Essay Sample on Feeling the Pressure: The Stress of Modern Life

Introduction

There is hardly another word that is used more often to describe the daily experiences of a modern human being than "stress". "Stress" is one of those terms that are actively used both by the specialists and the laymen. An APA poll "Stress in America" conducted in 2007 showed that "more than 33% of individuals in the United States report experiencing high levels of stress ... an estimated 48% of Americans believe that their individual stress levels have increased over the past few years" (Terrie, 2010). Yet, notwithstanding its popularity, the notion of stress remains somewhat blurred and misguiding, and many people often demonize stress seeing it as some vague yet imminent threat without fully understanding its nature and effect on health. For the modern individual, it is vital to realize that stress affects the whole organism - from the brain and cardiovascular system to the digestion and appetite, and yet, a human being can cope with it and even sometimes benefit from it.

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Before discussing the effects that stress exercises upon the health of modern individuals, one has to start with defining the notion itself as it will help better understand what stress is and how it works. The problem with the term "stress" is that it is used to define "stimulus, response, or a combination of the two" (Charlton, 1992, p. 156). Hans Selye, one of the experts on the subject of stress, describes it in his work Stress in Health and Disease as "associated with a great variety of essentially dissimilar problems, such as surgical trauma, burns, emotional arousal, mental or physical effort, fatigue, pain, fear, the need for concentration, the humiliation of frustration, the loss of blood, intoxication with drugs or environmental pollutants, or even with the kind of unexpected success that requires an individual to reformulate his lifestyle" (as cited in Charlton, 1992, p. 156). Thus, the notion of stress is highly generalized and seen by scholars as "any intrinsic or extrinsic stimulus that evokes a biological response" (Yaribeygi et al., 2017). As one can see, "stress" is a kind of an umbrella term that is used to define a wide range of stimuli that a human organism can react to in a wide range of different ways.

Logically enough, being such a many-faceted phenomenon, stress can elicit a large number of responses from the human body, most of which are seen as negative. In their study "The impact of stress on body function", H. Yaribeygi and his colleagues write, "based on the type, timing and severity of the applied stimulus, stress can exert various actions on the body ranging from alterations in homeostasis to life-threatening effects and death" (Yaribeygi et al., 2017). Stress has been shown to be conducive to the development of such medical conditions as asthma, fatigue, back pain, arrhythmias, difficulty breathing, headaches, hypertension, ulcers, and fluctuations in blood glucose levels in diabetic patients (Terrie, 2010). Stress often has a serious negative effect on the heart and vascular system (Terrie, 2010). The effects of stress on the nervous system are also quite significant; stress affects the human nervous system and can lead to structural changes in different parts of the brain, having destructive effect on memory, cognition and learning (Yaribeygi et al., 2017). There is also a direct relationship between the amount of stress that a person is exposed to and the immune system of this individual: "the prevailing attitude between the association of stress and immune system response has been that people under stress are more likely to have an impaired immune system and, as a result, suffer from more frequent illness" (Yaribeygi et al., 2017). Stress has also been proved to cause gastrointestinal complications by affecting appetite and the normal function of GI tract (Yaribeygi et al., 2017). So, stress is a protean phenomenon which can affect human organism in many different ways depending on the individual peculiarities of the individual exposed to it.

All things considered, life without stress is impossible and one has to learn to deal with it and to see the possible benefits that coping with stress can offer. In her inspiring TED-talk Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal said that as long as you considered stress to be a challenge, you would only benefit from stressful situations by adjusting your mind and body to the circumstances (McGonigal, 2013). According to McGonigal's data, stress makes you more social because oxytocin, the "cuddle hormone", is actively produced (McGonigal, 2013). In McGonigal's words, oxytocin produced in response to stressful situations, doesn't only have effect on the brain, but it also acts on the body, protecting the cardiovascular system, working as a natural anti-inflammatory, keeping blood vessels relaxed during stress, and helping heart cells "regenerate and heal from any stress-induced damage" (McGonigal, 2013). In other words, limited amounts of stress help the body stay alert and keep the heart open to friendly communication. On the other hand, believing that stress is harmful can have deadly consequences: "the researchers estimated that over the eight years they were tracking deaths, 182,000 Americans died prematurely, not from stress, but from the belief that stress is bad for you" (McGonigal, 2013). Thus, though being exposed to stress on a long-term basis is certainly quite harmful for the human body and mind, one can benefit from coping with occasional stressful situations and even find new friends.

Conclusion

All in all, one can easily see that stress is among the most influential factors that define the health and, consequently, the quality of life of modern individuals. Stressful situations may negatively affect the whole organism: from its cardiovascular system and the brain to the appetite. Yet, when seen as a challenge rather than a threat, stress can help humans learn to deal with problems and take more control over their bodies. Modern life is impossible without stress, so, it is up to human beings to learn to cope with it and to see it as an opportunity rather than an enemy.

Reference

Charlton, B. (1992). Stress. Journal of Medical Ethics, 18(3), 156-159. Retrieved February January 29, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/27717198

McGonigal, K. (2013, September 4). How to make stress your friend [Video file]. Retrieved January 29, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_ stress_your_friend

Terrie, Y. C. (2010, April 14). The Impact of Stress on Health: Learning to Cope. Retrieved January 29, 2020, from https://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2010/April2010/Stress-0410

Yaribeygi, H., Panahi, Y., Sahraei, H., Johnston, T. P., & Sahebkar, A. (2017, July 21). The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI J., 16, 1057-1072. Retrieved January 29, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28900385