RealClearScience writes to answer the question, "Are Humans More Stressed Now Than Ever Before?" Many believe it to be true.
The article concludes it is not true.
Endocrinologist Hans Selye pioneered research into stress. He even termed the "stress response" and for his work was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Selye's conclusion is straightforward.
It’s not that people suffer more stress today. It’s just that they think they do.
The article also quotes a professor of Immunology who concludes this.
All we can be certain of is that the causes of stress are different now. I imagine that stress has affected people’s mental and physical health throughout history.
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A personal note - in lecture I would chide my students who claimed to be very stressed. I'd ask for a show of hands about how many had a sibling die, or a parent. Few would indicate they had. Then I'd tell them stories from my and the other DrC's families, about the tragedies our ancestors survived. Examples:
- Many women died in childbirth. My father's father buried two wives before his third wife buried him, at age 54.
- A great grandmother of the other DrC had 13 children half of whom died in one week, from one of the diseases we hardly hear of now (cholera, typhoid, diphtheria or similar). She couldn't lie down and grieve because she still had 6 kids to care for.
- We had parents who were adults during the Great Depression and it emotionally scarred them.
- One of my high school coaches and his wife both got polio and were paralyzed for life.
Once I'd rubbed their noses in it, my thoroughly middle class students would mostly conclude they had easier, less stressful lives than earlier generations. Side note: Hardly anyone learns history anymore.
