National Stress Awareness Month

April is National Stress Awareness Month.  [It seems like there are a lot of these type of month / day “designations” lately.]  Here are some statistics from a Fast Company (April 2010) article. 

• There are two types of stress – Distress and Eustress.  [Eustress – positive stress; Distress – negative stress…oversimplified]
• A study of monkeys showed those suffering from more social stress held more abdominal fat (a precursor of heart disease).
• 3 out of 5 global doctor visits are stress related.
• $22.8B is spent on anxiety-related healthcare each year.
• More than 275,000,000 working days are lost in the US each year due to absenteeism from stress.
• Anxiety and mental-health issues are 5x more common today (2007) among high school and college students than they were at the end of the great depression (1938).
• 2/3rds of spoken curse words are a result of stress.
• 1 in 4 Americans admit to taking a “mental-health day” to cope with stress.  The cost to employers is $602 per worker per year.
• 62% of Americans are stressed about work.
• Stress fighting products and services are a $14B business in the US.