The various causes of stress in today’s urban society

The word “stress” is defined by the Wikipedia as “a negative concept that can have an impact on one’s mental and physical well-being.” However, stress can be positive sometimes. Sudha Chandran is an Indian danseuse. Although she faces lots of pressure because she lost both of her legs in an accident, the physical and social inadequacies encourage her to continue her dance performances with the help of prosthetic legs instead of giving up her interest. Because people don’t make use of stress, they have lots of problem because of daily stress. “75% of the general population experiences at least ‘some stress’ every two weeks.”(National Health Interview Survey). "Stressed workers suffer a greatly increased risk of heart disease. Stressful jobs have a direct biological impact on the body. Workers under 50 who said their work was stressful were 68 per cent more likely to develop heart disease than the stress-free."(European Heart Journal). Why do people get stress? People get stress because of personal relationships, financial problems and workplace.

 When people are not able to keep a good relationship with others, they tend to be more stressful. When individuals have problem with getting along with others, first of all, they will feel angry and sad. After that they will become lonely because it seems like they lose a friend. For example, a husband somehow is not able to get well along with his wife. Then the wife may believe that her husband does not love her anymore, and he is going to divorce with her. Hence her life may be totally changed. In addition, we clearly see that teens are quite worried about their personal relationships from the followings. “From the study, the five stressors causing the most worry included "school work (68%), parents (56%) friends' problems (52%), romantic relationships (48%), and drugs in the neighborhood (48%)". The five sources of stress most often experienced for the youth in the study included "school work (78%), parents (68%), romantic relationships (64%), friends' problems (64%), and younger siblings (64%).” (Confronting Teen Stress, Meeting the Challenge in Baltimore City)

People are seriously stressed when they have financial problems. As we all know, in reality, people have to work so that they can make a living. Financial problems stress is usually a debilitating mental burden that happens again and again in a chronic way. More likely, adults are stressed because of financial problems. 73% of Americans name money as the number one factor that affects their stress level. (American Psychological Association, 2004) By contrast, children seldom worry about their incomes. However, 30% of children reported being worried about the family's financial situation.( American Psychological Association, 2004). Financial stress has led the list in many polls.
 
People usually get a lot of stress in workplace. Whether they are teachers, architects, or students, they get stressed because of the work. As I mentioned before, people should take advantage of the stress from workplace. It can motivate you to work harder. Unfortunately, most of people are not able to see the benefit of stress in workplace. Therefore most of them suffer from stress. “62% of Americans say work has a significant impact on stress levels”. (APA Survey 2004)"
“Millions of Americans suffer from unhealthy levels of stress at work.” (A study several years ago estimated the number to be 11 million--given events since that time, this number has certainly more than tripled--studies in Sweden, Canada, and other Westernized countries show similar trends.)

In conclusion, there are three main sources of stress. They are relationships with others, incomes worries, stress from workplace. People who have problems with others are possible to get a higher stress level. Most people have another stress because of financial problems. People who do not make use of stress find working stressful. There are other causes of stress. As long as we recognize them, we can make use of them and reduce the negative influence of stress.