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Stress Awareness Month

A month-long health observance held every April that raises public awareness of the causes, effects, and management of chronic stress.

Thursday
1–30
April 2027
Last updated February 26, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar Team
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YEARLY DATEAll of April
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYAwareness
SUBCATEGORYMental Health
ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
The Health Resource Network, Inc.
FIRST OBSERVED
1992
“A U.S. nonprofit, the Health Resource Network, has sponsored the April observance every year since 1992.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A small nonprofit's quiet April campaign, run since 1992.

The Health Resource Network, a U.S. nonprofit health-education organization, has sponsored National Stress Awareness Month every April since 1992. The network itself was founded in 1982 by physician Dr. Mort Orman, who is credited as the campaign's founder.

INTRO

The little-known nonprofit behind a month most people skip

Stress is one of the most studied subjects in modern medicine. The month set aside for it is one of the least known. A small U.S. nonprofit, the Health Resource Network, has quietly carried Stress Awareness Month every April for decades, with none of the profile its subject commands.

The gap is not for lack of need. In the American Psychological Association's 2024 Stress in America survey, 73 percent of U.S. adults named the economy as a significant source of stress. The observance asks one thing of a pressured country: hold that load in view for a month.

It also asks readers to keep two calendars straight. An April month and a November day share almost the same name but come from different groups in different countries. The April version, the one carried in the United States, is the work of a single physician and his low-profile nonprofit.

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ORIGINS

Stress Awareness Month history

INTRODUCTION

The word "stress" did not always belong to medicine. It belonged to engineers, who used it for the strain on a beam. The man who moved it into the body was a Hungarian-Canadian endocrinologist named Hans Selye.

In 1936, Selye published foundational work describing the body's biological response to strain. He gave the response a name borrowed from physics. He spent the rest of his career arguing that the body answers many different threats in one shared way.

CHAPTER 01

From a laboratory idea to a field

Selye's idea needed a home. In 1978, the American Institute of Stress was established at the Tarrytown Conference Center in New York. Selye helped found it, and the institute became a clearinghouse for stress research in the United States.

The institute studied stress. It did not, however, set aside a month on the calendar for the public. That step came later, and from a different direction.

CHAPTER 02

A physician opens a nonprofit

Ten years before any month existed, a Maryland internal-medicine physician named Mort Orman built the vehicle that would carry it. In 1982 he founded the Health Resource Network, a nonprofit focused on health education. The organization came first. The observance came a full decade later.

Orman's framing was unusually blunt for the field. He spoke of helping people eliminate their suffering, not merely cope with it.

CHAPTER 03

April becomes the month

In 1992, the Health Resource Network launched the observance and has sponsored it every April since. The design was deliberately open: any health professional could take part for free and share information about the causes of stress and how to reduce it, with no approval required. There was no grand proclamation behind it, just a standing invitation that has held for decades.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why Stress Awareness Month Matters

BURDEN

An adjacent clinical load that is large

Everyday stress is not a clinical diagnosis, but it sits next to one that is common. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 19.1 percent of U.S. adults had an anxiety disorder in the past year.

HEALTH

A load the body carries, not just the mind

Authorities treat the observance as more than a mood check because chronic stress is tied to physical health, not only mental strain. That link is why a month aimed at stress sits inside public-health work rather than beside it.

BY THE NUMBERS

Stress Awareness Month by the Numbers

5 of 10
Average US adult stress level, 2024
77%
US adults stressed by the nation's future
1 in 3
Americans living with extreme stress, 2007

TIMELINE

Timeline

Selye names the stress response

Hans Selye published foundational work on the body's biological response to strain, moving stress into medicine.

American Institute of Stress founded

The institute was established at the Tarrytown Conference Center, with Hans Selye among its founders.

Health Resource Network founded

Dr. Mort Orman founded the nonprofit that would later sponsor the April observance.

The April observance begins

The Health Resource Network launched National Stress Awareness Month in the U.S., observed every April since.

A separate November day starts

The International Stress Management Association established a Stress Awareness Day on the first Wednesday of November.

First Stress in America survey

The American Psychological Association launched its annual national stress survey, the data backbone the month now leans on.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about Stress Awareness Month

A Nobel laureate helped found the stress institute

Among the founders of the 1978 American Institute of Stress were the chemist and Nobel laureate Linus Pauling and the futurist Alvin Toffler.

Most people who feel stressed also feel it physically

In the APA's 2007 survey, 77 percent of stressed Americans reported physical symptoms, led by fatigue and headache, not just a low mood.

A second country runs the same April campaign

A separate UK group, The Stress Management Society, runs its own April Stress Awareness Month with its own annual themes, unconnected to the U.S. observance.

One person led the stress institute for over 30 years

Dr. Paul J. Rosch directed the American Institute of Stress for more than three decades, stepping down in 2011.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

All stress is bad for you.

The truth

Hans Selye distinguished beneficial, motivating stress, which he called eustress, from harmful distress; the load the observance targets is chronic, unmanaged stress.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe Stress Awareness Month

EDITOR'S PICK

Learn what stress does to the body

Read the science of the stress response from an authoritative source before forming opinions about it. The American Psychological Association's stress hub, linked in the Resources section below, gathers research and coping guidance in one place.

OBSERVE

Observe the month at home or work

Set aside time this April to notice the steady sources of pressure in your own routine. Naming them is the first step the observance asks of anyone taking part.

SUPPORT

Support someone carrying a heavy load

Reach out to a friend, relative, or coworker who has been under strain and simply listen. Point them toward professional help rather than offering medical advice yourself.

SHARE

Share verified crisis resources

Pass along the contact details for established helplines so they are at hand before anyone needs them. The Resources section below lists national organizations to share.

TAKE

Take action through a recognized organization

Donate to or volunteer with a mental-health nonprofit working on stress and wellbeing. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, listed in Resources below, offers ways to get involved year-round.

GET INVOLVED

Resources and Support

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Stress Awareness Month?

1 / 8

In what year did the U.S. observance of Stress Awareness Month begin?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial awareness observance, not a public holiday, so businesses, schools, and offices keep normal working days.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

10sources
8primary records
4independently dated
Primary records
The Health Resource Network, Inc.
National Stress Awareness Month (April)
The sponsoring nonprofit's own page on its April campaign, run since 1992.
View source
Stress Awareness Month (Dr. Orman / HRN)
Stress Awareness Month, Official Site
Founder Dr. Mort Orman's site, with his statement about eliminating suffering.
View source
American Psychological Association2024
Stress in America 2024: A Nation in Political Turmoil
2024 national figures on average stress level and leading sources of stress.
View source
American Psychological Association2007
Stress a Major Health Problem in the U.S., Warns APA
The landmark 2007 survey finding one-third of Americans living with extreme stress.
View source
The American Institute of Stress
Our History
How the institute was founded in 1978, with Linus Pauling and Alvin Toffler among founders.
View source
National Institute of Mental Health
Any Anxiety Disorder
Federal prevalence statistics for anxiety disorders among U.S. adults.
View source
International Stress Management Association (UK)
International Stress Awareness Week
The November Stress Awareness Day and week, established by ISMA in 1998.
View source
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Free, confidential 24/7 crisis support by phone, text, and chat in the U.S.
View source
Additional coverage
BioEssays (Wiley)2020
Eustress and Distress: Neither Good Nor Bad, but Rather the Same?
Peer-reviewed account of Selye's eustress and the debate over good versus bad stress.
View source
The Stress Management Society (UK)2025
Stress Awareness Month 2025
The UK's separate April campaign of the same name, with its own annual themes.
View source
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