Over half of the respondents from the U.S — approximately 55% — have reported feelings of high stress the day before the Gallup’s annual survey was conducted. According to Gallup’s press release, 45 percent of the respondents worry much of the day, while 22 percent get angry multiple times a day.
Americans’ stress levels were significantly higher than the global average of 35 percent, leaving the U.S. tied for fourth (alongside Albania, Iran and Sri Lanka) in Gallup’s ranking of the world’s most stressed populations. Greece topped the list at 59 percent, while the Philippines and Tanzania finished in second and third with 58 and 57 percent, respectively.
In terms of worry, the U.S.’ 45 percent was ahead of the global average of 39 percent. Comparatively, 63 percent of the world’s most worried population, Mozambique, reported strong feelings of worry the day prior.
Despite these reports of high levels of negative emotion, Americans stated as well that they experience positive experiences more than the global average.
(Image Credit: Ben White/ Unsplash)
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Really? Not Iraq? Syria perhaps...? North Korea maybe? Something is F*cky about this ranking system, methinks. This sounds like first world stress, not "people are trying to kill me daily" or "I'm dying of malnutrition and Ebola" stress.
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Sadly, it's true. Our culture is overworked and overstressed to the point where its more about living to work, when we should be working to live and that's it.
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I get the feeling (from people I interact with locally) that they're not aware of global populations, or that there is a larger world outside the state they live in. I often wonder what the effect on the planet is for "unaware" people to be allowed to have as many kids as they want. I include my family members in this.
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I think you're right about material possessions, but I think there's a deeper layer to it than just that. Talking to some people who feel stressed all the time, I get the sensation that a lot of that stress comes from a) their lives not meeting their expectations and b) seeing that their lives and the lives of people around them are getting harder, not easier - and that when compared to the lives of their parents, they're not doing better.
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Not surprising. People have this weird idea that "having lots of stuff" is all positive with no negatives. When you have more things, that's more things you have to think about it all the time. Things have to be maintained, repaired, upgraded, etc. You gotta build security to keep your "things". And I'm not just talking about material things either. Immigration takes effort and stress. Multiculturalism takes effort and stress. Political Correctness takes effort and stress. I'm not arguing against these things - I'm saying whatever you bring into your house becomes your new stress. Doesn't matter what it is.
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