A Brooklyn man suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder from 9/11 was awarded $20,360 by a judge after he and his Italian greyhound service dog were barred from entering a state building to claim benefits. more ›

Last month Forbes published a story ranking NYC as the 8th most-stressed city in America, behind Dallas (#7), Tampa (#4), and Las Vegas (#1). Now along comes Portfolio.com with a study that lists NYC as the 6th most-stressed, bested by Detroit (#1), L.A. (#2), Cleveland (#3), and Riverside, California (#4). (What's wrong with sunny Riverside? They've got a 14.4% unemployment rate, and 10% living below the poverty line.) Anyway, these divergent stress stories are starting stress us out. Is the media just churning out overly-simplistic trend pieces with no verifiable basis in reality? Or are we just a bunch of cynical, semi-stressed out New Yorkers over here? We'd love to hear what those stress-baskets in St. Louis (#5?!) have to say. more ›

If we had any damn time and weren't so completely frazzled we'd write a long monograph debunking this Forbes ranking of America's most stressful cities. NYC only comes in at #8! Now, it's true that NYC-based media gives us a big edge in dramatizing our stress to the world, but that doesn't mean the stress isn't real. And to rank our stress level lower than such cities as Dallas (#7) and Tampa (#4!!!) makes us want to hurl our scalding hot latte in the face of whichever Forbes intern was assigned to research this story. Guess which city is supposedly the most stressed? more ›

A study published in BMC Public Health found "a spike in miscarriages of baby boys throughout the U.S. in September 2001. Researchers blame the stress moms-to-be suffered because of 9/11 - even if they had no direct link to the terrorist attacks." Miscarriages were up 12% the normal number for September, and the study's writers attribute it to "communal bereavement." Lead writer UC Irvine professor Tim Bruckner said, "We do grieve for people we don't know." Additionally, male fetuses were more affected because "they are more sensitive to the chemicals mothers produce when stressed." Here's an abstract of the study. more ›

In more noise news: can everyone just STFU already? A new survey shows that "some two-thirds of the nearly 2,000 British office workers surveyed said that workplace irritations boosted their stress levels, causing 1 in 10 to walk out the door." And humans are just as likely to annoy as machines. The NY Post brought the survey to this city's streets yesterday, asking New Yorkers what annoys them the most at the office—and beware: if you are loud, or saying anything at all, you are probably getting passive-aggressively Twittered about. One woman told the paper, "Another thing that bothers me while I'm at work is how loud people are," and another, "People making loud personal calls is the worst." Other complaints: using phrases like "think outside the box," and "let's touch base." Let us know what annoys you most at the office... by end of day, please. more ›

Forbes has taken a look at the country's 40 largest cities and declared the most stressful amongst them. The big winner is Chicago, due to the record weekend rainfall, the rising unemployment rate, gas prices, high population density and poor air quality. All of that and more has landed the Windy City in the top spot of America's Most Stressful City list. However, New York isn't far behind, taking the silver at #2 (with Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco following). Forbes notes that locals here compete over subways, cabs, apartments, elite preschools, dinner reservations and bartenders' attention so much that it's only adding to the anxiety over costly housing, allergy-inducing pollution, and, you know, everything else. Breathe in, New York, no need to take any crazy stress tests...but maybe sign up for some (overpriced, cramped) yoga classes. [via NY1] more ›