By now, the litany is a familiar one. It's heard on television and radio talk shows, from the pulpit, at the corner market or in the bleachers at those interminable youth basketball games.

        Americans are stressed out over their work, over their incomes, over their kids, over their house payments, over their cars, over their in-laws, over the recession, over hectic shopping, over appropriate ties, over dry cleaning bills, over their lives.

        But mostly, it's work.

        As more and more women enter the workforce — about 60 percent of women with school-aged children at home now work full-time — stress appears to be rising in frequency and duration.

        Nobody helps her out at home, so she has to not only bring home the bacon and cook it, she's got to first slaughter the hog and then wash the frying pan and plates when the eating is done.

        Men are under pressure at work, too, under pressure to keep the corporate revenues rising, widget production humming and the boss happy or at least content.

        Everywhere stress seems to be growing and as a result, so is rudeness, road rage and office rage in this age of anxiety.

Just a myth
               There is, however, one important element of the scenario detailed above that cannot be overlooked: the Gallup Organization says it's just not true.

        In fact, rising stress as an issue is one of those Big Lies that sometimes takes on a pulse and life of its own. But it's just not true.

        A survey in early December 2001 by Gallup finds virtually no change in American stress levels over the last eight years.

        While most Americans say they experience stress almost every day, the ratio of the stressed-out American to the calm-as-a-yogi American is about the same at it was eight years ago.

        Back in 1994, 39 percent of the people polled sometimes experienced stress in their daily lives. Today, 38 percent of the people sometimes experience stress.

        Out on the nervous edge of the stressometer, back in 1994, 40 percent of the people frequently experienced stress. Today, 42 percent frequently experience stress. In other words, about the same number of people then as now experience occasional or regular anxiety.

Hitting ceiling?
               Dr. Pamela Maxfield, a Kenwood psychologist, thinks that maybe people's stress level is virtually unchanged because maybe everybody is maxed out.

        “I remember from graduate school how there is only so much stress you can take in,” she said. “When you are at the maximum for perceived stress, you tend to black out the rest of it.”

        “We have such a tremendous number of perceived responsibilities.”

        Larry Hugick, vice president of Princeton Survey Research, a worldwide survey company based in Princeton, N.J., believes stress jumped in the 1970s and 1980s when hours on the job rose significantly — from 43 hours a week in 1973 to 47 hours a decade later.

        Today the average time spent on the job is 50 hours a week.

        Despite what the Gallup Poll says, Mr. Hugick believes that stress has grown and continues to grow.

        “There may well be more stress out there,” he says. “People are saying they feel more stress. We do know this — it hasn't gone down.”

        Contact John Eckberg at 768-8386 or jeckberg@enquirer.com.
       

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