AUSTIN, Texas – The Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) under Austin Public Health is launching a public health education campaign with the aim of teaching residents how to stop stress from leading to violent outcomes. The Address Your Stress campaign will explain the body’s stress response and teach short and long-term prevention methods. 

OVP was created in 2021 with the mission of taking a public health approach to safety, looking upstream to intervene and investing resources before violence happens. 

“No one is alone in feeling stress right now,” said Austin Public Health Director Adrienne Sturrup. “Normalizing this experience can keep people from feeling isolated and stuck in this hard place. Getting some perspective on stress and how to navigate it gives us hope that tomorrow can be better than today as it keeps us from escalating our conflicts into violent confrontations.” 

The campaign will feature radio, digital and bus ads, social media posts and traditional outreach tactics that highlight increased stress across the community and direct Austinites to learn more by going to the campaign’s website. In addition to information and advice, the site will provide links to learn more and find help, both to cope with stress and take care of stressful situations.  

“We all need help,” said Michelle Myles, manager of OVP. “When we constantly operate within our stress response, we have limited access to critical thinking and the heightened senses in our body that wears us out. Add in an acute stressor and interpersonal conflict, and you have a recipe for violence that could have been prevented if cooler minds prevailed.”  

Through the site residents will learn how stress can affect their brains and bodies without them being aware. Learning to recognize how and when stress has a negative effect on behavior allows people to plan to interrupt the stress response with activities that work for them like deep breathing, mindful thinking and exercise. 

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