Stressed out? You’re not alone — these are the most stressed US cities
We’re living in the United States of Stress.
WalletHub has calculated the most stressed US cities — and it’s bad news for the Midwest and South. Topping the list are Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, Memphis, Tennessee, and Gulfport, Mississippi.
“Where you live can play a big role in how stressed you are,” WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe explained this week. “Cities with high crime rates, weak economies, less effective public health and congested transportation systems naturally lead to elevated stress levels for residents.”
New York City came in No. 36, while Newark, New Jersey, placed 15th among 182 metro areas. WalletHub took into account stress from work, finances, home life and health/safety, weighing factors such as job satisfaction, median debt, house affordability, divorce rates, suicide rates, depression diagnoses and foreclosure rates.
About half of Americans recently reported frequently experiencing stress, a sharp increase over the past two decades and the highest rate Gallup has recorded.
Our elevated stress rates are in direct proportion to inflation, spiking homicide rates and the aftershock of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the ubiquity of stress, many people suffer in silence — an estimated three in five adults don’t talk about their stress, because they don’t want to stress out others.
Stress is bad for the body and bad for business. According to the American Institute of Stress, workplace-related stress costs the country more than $300 billion annually in health care, absenteeism and diminished productivity.
Now, WalletHub has determined the American cities with the most and least stress.
Most stressed cities
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Detroit, Michigan
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Gulfport, Mississippi
Least stressed cities
- Fremont, California
- South Burlington, Vermont
- Fargo, North Dakota
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Bismarck, North Dakota
De-stress yourself
While stress is inevitable regardless of where you live, suffering doesn’t have to be.
Kandi Wiens, a University of Pennsylvania researcher specializing in stress, resilience and burnout, recently shared her stress-busting tips with The Post. Known as “rescue remedies,” these distraction techniques are designed to counter the effects of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
Her stress-staving tactics include:
- Sighing: Taking two inhalations through the nose and a long exhalation through the mouth helps people lower their stress response.
- Looking at a photo of someone you love: People have reported that looking at a photo of their children or another loved one calms them down.
- Exercising produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter and hormone that gives people feelings of pleasure and satisfaction — a natural antidote to anxiety.
- Spending time in nature: Wiens says the stress-reducing effects of being in nature occur in as little as 10 minutes — time in the great outdoors has been shown to boost dopamine and endorphin production.
- Crying releases oxytocin and endorphins and can help people self-soothe and regulate their mood.
- Calculating, Locating, Communicating, Breathing and Exhaling: Wiens recommends a four-step stress-beating technique coined by Dr. Howard Stevenson at the University of Pennsylvania.
For the “calculate” portion, people should rate their stress level on a scale from 1 to 10.
Then they should locate where the stress lives in their bodies. The “communication” part has them evaluate the self-talk going through their head, followed by the “breathe and exhale” portion.
Wiens explained, “It’s getting yourself to focus on the breathing that really tames the stress and physiological responses.”
