Stress

Stress I hear people say they are stressed many times a day. The word stress is so overused that it has lost its meaning. What is the definition of stress?

 According to the Oxford Dictionary stress is “a state of emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances” It sounds like something scary and possibly life-threatening. What kind of strains and tensions are we referring to here? Do they involve being mauled by dangerous animals? That is a demanding circumstance and one our ancestors probably faced regularly. A hungry predator with fangs trying to catch and eat you would be stressful indeed. But no. People are not stressed about that possibility. They are stressed because of what they saw on the fake news or because someone saw their latest Instagram post but did not “like” it. By the way ‘’like’’ doesn’t really mean ‘’like’’ anymore. ‘’Like’’ used to mean you regard something with favour or find something attractive now it means you ticked a thumbs up icon on your phone so as to not offend your friend when seeing their post on social media. Are you still with me? Imagine trying to explain that to a grandparent in their 80s or 90s? These circumstances do not qualify as stresses, I am sorry they just do not.

So, let us start using words that more accurately depict the circumstances and resulting emotional strains. Let’s give it a try. Previously it would go “like’’ this, “I am so stressed because I posted a picture of my homemade breakfast bowl, but Lauren didn’t like it. I can see she viewed it but why didn’t she like it? She liked Gemma’s post but that was just a stupid selfie with her new French bulldog puppy. What a bitch!”

Now let us rewrite it but with a twist but according to reality. “I am being so irrational and caught up in my own insecurities today. Not only did I take a photo of my breakfast and post it so others can see it but I went to the trouble of using diagnostics to determine firstly, who had viewed my post, then who had ticked an icon showing they felt favourable towards my post. Then I looked at what other posts people, who I am trying to please, had viewed and did find favourable. I judged their posts and I judged them based on my own insecurities and warped values.

Do you see the difference? The first one is all-about me and the second one is what is really going on here.

So, let’s cut the crap for a moment. Stress is a circumstance that calls for action to save one’s ass. It is brief and hopefully does not occur too frequently. We learn to avoid stressful circumstances for the best part. Stress is not when circumstances don’t go our way or how we need them to go to protect ourselves from our own shit.

Let us replace the word stress with a more accurate word for what is going on in these petty modern crises. I like” jaisipos”. It stands for ‘’just another irrational self-indulgent piece of shit’’. If we all start using it, I think it will make a difference. People will be reluctant to say I feel so jaispos’d today because I only got 3 likes because it does not elicit the same sympathetic response the word stressed does. And let’s face it they say it because it is the sympathetic response is all they are yearning for. Being stressed can go back to real scary circumstances and jaisipos can cover the attention-seeking look-at me situations prevalent in every day modern society. Sorry Grandparents I haven’t got time to explain it all!