Let’s Talk About Stress

Catherine Lawson

Although our willingness to talk about stress at an intellectual level has improved in recent years, our readiness to speak openly about it as individuals continues to be impacted by the stigma around mental health. Whether we like it or not, we have a long way to go before open and honest discussions about stress are the norm.

There are several factors which hold us back when it comes to sharing how we’re feeling. It’s not uncommon for stress to be confused with weakness, even though we now have a much better understanding of what it actually means. Culturally, there’s still the quiet ‘stiff upper lip’ soundtrack running in the background which leaves us unwilling or unable to admit when we’re feeling stressed. We worry that we’ll be seen as weak or unable to cope. We think we’ll let people down or be a burden by admitting our stress. We fear rejection – being cast out from the ‘tribe’ if we’re not as strong as the rest.

Such fears are unfortunately reinforced by workplace expectations. There might be a better-than-ever focus on wellbeing in the workplace at a strategic level these days, but in practice few organisations actually create the conditions to support good mental wellbeing. Instead, they continue to reward the behaviours which lead to stress by glorifying busy, expecting resilience at all costs, and maintaining an ‘always on’ culture. In this context, admitting to feelings of stress can be incredibly difficult. We think we’ll be seen as the weakest player in the team. We worry about being judged ‘unfit’ and about what that might do to our job or promotion prospects. We fear rejection.

It’s ironic that our fears around stress persist, however, when you take a look at the statistics. According to the Mental Health UK Burnout 2026 report, 91% of adults surveyed experienced high or extreme levels of stress in the last year – the kind of stress which left unchecked can quickly turn to burnout. To compound the problem, the same report showed that our willingness to talk about stress in the workplace is at an all-time low, with only 25% of those surveyed seeing mental health as something which is genuinely prioritised by employers. The cost to the UK economy of failing to address the issue is vast – an estimated £51 billion (Deloitte UK’s 2024 Mental Health and Employers report).

So how do we start to talk about stress before it gets too much? We’re all very good at saying ‘I’m fine’ when people ask us how we are, but unfortunately that’s often a placeholder for ‘I’m really struggling just now’. Finding a way to say the latter is the first step in letting someone know what’s going on so we don’t feel quite so alone, but that’s just one side of it – knowing what to do and say when someone confides in us about their stress is even more important.

It’s tempting to try to fix the problem when someone admits they’re struggling, but that’s not always what they need – often giving someone the space to talk and be heard is the best thing you can do. It’s similarly unhelpful to minimise or dismiss other peoples’ experiences, often by comparing them to your own – however well intended, these approaches are more likely to shut the conversation down before it begins. As the research shows, though, it’s time we collectively found a way to get comfortable talking about stress because only then can we start to reverse what is currently the biggest national public health crisis we face.