Vol. 100 Stress and Anxiety (Coping with Stress),

Editor: Craig Donnellan,

Publisher: Independence,

Educational Publishers,

Cover: Paperback,

ISBN: 1-86168-314-6,

Published: April 2005.

Stress is the biggest threat to the health of the nation's workforce, according to a recent survey. Meanwhile, the number of young people calling ChildLine because of exam pressures has risen by fifty per cent in the past year. This book looks at these worrying trends and what is being done to help people cope with the increasing pressures of modern-day life.

The information comes from a wide variety of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.

Table of Contents,

Key Facts,

Additional Resources,

Index,

Acknowledgements.

Chapter One: Young People and Stress.

Coping with stress, Anxiety and stress, Exam stress, Major rise in exam stress calls to ChildLine, Exam stress, Exam result stress, Dealing with exam stress, Stressed students seek medical help, The student experience, Meditation for children.

Chapter Two: Stress in the Workplace.

Stress and the workforce, Stress levels at work, Stressful careers, Stressed out, Stress levels, Stress and bullying, Common causes of stress, Suffering in silence, Stress keeps four in ten awake at night, Anxiety attack, Anxiety and stress, The emotional effects of stress, The law and stress, ‘Can’t cope culture’ bill hits £2bn and rising, Incapacity benefits, Cope with stress at work, Managing stress in others, Let’s stop stressing about stress.

Chapter Three: Coping with Stress A ten-step guide to coping with stress, Managing stress, Stress and your heart, The stress chain, Stress and how to cope with it, ‘Life should be fun!’, Top 10 tips for busting stress, Calming down – how people unwind, You feel what you eat, Right sort of stress can be good for you.

Key Facts

• Everyone feels stressed at times. You may feel under pressure, worried, tense, upset, sad, angry – or maybe a mixture of uncomfortable feelings. (p. 1)

• During the last year (1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004) more than 900 children and young people called ChildLine’s free, 24-hour helpline about the stress caused by their exams – up from just over 600 during the previous twelve months. (p. 4)

• Anxiety over heavy workloads, long hours and the threat of redundancy is fuelling an epidemic of stress, with 58 per cent of union health and safety representatives citing it as the major cause of complaints – outstripping conditions such as back pain and repetitive strain injury. (p. 11)

• Young people are the most stressed out on a daily basis, with 24% of those aged 15-24 getting wound up every day. (p. 13)

• Women were slightly more likely to say that their stress levels have increased in the past five years compared to men – 42% of women compared to 38% of men. (p. 13)

• Each new case of work-related stress leads to an average of 29 days off work. The Health and Safety Executive estimates that 13.4 million working days were lost to stress and anxiety in 2001. (p. 20)

• More than 700,000 people – a quarter of all claims – receive up to £84 a week in incapacity benefit on the grounds of poor mental health, a 38 per cent increase since 1997. Of those, 232,300 are women, a 60 per cent increase in seven years. (p. 23)

• An estimated 13.5 million days are lost each year due to self-reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety, costing the economy £7bn a year in sick pay, lost productivity and health costs. (p. 26)

• Changing your lifestyle in this way can make you feel physically fitter and better able to cope with some of the demands on you – and more able to cope with stressful situations. (p. 31)

• With a sensible approach to diet there are ways of reducing the effects of stress and helping your body to remain healthy. (p. 38).