How can stress affect people in modern society?

How can stress affect people in modern society?

We live in a sophisticated, technological dependent and competitive era where time waits for no man. Where being rich and famous is deemed the only true form of success and happiness. This immense hunger for success is driving people over the edge. It has now become a ‘norm’ for people to spend countless hours at the office, at the expense of their bodies' need for rest, to get a promotion or bonus. Other stressors include having to deal with our fast paced society, having to deal with many responsibilities and being overwhelmed by technological gadgets and advancements. Such hectic lifestyles have led to severe physical and psychological stress. Stress is the emotional and physical way in which we respond to pressure, challenging and dangerous situations. Currently, stress accounts for two thirds of the total visits to a physician worldwide. It is also the leading cause of the coronary artery diseases, cancer, accidents and respiratory diseases besides some others. In this modern day and age, stress has undoubtedly affected us in so many aspects of our lives such as; our immune system, mood and even our weight.

Whatever the trigger, the results of long-term stress can have a negative impact on your immune system. When people feel overly stressed; our bodies release stress hormones that greatly reduce the white blood cell count in the body. White blood cells are essential to a healthy immune system as they fight off harmful bacteria and diseases in the blood and bone marrow. Therefore, having a low white blood cell count weakens your immune systems and makes your body more susceptible to cancer. Stress increases heart rate and blood pressure which put a strain on the body’s circulatory system and increases the risk of a person developing coronary artery diseases such as heart attacks or strokes. Stress also causes an increase in the secretion of corticosteroids hormones (stress hormones) which decrease the activity of the immune system by affecting your white blood cells and increase your susceptibility to infections.

There is direct correlation between stress and weight gain which greatly affects people living in urban or core areas. When we feel stressed, our body’s natural mechanism triggers our body to secrete a large amount of stress hormone – cortisol.  High and prolonged levels of cortisol creates cravings for carbohydrates, sweets and other processed foods which leads to weight gain (especially an increase in abdominal fat) and skewed blood sugar levels. This increase in cortisol level will lower your metabolism which is the rate at which your bodies burn calories and hence, causing you to gain weight. It is also common that when people are under chronic stress they will result to eating with friends to relax and seek support. This however is not favourable because, people tend to eat energy-dense food, for example chocolate cake, more than they would normally cause their weight to increase. Others may become too stressed and nervous that they constantly need to munch on snacks to relieve stress. Social-eating, nervousness and the release of stress hormones all cause stressed out people to put on pounds. This shows that prolonged stress and heightened cortisol levels can contribute to weight gain via emotional, nervous and social eating. This may eventually become a vicious cycle if people are not able to manage their time properly to make time to relax and exercise. With all the demands of our modern day lives, exercise is very often the last thing on your mind or to do list.

In this rat race world, stress has caused detrimental effects on our mood and emotional well-being. As mentioned earlier, stress elevates cortisol levels which can lead to two negative mood states; anxiety and depression, which are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in urban areas. Depression is a serious mental illness which makes people feel hopeless and causes great fatigue. This may often lead to them having suicidal thoughts or actually suicide itself. Anxiety on the other hand, is a feeling of nervousness, unease and worry about a specific event. Prolonged anxiety will leave you feeling restless and out of control. Stress is hence a culprit of mood disorders which are not good for your general well-being.

In conclusion, I feel that short-term stress is useful. Feeling nervous before certain events can enhance your performance, keeps us focused and most importantly, motivated. Unchecked and continuous stress is however, not desirable and make us sick. It disturbs our body’s internal balance by increase stress hormones levels, making us emotionally unstable (depression, anxiety), upsetting our stomachs, giving us headaches and causes unwanted weight gain. Thus, it is important that we first identify and excess what areas of lives are causing us major stress and then make the necessary improvements. For example, taking time off our busy schedules, to exercise, play with pets or relax at a spa. All this will reduce your stress level and allow you to lead a less stressful life.