Toxic Stress - the deadly epidemic

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Toxic Stress -Most of us live in well-equipped homes that our great
grandparents would marvel at. We have access to (relatively) clean
drinking water at the turn of a tap. We can obtain light to work by
and heat to cook by at the flick of a switch. Our homes are stuffed
with possessions. We have automatic ovens, washing machines, tumble
driers, dish washers, food blenders, vacuum cleaners, television
sets, DVD players, computers, mobile telephones and a whole host
of other devices designed either to make our working hours easier
or our leisure hours more enjoyable. If we want to travel anywhere
we can climb into our own motor cars or we can (sometimes) use public
buses, trains or aeroplanes.
We have become so dependent upon these 'things' that when they break
down we become aggressive and irritable. We can't cope without them.
We are surrounded by the gaudy signs of our wealth and the physical
consequences of human ambition and endeavour, but loneliness,
unhappiness, anxiety and depression are now commoner than ever
before in our history. There has never before been so much sadness,
dissatisfaction and frustration as there is today. The demand for
tranquillisers and sleeping tablet has risen steadily throughout the
last few decades as our national and individual wealth has multiplied.
We have access to sophisticated communication systems and yet never
before have we been so aware of our ignorance. We have more power
over our environment than our ancestors ever dreamt of having and
yet we are regularly reminded of our helplessness and our
vulnerability. We are materially wealthy and yet spiritually
deprived. We have conquered our planet and begun to conquer space
and yet we are continually reminded of our woeful inability to live
at peace with one another.
As the human race becomes materially richer and more powerful so
we as individuals seem to become spiritually poorer and more
frightened. The more we acquire the more we seem to need and the
more we learn the more we seem condemned by our ignorance. The
more control we have over our environment the more damage we
seem to do to ourselves. The more successful we become in financial
terms the more we seem to destroy the qualities and virtues which
lead to happiness and contentment. The more we learn about our
world the more we seem to forget about our duties and
responsibilities to one another.
As manufacturers and advertisers have deliberately translated our
wants into needs so we have exchanged generosity and caring for
greed and self-concern. Politicians and teachers, scientists and
parents have encouraged each succeeding generation to convert
simple dreams and aspirations into fiery no-holds-barred ambitions.
In the name of progress we have sacrificed common sense, goodwill
and thoughtfulness and the gentle, the weak and the warm hearted
have been trampled upon by hordes of embittered, entitled, miserable
individuals who have been taught only to think of the future and
never to think of the present or the past Our society is a sad one;
the cornerstones of the world are selfishness, greed, anger and
hatred. Those are the driving forces we are taught to respect.
During the last fifty years or so we have changed our world almost
beyond recognition. Advertising agencies, television producers and
newspaper editors have given us new aims to strive for, new hopes,
new ambitions and new aspirations. At the same time they have also
given us new fears and new anxieties. With the aid of psychologists,
clever advertising copywriters have learned to exploit our weaknesses
and our natural apprehensions to help create demands for new and
increasingly expensive products. Our world has changed dramatically.
Values and virtues have been turned upside down and inside out.
Tradition, dignity and craftsmanship have been pushed aside in the
search for ever greater productivity and profitability.
It is hardly surprising that all these changes have produced new
stresses and strains of their own. The pressure to succeed joins with
the pressure to confirm and the pressure to acquire and as a result
we live in a world where the base levels of stress are fixed at
dangerously high levels.
Each one of us is, of course, confronted with individual stresses
on a daily basis. Everywhere you look you come face to face with
individual and personal stresses. There are stresses in your business
life and stresses in your social life. But these are stresses that you
can easily do something about. You can choose to avoid them if you
want to. You can confront them or control them. You can share them
or simply deal with them yourself. You have some freedom of action
because these are personal stresses.
The stresses which are an inherent part of the world around you - the
world in which you and I and all of must life - are quite different.
These stresses - the ingredients of what I call toxic stress - are not
so easily avoided.
I invented the phrase 'toxic stress' over 30 years ago because these
stresses produce difficult to define frustrations. They produce
bitterness and a deep sense of ill-defined, unexplained despair.
The stresses crated by advertisers and politicians, teachers and
scientists, journalists and broadcasters are the stresses which,
together, make up the unacceptable levels of toxic stress which are
responsible for so much sadness, so much misery and so much
despair. It is the existence of high levels of toxic stress which
helps to explain why individual attempts to deal with stress have
so often proved ineffective. It is the existence of toxic stress
which explains why millions of people who believe that they have
the stress in their lives under control are, nevertheless, suffering
from stress related disorders.