When Did Stress Become A Thing?
Stress is not a new concept. The stress response is a part of human biology. The physiological and hormonal changes from stressors have been protecting people for thousands of years. However, as society modernized and technology started to quickly advance, psychological stress started to emerge as a condition affecting many, many people.
As far back as the 1860’s, George M. Beard, an American neurologist, developed the term ‘neurasthenia’ or ‘American nervousness.’ It was thought to be a result of the failure to adapt to the quickly changing modern civilization and it was recognized for its role in physical disease. Interestingly, it seemed to be most prevalent among the affluent Western middle class.
In the time when electricity and steam power were starting to create fast-paced change, stress was acknowledged and being viewed by physicians as a valid cause for numerous ailments. As technology progressed through the rest of the 19th and into the 20th centuries, when life would have been seemingly easier, awareness for psychological stress increased even more.
A scientist, Hans Selye, is thought to be the Father of Stress. He studied stress in the 1930’s-1940’s and developed the ‘Stress Theory’ that claimed that numerous chronic diseases were the body’s failure to adapt to stressors. His theory and later published papers carried over into psychological stress as well.
The concept of psychological stress seems to have materialized right as technology and the pace of life started to advance faster than society could handle. Through the 20th and into the 21st centuries, we have seen study after study where stress levels are still increasing year over year. Stress has evolved into a common part of life now, though we aren’t dealing with a fraction of the true hardships that existed hundreds of years ago.
Jackson M. The stress of life: a modern complaint? Lancet. 2014 Jan 25;383(9914):300-1. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(14)60093-3. PMID: 24475483; PMCID: PMC4306016. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306016/]
Hutmacher F. Putting Stress in Historical Context: Why It Is Important That Being Stressed Out Was Not a Way to Be a Person 2,000 Years Ago. Front Psychol. 2021 Apr 20;12:539799. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.539799. PMID: 33959059; PMCID: PMC8093377. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8093377/]
