Surfers go e-mad, says Yahoo

Do you have clenched fists, tension, headaches, anger, anxiety, irritability and snappiness? You may be experiencing a new cultural disorder bought on by spam.

According to research from Yahoo, the stress of dealing with an abundance of spam and viruses flooding our in-boxes has led to a disorder called E-Mad (email affective distress).

As part of its Global Anti-Spam Day today, Yahoo has launched a special site designed to raise awareness in dealing with the stress of what it says are the five email villians - spam, scams, junk, sleaze and malignant viruses (see picture, right).

It includes tips on tackling unwanted visitors to your inbox - the six-point plan boils down to: be vigilant, be aware, be suspicious, be alert, be smart, be ruthless and when in doubt, throw it out.

By taking the site's E-Mad test, you could win a weekend away at a health spa – or one of 20 de-stress kits - to aid your recovery from the strains of E-Madness.

To coincide with the launch of its Global Anti-Spam day, Yahoo has also released the results of a survey of 2,500 users, which reveals that PCs now have even more sick days than their owners.

Yahoo’s research shows that spam costs Britain £6.7bn a year and that two per cent of the average workers’ salary of £20,000 is spent on spam-fighting chores, leaving much of the nation feeling more stressed dealing with spam and viruses than the average traffic jam.

Of course, it’s not just work that’s affected. One in ten of us set up dates online, and almost two thirds of us plan our social lives via email – only slightly less than the proportion of users who fell prey to viruses in the last year.