The International Stress Awareness Week is annually celebrated from 2nd November to 6th November to raise awareness on the prevention of stress and to promote the importance of wellbeing of individuals and organisations. The International week was established to focus on stress management.
The 2020 International Stress Awareness Week provides a platform to highlight the stress and other mental health issues and share the insights on stress management across the globe.
Background:
The Week was created in 2018 following the establishment of National Stress Awareness Day in 1998.
National Stress Awareness Day:
i.The National Stress Awareness Day was established by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA) to identify and reduce the stress factors in life. The day is annually marked on the first Wednesday of November.
ii.The 2020 National stress Awareness Day falls on 4th November 2020.
Events:
i.The International Stress Management Association – United Kingdom (ISMAUK) has organised the first ever online global stress and wellbeing summit from 2nd November 2020 to 6th November 2020 on account of the International Stress Awareness week.
ii.The online event featured the insights and cutting edge strategies for stress management, improving mental health and wellbeing.
iii.The summit will stream the opinions from specialists and experts for five days, each day with a different theme.
Effects of COVID-19 on Mental Health:
i.Around 19.2% i.e., 1 in 5 adults experienced some form of depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020 which was around 9.7% i.e, 1 in 10 adults before the pandemic (July 2019 to March 2020).
ii.1 in 8 adults develop moderate to severe depression during the pandemic and around 6.2% of the population are experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms.
iii.Around 84.9% of the adults experiencing some form of depression felt its effects on the wellbeing through stress and anxiety.
Importance of Mental Health:
i.Mental health plays a major role in our lives and impacts our thoughts, actions, behavior and emotions.
ii.Stress can lead to the various health issues like heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure to depression or anxiety.
