(CBS Radio) — Men and women both have similar stress levels, but how each sex “handles” stress is completely different. Furthermore, both men and women become stressed by different things.
Men cite work and job stability as their top reasons for feeling stressed. Women on the other hand, worry more about finances, family, time management, and just about everything in between. The conclusion is, men stress more about their careers, while women stress more about life in general.
On average, women are more likely to admit that stress is affecting them, but they are also more likely to communicate with their friends and/or family during stressful times — thus helping to alleviate their stress. Men, on the other hand, are more inclined to “be a man” about their problems or stress levels — and they often try to deal with stress internally — without talking to their support system about what’s truly bothering them.
Women also resort to sleep, reading, writing, eating, or surfing the Internet, in an effort to decrease their stress level. Men attempt to decrease their stress level by playing video games, working out, or drinking alcohol.
Stress affects your body in a negative way. Stress can alter your health, your mood, and your thoughts and emotions. The effects of stress on the body may appear in the form of headaches, muscle tension, chest pain, stomachaches, sleep issues, anxiety, restlessness, irritability, depression, changes in eating patterns, and/or anger issues. Women are more likely to seek medical treatment for the symptoms that are associated with stress, while men will attempt to tough it out, until a symptom becomes a medical emergency.
While both men and women have different coping mechanisms when it comes to dealing with stress, men tend to handle the onset of stress better than women. However, women are more open and honest about their cause of stress, are more likely to discuss how they feel, and therefore, they may resolve feeling “stressed-out” faster than men.
-Nichole Jaworski, CBS Radio
