Stress is not the default or How to Succeed in Business and then Die Anyway

Jennifer O’Connell says it well in the IT (“Jennifer O’Connell: Being an adult does not mean being stressed and anxious all the time”)when she denounces the high-stress, always-on, anxiety culture which is accepted as the ‘norm’ and even lauded as a goal by some. Stress is a short term thing, it’s not meant to be the default, and constant stress is a debilitating condition, no matter if you think you can ‘handle it’ or not. And what’s the point?

To spend your one and only life like a hamster on a wheel, running faster and faster just to stay on, would be a terrible waste. There are no prizes for being the busiest, the one who manages to inflict the highest degree of stress-induced cellular damage on their body in the shortest amount of time. Chronic stress is not a natural condition. Stress and insomnia are precursors to many significant illnesses, from depression to Alzheimer’s.