Idiots are invincible. Dr Ro

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      Modern sources of stress

      What are the most common sources of stress these days? Are they different from the “Good old days?”

      Consider the following:

      – If the last 50,000 years of our existence were divided into lifetimes of approximately 62 years each, there have been about 800 such lifetimes. Of these 800, fully 650 were spent in caves. Only during the last seventy lifetimes has it been possible to communicate effectively from one lifetime to another – as writing made it possible to do. Only during the last six lifetimes did masses of men ever see a printed word. Only during the last four has it been possible to measure time with any precision. Only in the last two has anyone anywhere used an electric motor. And the overwhelming majority of all the material goods we use in daily life today have been developed within the present, the 800th lifetime.¹⁵

      – In the last-but-one lifetime, the fastest mode of transport was the horse. The changes that have occurred over the last lifetime are dramatic. Today we are able to comfortably travel 10,000 kilometres in a single day!

      – Every day we receive around several thousand times more stimuli than a hundred years ago and, as if that weren’t enough, existing knowledge doubles (in certain scientific fields) every five years.

      – A hundred years ago, deaths from cancer or heart disease were almost unknown (mainly because people died earlier of other diseases, before they reach the age where cancer and heart disease developed). Today, half the fatalities associated with the 10 most serious causes of death are due, largely, to behavioural habits.

      – According to a comparison of self-reported stress in three different time periods (1983, 2006, and 2009), levels of stress increased a little during the 2008-9 economic downturn, but increased more for certain groups, such as younger adults and those with low socioeconomic status (Cohen & Janicki-Deverts, 2012).

      An American journalist once asked Hans Selye if, given the dramatic increase of stress levels, parents and teachers should teach us how to cope with it more effectively. Selye questioned the assumption about the elevation in stress levels and suggested that every stage of life has its own problems. A century ago we may not have had the threat of a nuclear war, but there was cholera and the plague, that wiped out entire towns and villages. Every age has its own uncertainty, as is the case during the lifetime of an individual: you may be healthy today and ill tomorrow; rich one day and poor the next.