Start Living - Stop Stressing

National Stress Awareness Day (NSAD) is being held this year on Wednesday 3rd November 2010 and will encourage people to “Start Living – Stop Stressing”. Annually organised by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA)1, NSAD is in its 12th year of increasing public awareness and drawing attention to the issue of stress. This year specially trained stress advisors will be available to public, private and voluntary organisations throughout the UK providing free stress workshops and stress prevention techniques.

Stress levels have doubled in the last four years2 and only recently have companies begun to address this issue. ISMA and the Health and Safety Executive define stress as “The adverse reaction people have to too much pressure”. NSAD was created to increase awareness of stress and the health problems that result from it, and most importantly to help and inform individuals who may be experiencing stress to seek guidance.

NSAD 2009 was an overwhelming success with the NSAD website temporarily overloaded with the volume of traffic and a large number of people booking with stress advisors. 99% of individuals that attended said that they found the session beneficial and 87% felt more able to make positive changes. Jenny Edwards, NSAD Coordinator comments, “These figures speak for themselves in that people are experiencing stress and further steps need to be taken to educate and inform in this area.”

In a further attempt to reach individuals and provide them with advice, ISMA are hosting two live webcasts for those unable to attend an advisor or event. The topics will be: Stress in Management and Business and How to Manage Stress in your Private Life and will be accessible anywhere where there is a phone and computer available.

Chair of ISMA, Ann McCracken, has released a statement; “Stress is a very important issue and, at this point in time, individuals are facing more pressures at work with an increased threat of redundancies, which makes it even more important that information is available to prevent this causing stress. We were very pleased with the extent of the public and media interest in NSAD last year and a number of organisations contributed to that success. I am sure that, with the vibrant new logo and continuing support, NSAD 2010 can reach a bigger audience and greater success. ”
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1The International Stress Management Association is the leading UK professional body in the specialist field of stress management
2Taken from research carried out by AXA Insurance Company