We cannot possibly avoid stress and stress is not necessarily bad, said stress expert Bruce McEwen of Rockfeller University. Hormones secreted when you are under stress heighten your awareness of your environment, improve eyesight and hearing and help muscle movement. We can drive in busy streets without causing accidents thanks to these secretions. Stress helps us address life's demands. It is said that those who are successful or hold positions of power have higher levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol, than those with more lowly lots in life.↵
McEwen said, Stress protects the body. People under stress are vigilant about their environment and plan to avoid danger. On the other hand, happy, laid-back people are not aware that they are falling into traps. Evolutionary psychology assumes people who are more susceptible to stress are people who manage better in the competition for survival, and are thus believed to be our ancestors. In early civilization, people who were insecure, highly suspicious and anticipated the worst were believed to have been naturally stronger.↵
If so, we must ask: While the living environment was harsh for primitive people, why do people still have stress in modern society, when lifespan has increased and there is material abundance? Is stress a physical reaction to basic insecurity and fear? It is said that the main reason for more stress in modern society is the media. Stress researcher Joseph E. LeDoux of New York University said insecurity is due to exaggerated headlines. In ancient times, people were stressed by things they encountered personally. It is different nowadays. Everyone knows the atrocities happening in the world and potential dangers. Things to worry about have increased dramatically."