Men’s Health Week stress-busting tips

06/06/14 . News

Staying healthy can keep the stress away - here are the Men’s Health Week stress-busting tips.

Men’s Health Week starts next Monday. In Men's Health Week are looking at stress and work.

With all the pressures of modern life it's easy to get stressed. Absence from work for stress, anxiety or depression has increased 29% in three years.

Dr John Chisholm, chair of the Men’s Health Forum, says ‘Male identity is strongly tied up with work and how men earn a living. This means that health at work is doubly important for men. Perhaps men take their work too seriously and their health not seriously enough.’

‘Your best strategy is to prevent stress getting out of control by finding ways both to tackle the causes of stress and to improve your coping strategies.’

Five top tips for Men’s Health Week

Watch out for things that mask the anxiety but do not solve the problem, for example:
- smoking
- comfort eating
- excessive use of alcohol
- abusing illegal drugs
Share your worries with a reliable friend or partner — not the whole company! Genuine friends offer positive support and advice. Uninterested colleagues may be negative, unhelpful and prone to gossip.
Aim for a balanced, healthy lifestyle that includes:
- a nutritious diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables
- regular exercise that gets your heart pumping
- adequate sleep most nights of the week
- plenty of relaxation that restores and heals sensitive nerves
- lots of non-competitive leisure.
Learn coping strategies to see you through the difficult periods.
Tackle the causes of your stress. The most permanent solution — but often the hardest — is to eliminate whatever's causing the problem. If your neighbours' loud music winds you up when you're trying to relax in the evening, ask them to turn it down and, if they keep refusing, take them to court. If you can't cope with the amount of work your boss gives you, say "No" next time you're asked to produce another miracle in two days.

Find more information on work, health and stress and about Men's Health Week.

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. Especially during a major pandemic like Covid-19. So we’re asking.

Men appear more likely to get Covid-19 and far, far more likely to die from it. The Men's Health Forum are working hard pushing for more action on this from government, from health professionals and from all of us. Why are men more affected and what can we do about it? We need the data. We need the research. We need the action. Currently we're the only UK charity doing this - please help us.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

Beat Stress