Stressed out? You're not alone

Stress Knows No Boundaries

By WILL LESTER
The Associated Press

Published: Dec 21, 2006

WASHINGTON - That tense feeling often connected to having too much to do, too many bills to pay and not enough time or money is a common emotion that knows few borders.

About three-fourths of people in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and the United Kingdom say they experience stress daily, according to Associated Press-Ipsos polling. Those anxious feelings are even more intense during the holidays.

Spaniards, 61 percent, were not as wound up as those in most other countries polled. They could all take a lesson from Mexico, where more than half of Mexicans said they rarely or never experience stress in their daily lives.

That is not the experience for most people in the 10 countries polled - especially women.

When stress was recently mentioned to Heidi Zabit of Durham, Conn., it seemed to touch a bundle of nerves.

"My life is just so stressful right now, I'm exploding all over the place," said Zabit, a paralegal and single mother of three boys. "Financially, the stresses are putting me under the table. After a full day of work, we finish dinner and do homework. By 9 p.m., I'm fried. And it's magnified by the holidays. They emotionally string us all out, they string our kids out, as far as hopes and expectations."

Germans feel stress more intensely than those in other countries polled. People in the United States cite financial pressures as the top worry. About half the people in Britain said that they frequently or sometimes felt life was beyond their control, the highest level in the 10 countries surveyed.

In most of countries, men were more likely to say their lives weren't out of control.

The factors that cause stress are on the increase in modern industrial democracies. They include multiple jobs, long commutes and increasingly complex technology.

"The level of stress in fast-paced technological societies has been accelerating," said Gershen Kaufman, a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at Michigan State University. "There's an increased emphasis placed on wealth in this country. We're gradually exporting this around the world."

In the United States, Britain and Mexico, finances were cited most frequently as the top stress source. Jobs were the top stress source in Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain. The French viewed jobs and finances equally as top sources of stress.

In several countries, those earning the highest incomes said jobs were the leading source of stress. Those making the lowest said it was finances.

In many of those countries, such as Italy, Germany and France, the word "stress" has such a powerful influence that it has become incorporated into their language.

For Mexico City construction worker Javier Juan, one reason he "almost never" experiences stress may be his priorities. He worries most about the well-being of his wife and children. "Their health and how I'm going to obtain money to cure them is the biggest worry - more than anything else," he said.