Washington, D.C., May 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ahead of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, the organization released poll data today revealing that two-thirds of Americans are anxious about current events happening around the world. The poll also reports on attitudes towards mental health and work-related sources of anxiety.

Each year, APA fields polls to gauge Americans’ levels of anxiety on a variety of factors. The percentage of those polled indicating they were very or somewhat anxious about the following issues were: 

• Current events happening around the world (67%)
• Keeping myself or my family safe (62%)
• Paying my bills or expenses (61%)
• My health (59%)
• Identity theft (57%)
• The impact of climate change on the planet (53%)
• The impact of emerging technology in everyday life (44%)
• The opioid epidemic (42%)
• Job security (40%)

“There are many factors within and beyond our control that can cause significant stress,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Marketa M. Wills, M.D., M.B.A. “It’s important to understand that there are normal levels of anxiety around these factors as part of being human. But if stress and anxiety are impeding your day-to-day life and making you feel unwell, please reach out for help. Your mental health matters.”

Attitudes Toward Mental Health and Lifestyle

APA’s Annual Meeting is themed “Lifestyle for Positive Mental and Physical Health,” which will resonate with the 79% of Americans who believe that someone’s mental health has an impact on their physical health. When asked to choose two factors among the six pillars of lifestyle mental health with the largest impact on their mental health (either positively or negatively), Americans most commonly choose stress and sleep.

Factors Impacting Mental Health

• Stress (52%)
• Sleep (39%)
• Exercise (19%)
• Social connection (14%)
• Nutrition (10%)
• Alcohol or drugs (8%)

“It is encouraging to know that most everyone is aware of the link between physical health and mental health,” said APA President Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc. “This is why I’m so pleased to build on that by highlighting the links between lifestyle factors and mental health as a key component of our upcoming Annual Meeting. It is important to raise the visibility of these issues and the potential to improve mental health.”

The APA poll also asked questions gauging Americans’ attitudes towards mental health. Americans indicated that they strongly or somewhat agreed that:

• Addictions, substance use or behavioral disorders (such as gambling), can be treated. (84%)
• Untreated mental illness has a significant negative impact on families. (77%)
• Children and teens now have more mental health problems than they did 10 years
• ago. (69%)
• Untreated mental illness has a significant negative impact on the U.S. economy. (63%)

• Treatments for people with mental health disorders are better than they were in the past. (62%)
• There is less stigma against people with mental illness than there was 10 years ago. (54%)
• In addition, more than one in four adults (28%) have talked with a mental health care professional in the past year. This is up 4% from 2024.

Work-Related Anxiety

Among employed adults (about half of those polled), 40% were very or somewhat worried about job security. About 8% had recently lost a job and 26% knew someone that had recently lost a job. Two-thirds of employees were somewhat or very concerned about their financial well-being.

One-third of employees indicated that they had experienced changes in their in-person work requirements in the past few months.  Among those, 14% were required to work in the office more than before or full time, 6% had been moved to hybrid, and 12% could choose to work hybrid or fully remotely.

On a separate note, with summer not far off, 53% of employees had a vacation or travel already planned for the next six months.

The full results of the poll, fielded by Morning Consult on behalf of APA among 2,204 adults April 27-28, 2025, are available by contacting press@psych.org. The interviews were conducted online, and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on age, gender, race, educational attainment, region, gender by age, and race by educational attainment. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Press information and registration for the APA Annual Meeting is available here.

American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association, founded in 1844, is the oldest medical association in the country. The APA is also the largest psychiatric association in the world with more than 39,200 physician members specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses. APA’s vision is to ensure access to quality psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For more information, please visit www.psychiatry.org.

Erin Connors
American Psychiatric Association
202-609-7113
econnors@psych.org