Data on Americans and stress makes me anxious

I knew something was different. We're super stressed.

According to an annual Gallup survey released this spring, Americans feel stress, anger and worry at the highest level in a decade.

Americans are among the most stressed people in the world, a fact that makes me uptight.

Here are the basics of the poll: Gallup asked more than 1,000 adults whether they had experienced a series of feelings – positive and negative – during the previous day.

According to Gallup, 55 percent of American adults said they felt stress "a lot of the day," compared to 35 percent of people around the world.

About 45 percent of American surveyed said they felt "a lot" of worry (compared to 39 percent globally) and 22 percent said they felt "a lot" of anger (same as those around the world).

So we're more stressed, more worried and equally angry as the rest of the world.

Gallup found that negative experiences were most prevalent in those younger than 50, those earning a low income and those who dislike President Trump.

That makes me uptight (if "uptight" is still a word).

Most other nations with a lot of negativity were in Africa or the Middle East, while Latin American countries rated highest in positive.

Americans stressed, angry and worried, despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world (No. 10 last year, according to one study), so money clearly doesn't buy happiness. What if achievement does? In other words, is it possible that we could turn this around by simply valuing different things?

Here's my plan to make America great again.

There are six nations that are more stressed than us: Greece, Philippines, Tanzania, Albania, Iran and Sri Lanka.

It's time to practice something I learned as a child: When you're losing, just change the scoring system. Insist you won because your checkers were eliminated first. Claim the lowest score wins in basketball. Say the goal in arm-wrestling is to have your arm pinned to the table.

Sooo . . . what if traveled to those stressed countries and gave residents money, paid for massages and played peaceful music the day before Gallup does this survey next year? The people relax, we get stressed and with a little work, the United States is the most-stressed nation in the world!

We could be No. 1! We spin it that being stressed is a positive!

The last time we were the undisputed No. 1 in something this important was Jan. 15, 2009, when Chesley Sullenberger landed an Airbus A320 on the Hudson River near Midtown Manhattan in the "Miracle on the Hudson." We were kings of the world! We were coming out of the Great Recession, we had a genuine hero and things were looking great!

The next day, a computer worm called "conflicker" infected more than 8 million Windows-based computers, really killing the vibe.

Since then, we've been like the Houston Rockets or the Los Angeles Dodgers: Good, but not quite good enough.

And stressed.

Under my plan, we can become become the kings and queens of stress. All it takes is a change in perspective and a trip to Iran and Sri Lanka to help the people relax.

Although I'm anxious about whether this will work, which is either good news or bad news.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.