faced significantly greater physical and psychological demands both at home and in the workplace."
Mental resilience
According to Mr Wainwright, the contemporary obsession with stress is a result of cultural shifts, rather than workers - or children, for that matter, living harder lives than their ancestors.
"The recent stress epidemic results from cultural changes in our beliefs about mental resilience," he says. "We live in a culture that constantly bombards us with the claim that the trials and tribulations of everyday life are likely to cause 'emotional scarring' or 'psychological damage'.
"This inflation of the threat posed by everyday life is matched by a diminished sense of our capacity to cope. Taken together, these changes in Britain's emotional script, if you like, lead us to believe that we are incapable of overcoming virtually any form of personal hardship," says Mr Wainwright. In short, we are almost "encouraged to become stressed out".
The 'fight or flight' response is designed to galvanise us into action
Angela Patmore
Stress specialist Angela Patmore has also noted that today's "stress epidemic" cannot possibly be explained by life becoming harder - because it hasn't. Contrasting today's claims of widespread work stress with what people had to endure in the past, she asks: "How can a few phones going off be more stressful than seeing the plague carts go past?"
Ms Patmore is concerned about our tendency to view stress as an illness. Stress management theory is based on the idea that stress is a disease which should be managed or potentially cured. But Patmore says the "stress response" - where our heart rate and blood pressure go up, our muscles tense, and our pupils dilate - in fact helps us to cope with and overcome adversity.
"The stress response is actually a survival mechanism of some importance," she says.
"Triggered when we face challenges to our wellbeing, this 'fight or flight' response is designed to galvanise us into action. For a short time it enhances our mental and physical skills, and it is associated with brainwaves, focused attention and creativity."
Rather than getting stressed out about stress responses, says Ms Patmore, we should embrace them as "helping us through hard times".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3532635.stm
