Stress Freedom United is a national nonprofit 501 (c) (3) consumer organization dedicated to helping consumers control stress, enhance performance and make the world a better place to live and work. SFU will:
- Provide consumers with a national organization to turn to for information and support.
- Empower consumers to seek policy and legal changes that will make life and work less stressful.
- Support ongoing and new research designed to find cures and solutions for controlling stress.
Stress Freedom United’s mission and primary purpose is to help consumers control stress, to advocate a change in public policy that recognizes stress as a major problem and to advocate for programs, funding and services designed to ease stress in all settings.
To accomplish these ends, SFU will be a major publisher of newsletters, policy papers and research into the effects of stress. It will be the major voice to legislators, the media and the public on issues related to stress. It will promote greater recognition of the dangers of stress, while at the same time promoting programs, products and services that are making significant differences in people’s lives.
With its connection to the Institute of HeartMath, the organization will be affiliated with the world’s leading research center devoted to stress.
STRESS FREEDOM UNITED will also be aggressive in its advocacy role through the use of the media. With a media list of more than 1500 contacts, both the launch and ongoing activities of the organization will be major events for the media. It can be expected that in a very short period of time, the media will be turning to SFU whenever the issue of stress is raised.
In addition, Stress Freedom United will be forming key alliances with other organizations that recognize stress as a significant issue. Organizations ranging from the American Institute of Stress to the American Academy of Family Physicians, along with many others, will be approached to partner with SFU on issues and programs of mutual interest.
The Problem: Why is there is an essential need for a new, consumer-centered organization specifically focused on stress?
For almost a century now, consumers and professionals have organized themselves to fight against disease. Groups such as the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and the Muscular Dystrophy Association were organized to focus attention on specific maladies, to promote research to help eliminate or ease the condition and to provide information to those who suffer (and other interested parties).
There are more than one thousand of these groups registered in the United States and around the world. Many have been at the forefront in the progress that has been made to eradicate or lessen the impact of specific diseases.
A well-known example of the effectiveness of these groups is the March of Dimes. Originally established as the Sister Kenny Foundation in honor of the Australian outback nurse who developed an early treatment for polio, the March of Dimes was instrumental in funding and supporting the research that led to the two, now common, polio vaccines that effectively eradicated most cases of polio throughout the world.
Indeed, health organizations founded for, and by, consumers focused on helping to find cures, lessen the effects and educating victims, professionals and policymakers about a specific health problem have contributed to the significant improvement of health worldwide.
However, there is one malady that startlingly has been neglected: Stress.
Stress is the world’s most common medical condition.
A Harvard study shows that people who live in a state of high anxiety are four and a half times more likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than nonanxious individuals. An international investigation reveals that people who are unable to effectively manage their stress have a 40 percent higher death rate than their nonstressed counterparts. The American Institute of Stress notes that as many as 75 to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related ailments.
Medical experts suggest that stress is a global epidemic, little understood by medical professionals and alarmingly under-treated.
Studies reported in the world’s most prestigious medical journals confirm that stress:
- Causes illnesses
- Exacerbates most preexisting medical conditions
- May cause death
Additional studies show that stress significantly affects an individual’s daily life by reducing both personal and occupational performance. Recent studies suggest that the major cause of employee absenteeism is stress. A relatively new term used by industrial engineers, "presenteeism", is a measurement of how productive a worker is on the job. Studies are showing that high worker stress levels reduce productivity significantly in almost every type of workplace setting.
It is likely that stress has been overlooked as a recognized health condition because it is manifested in so many dissimilar ways. From medical symptoms, such as increased heart rate or excessive sweating, to behavioral symptoms such as shyness or depression, stress affects different people in different ways – stress affects everyone.
Unlike many other conditions, stress does not have a single "face." It is hard to recognize stress in all its forms. It is difficult to quantify its symptoms. It is not easy to know where stress begins or ends and another malady steps in. As a result, while people suffer, society has turned its cheek to stress.
For decades, the public has been told we have to live with our stress. The modern world is filled with stressors; circumstances and environmental conditions that make coping with everyday events more difficult. People have been expected to simply adapt to the changing world and accept it.
However, the public is no longer willing to accept such offhanded and simple remedies. For the past three decades, consumers have been reaching out, seeking ways to reduce their stress both to improve the quality of their lives and relationships as well as to enhance their daily performance on the job, in sports and in their overall interactions with their community.
Today, there are literally thousands of books, medications, supplements, devices and techniques all aimed at helping people deal with the effects of stress in their lives. It is a willy-nilly, hodgepodge of "products", most of which have little basis in research or science. It is a field ripe for the charlatan or unscrupulous entrepreneur looking to make a quick buck off of people suffering or in need.
That is why there is an essential need for a new, consumer-centered organization specifically focused on stress.
Charlie Inlander, President: Charlie@stressfreedom.org
Katherine Floriano, Acting Executive Director: Katherine@stressfreedom.org
Gabriella Boehmer, Media Relations: media@stressfreedom.org
General Inquiries: info@stressfreedom.org