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Key points
- Chronic stress, that feeling of being overwhelmed over long periods of time, is synonymous with modern life.
- Women report higher stress levels than men and are also more likely to say their stress is on the rise.
- Your stress management strategy is likely missing something. You are not the problem, society is.
- Traumatic social constructs like misogyny, homophobia, and racism continue to seep into our modern lives.
Chronic stress, that sense of feeling pressured and overwhelmed over long periods, has become synonymous with living life in a modern world. This stress shows up in our bodies (e.g., aches, pains, fatigue), the way we behave (e.g., insomnia, social withdrawal, changes in appetite), the way we think (e.g., unfocused, cloudy, stuck), and the way we feel (e.g., irritable, dread, powerless).
If you’re struggling with chronic stress, you are certainly not alone. America remains one of the most stressed nations on earth with around a third of American adults reporting their stress level to be overwhelming on most days. Women report higher stress levels than men and are also more likely to say their stress is on the rise.
When it comes to chronic stress there is legitimate cause for concern. Stress makes us age more quickly and sets us up for serious health issues such as heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, obesity, and Type II diabetes. Depression, anxiety and addiction disorders top the list of the most common psychological consequences of living a chronically stressed life.
There are many remedies to combating stress and undoing its harm on our well-being: exercising regularly, eating healthfully, spending quality time with family and friends, taking a digital detox, or time spent in nature to name a few. But taking steps to undo the harms of chronic stress is easier said than done as too often we busy ourselves with everything but the distress we feel. Even if we do engage in a regular stress management routine so often, I hear from patients, how this is insufficient, and they continue to struggle with symptoms of stubborn stress.
The problem with your stress management strategy is that it's missing something. You’re viewing your problem with stress as a personal deficiency. But you’re not the problem, society is.
Many of us spend our days immersed in a world that was simply not built with us in mind.
Many of the institutions and organizations that we interact with every day were built, centuries ago, upon traumatic social constructs like classism, misogyny, homophobia, and racism. Toxic remnants, from these constructs, seep into our modern lives, and when they do they manifest as potently stressful.
How can you begin to undo the mental distress that this is causing you?
As a psychiatrist with over 25 years of experience, here are three steps that you can take to start to make a difference:
- Start to pay attention and become more aware of what triggers these feelings of stress when you interact with certain organizations, communities, or institutions.
- Learn the difference between regular stress, like “I need a pay raise,” to stress that is rooted in injustice, like, “My male colleague gets paid more than me for doing the same job.” This “name it to tame it” strategy can, in and of itself, be empowering and healing.
- Identify strategic self-care activities such as a sustainable exercise schedule or meaningful social connections that specifically work towards undoing the mental harm caused by these stressful experiences rooted in injustice.
