Calm down, it's only stress.

This month I want to talk about a subject that, as a crash test dummy, you might think I would know nothing about--stress. After all, how stressful can it be just sitting in a car every day, being propelled into a stationary object at 60mph? Right?

Well, you'd be surprised about just

For a start, stress is one of the biggest causes of illness among UK workers with around five million of you feeling "very" or "extremely" stressed by your work. This has led to stress costing British business in the region of 3.7bn [pounds sterling] in lost revenue every year.

You would think then that something would be done to stem the haemorrhaging tide of workers flooding to their local GPs to report that they are too sick to work because of stress. Sadly, you would be wrong.

The Health and Safety Executive is beginning to issue notices to companies--the West Dorset Hospital Trust was the first to be issued with such a notice--ordering them to take action to prevent work-related stress and it seems that the trend is set to continue.

After all, with workers now expected to take on greater roles, heavier workloads and increasing responsibility without any financial compensation, is it any wonder that Britain is suffering? Especially when it's so transparent that everyone here is working longer hours and taking less holidays than workers in other European countries. No wonder then that the French always appear so relaxed and the Italians so cool. As for the potentially suicidal Scandinavians, even they seem to have cooled down and are happy to just get on with life without Abba!

In the UK we are still trying to cope with stress and perhaps compounding matters by not wanting to talk about it. After all, that's the British way: "Mustn't grumble," you say, as the world around you crumbles into dust.

The only time that people are willing to talk about stress is when they are trying to sue the backside off of the company that gave them it in the first place!

Of course, for drivers, stress is an everyday nightmare. If you're not being tailgated, the chances are that you are behind someone who refuses to leave the middle lane of the motorway despite the fact that there's not another vehicle in sight for miles.