Everyone gets stressed out over money, right? Well now there’s a picture of just how much stress money problems creates for the average American.

Associated Press and America Online conducted a survey earlier this year on the physical impact that debt problems can have. Fretting over personal debt can cause a medical book full of troubles, including insomnia, migraine headaches, severe anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, heart problems and ulcers.

Here are some of the specific physical problems, comparing people with high levels of stress and low levels of stress:

• Muscle tension, back pain: 51% of people with high debt stress v. 31% of people with low debt stress.
• migraines and other headaches: 44% v. 15%
• insomnia, other sleep problems: 39% v. 17%
• high blood pressure, hypertension: 33% v. 26%
• severe anxiety: 29% v. 4%
• ulcers and other stomach problems: 27% v. 8%, and
• severe depression: 23% v. 4%

The flip side of these stats is that there are some folks out there who’ve run up credit cards to the limit and piled up enormous debt who don’t feel much stress at all about it. They’re probably sleeping like babies in beds they haven’t paid for.

Seriously, as this survey shows, stress can take a painful toll on debtors.

If you’re feeling physical problems you think might be related to financial woes, don’t ignore it. You might not be able to pay off all of your bills right away, but you can get medical help.

This could be what’ll help reduce some of the stress and improve your odds of being better equipped to tackle these bills.

Tags: debt, stress