Stress Overload

There was a time when we sought to escape the stress of this life. We sought refuge in books, cinemas, and digital gaming worlds. Now those very sanctums have become sources of stress. In cinema the trend is to depict dystopian futures such as: The Book of Eli, Hunger Games, and Divergent. Even The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel are so steeped in realism that you believe their worlds are part of ours. While this aids in emersion, my concern is that with everything having to be serious and as close to real life as possible will only increase are stress levels.

Video Games have taken the same road. Games live Halo and Call of Duty are great examples of how the genre started out as fantasy and became non-fiction. Halo started out as a war against aliens and the gameplay was unique and was meant to look like Bladrunner meets Starship Troops meets Aliens meets Stargate. Then by Halo Reach the game began to develop into a Call of Duty Modern Warefare Clone. Call of Duty which began as WWII series, evolved into Modern Warefare and has become so realistic that playing Call of Duty Ghosts was so stressful that I could hardly play it.

Books have always been divided into fiction and non-fiction. But again the dystopian stories have become the most popular. The point is that we are already overwhelmed with the stressors of life. There is plethora of problems that continue to harass us from family to friends to finances. The drama is laid on so thick these days that people can hardly catch their breath and yet they go to a movie or play a video game or read a book which will pile on more stress. The truth is that people have become addicted to adrenaline. Stress activates the adrenal system. When you reach a certain level of stress you cannot manage, your body responds by sending adrenaline to help you accomplish your tasks. Eventually, what can happen is if you never power down and take time to relax and escape your problems for a bit; your adrenal system can be damaged.

We have become addicted to stress overload. Every facet of our lives is saturated in the drama. Our smartphones and their apps to our iPads and other tech help remind us with updates what we should be doing and thus contribute to keep us stressed. In fact, many people on vacation will not turn off their phone and receive updates about work. The time has come for us to manage our stress and make decisions to take a break. This does not mean you must give up stressful films, books, or video games. But you need a rest from the stress, so when your adrenaline is pumping, considering not reading or watching something that will only increase the flow of stress.

We must learn how to moderate our stress in take. There is the stressors of life; work, family, and etc you cannot escape. But you can control the extra stress that effects your brain, heart, and adrenals from entertainments. It is not about boycotting, it is about making sure we take care of ourselves. So consider when you are super stressed, going on walk, hiking, or other activity that is low stress instead of playing a difficult video game. You can even pick a video game that is not stressful. While Call of Duty Ghosts might make you worse, maybe a game where you do something a redundant as playing a racing game where you drive around a city or countryside looking at the beautiful nature and listening to soothing music. Again, this is not a rule, it is guideline to help you distress in a world obsessed with being overstressed. I am not calling for giving up your favorite epics and adventure stories, I am merely saying that you need to lower your stress levels when they are on overload.