STATE WIDE–You can feel stress from hearing about mass shootings, like the one in Santa Clarita, California, even though it happened thousands of miles away. Hoosiers are stressed, like many Americans, about a variety of issues.
“The high incidence of mass shootings that we’re hearing about certainly is a source of stress for many individuals,” said Lynn Bufka, associate executive director of the American Psychological Assoc. She said the 2019 Stress in America survey shows that 7 in 10 adults are stressed about mass shootings.
But, Hoosiers are also stressed about the cost of health care.
“Health care and the cost of health care and how they’re going to be able to care for family members who need their support–those kinds of things cause stress to a lot of individuals,” said Bufka.
She said not being able to afford or not having access to the things you need is also a major source of stress, as are every day issues like work and family life.
Bufka said people are also stressed about what’s happening with the political situation.
The people who bear the most stress, according to the survey, are the people in Generation Z, or 18 to 22 year olds.
“For over ten years we’ve been asking people to tell us on a scale of one to ten, how stressed are you? And, Gen Z adults are the ones who are reporting the highest-average stress level,” she said. “Gen Xrs and millenials also have higher stress levels. But, then when you get to the boomers, you see it decline.”
Bufka attributes that to what people are having to do at different stages in life. For instance, people who are 18 or 19 often are not sure about education, a career path, when they might start a family or even get their first real job. Older people have already tackled many of those issues.
Bufka said removing yourself from stressful situations can help, but so can simpler solutions like learning to say no to people and getting regular exercise and good sleep.
PHOTO: Chris Davis/Emmis
