Easing the stress by shopping is increasing ... Lorraine Harrison and Kellie Fraser love their new shoes. Picture: Russell Brown. Source: News Limited MORE Australians are turning to retail therapy to manage their stress, according to a new survey of the nation's well-being.
While watching television and movies and spending time with family remain the most popular stress relievers, the proportion of Australians trawling a shopping mall increased from 47 per cent to 60 per cent between 2011 and 2013.
And more than two thirds who went shopping to relieve stress this year rated it as an effective stress management strategy.
But Professor Lyn Littlefield, head of the Australian Psychological Society which conducted the survey, warned while shopping and watching movies distracts people from their problems, it doesn't solve them.
"In the short term they are effective but they are not a long-term solution," she said.
"When you come home from shopping it becomes very hollow the next day," she said.
The results of the online survey of 1,548 people conducted by the society suggests stress could be a factor in the nation's obesity crisis.
Three out of four people report they eat something to deal with stress, up from 69 per cent in 2011.
Eating something to cope with stress was rated as only 55 per cent effective compared to 85 per cent who rated spending time with family as effective.
This is probably because the survey also found that the pressure to maintain a healthy lifestyle was the fourth most common cause of stress.
The media was rife with reports on the problem of obesity and the need to eat well and exercise and people who struggled to do this felt inadequate, Professor Littlefield said.
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The computer has emerged as a counsellor with almost one in two people (49%) turning to social networking sites to cope with stress, up from 37 per cent in 2011.
Finances and family issues remain the nation's top causes of stress but for one in three workers their job is a source of stress.
Only half the nation's workers feel valued by their boss and job satisfaction is on the decline the survey found.
Workplace stress was worst for those aged 36-55 with one in two people in this age group suffering stress from their job.
The global financial downturn and redundancies in many workplaces worried those who still had a job and they may also be working harder as a result of workplace downsizing, Professor Littlefield said.
More than one in three of those surveyed reported depression and one in seven had severe depression.
Family issues top stressor for women, finances top stressor for men
Stress was so bad for seven in ten people they said it was affecting them physically.
Those who found their problems overwhelming to the point where they could not turn up at work or leave their homes could get help from a psychologist.
Psychologists had strategies to break problems down into smaller chunks so it could be deal with gradually, Professor Littlefield said.
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