Stress in Modern Life

Cause and effect: stress and city living
We all suffer stress sometimes - the anxiety and the feeling that life is hard to cope with. According to psychology, stress is an unpleasant state of emotional and psychological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well being. Is that true that people who live in a city come across more stressful situations than others living in the countryside? In my opinion it is. An extremely dynamic development of big urban agglomerations brought about all known sources of stress, from the population growth, the level of noise, environmental pollution and life speed, to the danger of car accidents and crime increase. The intensity of stress sources concentrated on a small area strengthens stress undoubtedly. First of all, I would like to focus on the traffic in big cities that is incomparably greater than in
That is why more and more people there feel frustrated and are more vulnerable to stress and depression than people living in the countryside. Driving a car in the rush hours for many people is the most stressful situation they can imagine, because it means moving forward very slowly and coming to a stop every several meters. It is widely known that noise does not influence our psyche profitably. A growing aggression can be felt almost tangibly. Sometimes people just need to rest in a peaceful and totally quiet place, which is very difficult to find in a big city, where everyday bustle does not stop even in the late night hours, making a relaxation almost impossible. All of these factors lead to the fact that life is much more nerve-racking in the city in comparison with areas that have the population density of rural areas and villages. On the other hand, a city also may cause isolation because makes possible a situation in which we are in the crowd of people who are totally strange, unfamiliar and absolutely indifferent. The next source of stress in a city is, undoubtedly, a large number of its inhabitants, clustered on a relatively small area. The research shows that such a feeling of alienation is a reason for a serious stress. On the pavements, there are hundreds of people rushing in different directions and colliding with each. Even the pettiest incident may be enough to cause a serious row. Other factor that contributes to the great amount of stress in the city is lack of influence on the conditions, in which we have to live. Every man needs his own living space and his own sphere of privacy, which are violated on every occasion in a big city. These include the traffic jams, noise volume, ubiquitous crowds and car accidents danger and may have very harmful impact on gargantuan city"tms inhabitants, who tend to be touchy and over-reactive. We cannot stop the crowd, street noise, traffic and we do not choose the people around us