We’re stressed, in so small part because we live in Houston. It could be worse.
Forbes Magazine found Las Vegas to be the most stressed-out city in America, and Los Angeles is number two. Houston is number three.
Vegas has a 24-hour non-stop environment, and L.A. has traffic beyond belief and a lot of people suffering poor health.
In Houston, we’re workaholics in a state with limited access to health insurance.
“I think it’s due to the level of competition in Houston,” says licensed psychotherapist Richard Kuehn, who specializes in stress-out adults and their families. “Competition in the workplace, competition on the freeways.” He says a lot of professionals he works with talk about the competition they face on a global scale as well as in the office.
A survey looked at things like commute length, availability of health care, unemployment, and resident’s frequency of exercising. Kuehn says in Houston the home is the castle, and the place to decompress. “I think for Houston the stress-relief is having a nice home that you can go home to. I think that’s why stress in the family can have such a huge impact.”
Houston’s saving grace, according to the study, is a low unemployment rate, below the national average, and a median household income of $54,811, above the national average.