Research question: Is emotional stress connected to poor health problems in the

US?
Topic: Disease & Health
Centre No: VN240
Candidate No:
Candidate Name:
Word Count: 1,019

Introduction
Mental health has an intimate relationship with your actions and emotional feelings.
However, issues about our mental health are causing wide-ranged difficulties in
every stage of age. As shown by many reports, the most common cause of mental
illness is stress. During stress, we produce chemicals called adrenaline. In the short-
term, these hormones can boost your productivity. Conversely, long-term stress can
negatively affect your physical health and lead to serious consequences. Therefore,
poor health problems in the US continue to rise due to a lack of understanding.
Throughout this research paper, the problem will be discussed from global and
national perspectives to suggest practical solutions.

Global perspective
Based on a report from Our World in Data, there are 792 million people suffering
from mental issues in 2017. In particular, stress can come from daily life problems.
To prove this, Brianna Hansen (2018) has figures shown that 94% of workers
reported stress comes from their job. In addition, the Labour Force Survey recorded
about 442,000 workers in Britain told that they got stress from work and it made
them feel sick ("STRESS FACTS", 2021). Meanwhile, in Australia, the number has
gone up to approximately 9 out of 10 adults who felt stress about their daily life
concerns ("61 Stress Statistics", 2021). On top of that, mental health can be defined
with physical symptoms and dangerous health problems. Headache and poor sleep
can be mild symptoms. However, pain, drug disorder, and eating disorder could
appear due to long-term stress. As claimed by WHO, more than 75% of people who
deal with these illnesses do not receive appropriate and effective treatment.
 National Perspective
Mental health is identified as one of the most common health problems in the US.
According to the CDC, 4% of Americans are living with a serious mental illness, and
more than 40% of them said that their stress has increased. On top of that, stress is
also a top health concern for U.S. teenagers between 14 and 17 years old ("Stress in
America™", 2021). Furthermore, MHA published a report that showed 9.7% of youth
in the U.S. are facing depression. Notably, the trend has increased by 0.5%
compared to last year's statistics. Consequently, physical signs such as feeling
dizzy, headache, stomachache, muscle extension, and poor sleep occurred. Over
70% of adults reported these symptoms while 45% felt nervous and lacked energy.
As stress became worse, negative behaviors appeared such as self-harmed and
suicidal thoughts may also occur. Although the US is a developed country with a
modern medical system, 40% of Americans don't have access to necessary mental
health services. In addition, 60% of teenagers in 2018 suffering from depression did
not involve in any treatment.

Different Perspective
According to MHA, mental health problems were at an alarming indicator in the US
with the current stress level 20% higher than the global average. However, both
perspectives are on the trend of rapid increase. In the same way, this problem hasn’t
received the required attention around the world as well as in the US. Therefore, a
high amount of people are still struggling with stress and poor health problems.

Source Evaluation
1. Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2021). Mental Health. Retrieved 8 February 2021,
from https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health
This report provided graphs as evidence along with a complete discussion about the
problems. To support their thesis, detailed graphs about the share of the population
in mental health problems are attached. Although their report is valid with qualified
sources at the end, their data was not recent as it was taken in 2017.

2. Stress a major health problem in the U.S. warns APA. (2021). Retrieved 8
February 2021, from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2007/10/stress
To give a closer look at the current statistics in the US, APA’s paper is very useful.
According to their governance, they’re corporations chartered in the District of
Columbia. To gather exact figures, their survey was conducted annually. Each year,
they release a report with updated information and analyzed trends after compared
with previous data. In their Privacy Statement, they also included how their data
were collected to prove that it isn’t biased.

3. Stress Statistics. (2021). Retrieved 8 February 2021, from

https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/stress/related/stress-
statistics/
The Recovery Village website was established in 2013 to deliver medical and clinical
content. Stress Statistic article was written by Eric Patterson in June 2020. Notably,
instead of a long report on stress, the article is made up of many concise and
informative bullet points. In particular, this article summarized many facts by taking
figures from reliable sources. To avoid misreading, their article also included a brief
summary of how stress is caused, its symptoms, and treatments.
 Action Plan
Based on the current situation, the effects of emotional stress on physical health
have been underestimated and badly affected on Americans' health. Toward the
goal of decreasing health problems, we have to start taking care of our mental
health. Identify your stress by listening to your feelings. Therefore, you can learn how
to deal with negative emotions by building up a healthy lifestyle. As shown, most
Americans would be happier if they sleep an extra 60 to 90 minutes every day
("Stress and sleep", 2021). On the other hand, the lack of mental health treatments
in the US showed that necessary changes are required in medical systems. To solve
this, Paul S Appelbaum (2014) suggested expanding healthcare services for
treatment information to every state through online websites and hotlines. On top of
that, the article mentioned providing necessary facilities. Although there were 12,600
infrastructures in the U.S., more than half of them are outpatient facilities (Frédéric
Michas, 2020). Since mental health problems likely occured in teenagers, raising
awareness in school environment is an optimal solution. By providing vital services
and well-trained teachers, mental health can be included in education programs. As
the new generation has a better understanding, mental health will receive more
attention from society.

Conclusion
Emotional stress has a great impact on health problems. According to other reports,
physical symptoms and serious consequences can occur and damage our health.
Unfortunately, the majority of people who deal with these illnesses do not receive
appropriate treatment. During my research process, I realized mental health
problems are not only the US struggles but a huge problem worldwide that needs to
be solved. Although practical solutions were suggested, changes start from our own
actions.
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