Six out of ten Germans are permanently stressed

Constant stress: Every fifth German feels under pressure

30/10/2013

The Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) has examined the extent to which stress has increased within work and family life. The results that are made are alarming and make you think. The health insurance fund had commissioned a representative survey with the polling institute Forsa. The results were published on Wednesday in Berlin. Among other things, it came to light that almost one in six (just under 20 percent) feel pressured either by work and family or by their own demands. Two-thirds of working respondents said that job demands put the greatest pressure on them.

For TK CEO Jens Baas, the result is worrying. 40 percent of the working people feel that they have finished and almost one in three feels "burned out". Important here are recreational opportunities to properly regenerate. "A stress-free workplace is a utopia - and not a worthwhile goal," says Baas. Stress is not negative per se. "The key is that you have enough resources to counteract the stress."

Employees often experience more stress in the workplace than civil servants and workers. But even people with higher incomes are more stressed. For the TK boss bass, stress is created by the fact that the amount of work is overpowering and one has the permanent feeling that he is not coming afterwards. However, pressure can also arise if the work is characterized by great external determinism or if breaks can not be made as one would consider necessary. Permanent interruptions that stop the workflow also have a negative effect. For every second employee, as the study shows, stress is also an incentive to give more and to prove it. So stress is not always bad, says Baas, in science and medicine, the term "Eustress" is common - the pressure that spurs and ultimately makes happy when you have met the requirements and has done a task for their own and other satisfaction.

Even outside the profession, stress continues
If more stressful factors are added, there are many people who can not help it. That is a central result of the survey. Second place of the stress factors are the personal stressors to which people submit themselves. These include, among other things, the perfectly managed household or high demands on their own child care and the care of the parents. "External circumstances are not always the cause of the tension, often it is also a question of inner attitude," says Baas. Seven out of ten people with children feel stressed, but they feel almost 100 percent happy too.

Sven Hannawald, the former ski jumper, underscored the significance of the inner attitude to external pressure at the press conference. The athlete gained a reputation beyond the community of skiers when he was treated in 2006 for a burnout syndrome in a special clinic and ended his professional ski career. "Perfectionism was very important to me, I felt bad because I won competitions but with performances that were worse than those in training, which was pretty hard to get out of," the 38-year-old said today is a racing driver.

With today's knowledge, he would intervene in a similar situation much earlier, said Hannawald. "I used to go to doctors and I would listen more to my environment, so I know that when you change, and today, after a competition, I would just play football and celebrate for fun instead of going back to the next competition think."

Sandwich generation more heavily loaded than others
In the general population, it is above all the so-called sandwich generation, which is particularly burdened. It includes the age group between 35 and 45 years, which has to take care of their own children as well as parents in need of care. Particularly in a family environment, the demands on one's own responsibility come to the objective external pressure. Women are particularly affected, says TK boss Baas. Above all, the job puts a lot of pressure on men, and for women, apart from their job, it's also the feeling of not being able to do what's important to them. For both genders, additional stressful factors may be added, according to the Forsa survey. For example, job insecurity or financial burdens resulting from the purchase of one's own living space are further factors

But above all, if the rest rooms offer no recovery and the stress prevails over time, the health can be affected, say doctors. Problems such as burnout, but also physical impairments, such as back problems, are then not uncommon. As a special task for his health insurance Baas sees the need to encourage companies to ensure that excessive stress is detected in good time and counteracted. Good opportunities to switch off with little effort, offer autogenic training and proper exercise in the fresh air. (Fr)

Picture: Rainer Sturm, Pixelio