September brings school, the Dáil, daily routine... and an increase in stress. Can it be avoided?

The live hard, play hard, sell-their-granny-up-the-river-for-a-promotion yuppies of the 80s and 90s are increasingly becoming the "SOFTIes of the noughties". These Stressed Out Feeling Trapped Individuals are typically aged between 30 and 50 and are weary of the relentless grind of traffic, late nights at the office, family responsibilities and the end-of-day slump in front of the TV.

Many are high-powered professionals who have strived, climbed the ladder, arrived, and are now asking themselves, "Is this it?"

A growing number are seeking professional help, according to psychologist and psychoanalyst Domhnall Casey. "They might know something is missing from their lives and don't want to end up like one of those businesspeople whose entire sense of self is bound up in what they do rather than who they are. The type that croak within a year of retiring because they don't have another identity."

Seventy-three per cent of us find life more stressful now than five years ago, particularly those in managerial and professional jobs and living in Dublin, followed by the rest of Leinster, according to a survey by Mental Health Ireland.

The sense of helplessness that accompanies being unable to step off the treadmill is not reserved to top-level employees. "It can take quite a while to get to the root cause of the stress of the patient and whether it's actually work-related. The person may be loaded with responsibility but have no power in the work environment or they may have to travel long distances in heavy traffic. Not being paid or valued enough by their employer is a typical one," says Mr Casey. "Stress" might be a modern word but he believes the condition has always been around.

"The term is borrowed from engineering but every age had its own stress. The peasant in the fields doing repetitive, back-breaking work must have experienced it but people's expectations were not so high and they had the church to fall back on. Our society is going through an interregnum with a collapse of the old value system, so we don't know where we are heading, which can make life more uncertain."

How one copes with the pressures of the work place is key. Poor communication skills, bad relationships with colleagues, a lack of control over one's workload, being answerable to too many bosses, bullying and sexual harassment are common sources of stress. In some cases, stress - which triggers an increase in the production of hormones, particularly adrenalin, which raises the heart rate, blood pressure and metabolism -- is positive and spurs us on to achieve. But above a certain level it disrupts the ability to cope, leading to mental and physical symptoms including irritability, anxiety, depression and avoiding interaction with others.

For those who suffer a breakdown or serious illness as a result of prolonged stress, the dread of returning to work can be acute.

"It depends on the person," says Patricia Murray of the Health and Safety Authority. "They may come to the conclusion they are simply not able to go back to work or if they go back it may not be at the same level. In some cases it is a reappraisal of life where they accept that life has overpowered them, they survived and it's time to try something different. It can require a huge re-education to get to this point because our whole culture is results-based."

For 34-year-old Maurice O'Leary, opting out was a personal choice. A software engineer for 11 years, he was tired of the nagging feeling that "maybe I could be, should be, doing something else. I found the whole Monday-to-Friday, nine-to-five scenario stressful, as well as the 30-mile drive to and from work every day".

When offered redundancy after three years with a company, it offered a way out.

Mr O'Leary sold his south Dublin apartment at the height of the property boom and bought a five-bedroom house in the west of Ireland. He rents out three of the rooms, which provides a steady source of income. His days are spent surfing, reading and making improvements to his house. He has plans to return to full-time education in the autumn and is considering eventually returning to engineering in an academic capacity.

The Heath and Safety Authority is involved in promoting a pan-European Campaign to combat work-related stress, which was launched recently in Strasbourg by the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox.

According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, around 28 per cent of employees in the EU are affected by work-related stress. It is the second-biggest occupational health problem after back pain, costing the EU €20 billion a year in lost time and health costs.

The number of people taking work-stress related personal injury cases against their employers in this State has risen by an estimated 50 per cent in the last three years, according to Emer Gilvarry of Mason Hayes Curran's employment law unit.

"The trick is to identify your stress pattern and find ways to deal with it before it becomes serious," says Mr Casey.