Last Thursday, 1st April marked the start of Stress Awareness Month here in the UK.
From research I did on it I discovered that Stress Awareness Month has been held every April since 1992, so for the past 29 years.
The purpose of Stress Awareness Month is to raise awareness about the causes and solutions for, what the Stress Management Society descritbe as, ‘the modern day stress epidemic’.
According to the Stress Management Society we still have a long way to go. In an article I read by them, according to the Mental Health Foundation 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.
I myself think that the impact of the various lockdowns over the past year on the well-being of individuals has not yet been fully seen.
Stress, burnout and adrenal fatigue are two topics that I have both a professional and personal interest in, and experience of, so I have been reading quite a bit on it.
The Stress Management Society recently collaborated with Huawei AppGallery to conduct a study on stress, gathering data from 2,000 British adults. The research identified that 65% of people in the UK have felt more stressed since the COVID-19 restrictions began in March 2020. The three key causes for concern according to the research are feelings of disconnection, uncertainty, and a worrying loss of control.
The Society has decided to weave these three key points into the theme for the 2021 Stress Awareness Month, which is ‘Regain Connection, Certainty and Control’.