Stress in Today’s Society

Student talk – Stress in today’s society

In today’s society we strive for perfection, acknowledgement and performance, which for some causes an enlargement of stress in their everyday life. Stress is often underestimated until it becomes to much, and causes a lot of damage. Stress is the body’s normal reaction to events that forces people out of their comfort zone. Though if the outcome is chronically stress it become serious and dangerous to our mental health and impairment of the immune system.

Today in our society many people feel a lot of pressure on them. The pressure comes from both their social relations as well as their work. Especially the workplace put an unusual level of pressure on people. Overload of work, hard tasks, deadlines, change of tempo and big changes are just some of the reasons why so many people are stressed. But it is not only the bad things that can lead to stress. Also big changes like expanding the family, getting married, moving etc. can be overwhelming and by that cause stress.

I think the topic “Stress in today’s society” is an interesting and relevant topic, because about one third of the Danish population suffers from stress. We have read about stress in psychology in school, and it caught my attention and my interest. Also I find it shocking that so many people today are feeling stressed. I think the reasons why people becomes stressed are really interesting as well, because they vary from person to person.

Due to the variation in relation to what causes stress, there is not a finite definition of stress. Though there is no accurate definition, stress is divided into three approaches. Stress can appear as a biological phenomenon, which means our physiological responses to pressured or threatening situations. Also stress can appear as a psychological phenomenon, which is our personal experience of stress. The third approach is the social phenomenon and is about the conditions in the given social environment, which is assumed to be distressing or stressful.