Ask stress management expert Ann McCracken all your stress-related questions

Chat date: Thursday 15th December
Chat time: 14:30

With todayís ëwork-hard, play-hardí lifestyle, stress plays an increasingly common role in our daily lives. From commuting nightmares to annoying work colleagues and unreliable computers in the office, stress is an all too frequent occurrence.

We spend nearly half our lives at work, so itís not surprising that some everyday irritations end up wearing us down. According to research released today by Nurofen Tension Headache, office workers find the computer crashing the biggest irritation (33%) with rude and annoying colleagues a close second (32%) and the photocopier jamming coming in third at 10.5%.

This might explain why we go home from work with a tension headache so often. Stress is one of the key triggers for tension headaches causing muscle contractions around the neck and head, leading to inflammation and pain.

The survey reveals that Monday is the most stressful day of the week - and we blame everything from a heavy workload to traffic jams. Surprisingly, second place to Monday in the stress stakes is Friday. Commuting also causes a great deal of stress with 62% of motorists feeling stressed driving into work everyday.

Finally, with Christmas around the corner stress is only going to increase, as 56% of those surveyed found that queues at the checkout stress them out, followed by crowded shops (55%).

But what stresses you out? Ask stress management expert Ann McCracken all your questions and find out her top tips for minimising the effects of stress.

Ann McCracken, stress management expert, joins us live online at www.webchats.tv on Thursday 15th December at 14:30 ñ 15:00 to discuss how we can combat stress in the workplace.

Ann McCracken is a Director of AMC Mentoring, StressWatching and a partner in stressmanagers.co.uk. She is a member of the executive of The International Stress Management Association and specialises in strategies for stress, ranging from risk assessments and training for organisations to mentoring, coaching and active therapy for individuals.

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