What Makes City Living So Stressful?

Last year, German scientist Dr Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of the Central Institute of Mental Health put people through this cruel and unusual punishment in order to induce the stress response in their brains and measure the results. Unsurprisingly they were successful in stressing the study participants out, but what Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg wanted to find out is whether the people who lived in the city responded differently to stress than those who live in the countryside.

The idea that living in a city is stressful is pretty much cemented in the popular consciousness. Drawn by the promise of good jobs, many people will begrudgingly submit themselves to lack of living space, non-stop pace and the uniquely unpleasant environment of a rush hour tube twice a day. However, there are also plenty of people who go to cities for exactly the reason other people find it insufferable, finding the vibrancy of the lifestyle exhilarating.

You would think that for these people, living for extended periods of time in a (what they would consider, massively dull) rural idyll would be more of a torment for them. Yet it seem that even for the people who enjoy it, city living changes our brains and its responses, and is having a profound impact.

People who live in a city were shown to be more susceptible to the stress Meyer-Lindenburg placed them under than those who do not. The activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes stress and fear, was more pronounced in city dwellers when they were being pressured over maths questions, but the most interesting effect was observed in a part of the brain called the \”perigenual anterior cingulate cortex\” or pACC.

The pACC helps to regulate the amygdala, and looking into its responses showed that people who had been raised in a city, even if they no longer live in one, had the most active pACCs. It also revealed that the urban group did not have the smooth connection between both brain regions that others did, a feature in the brain that is often seen in people with schizophrenia. This is especially striking as schizophrenic people are much more likely to live in cities, and people born and raised in cities have higher rates of mental health issues.

The proportion of the world populations who live in cities passed into the majority in 2010, and is thought to rise to two thirds by 2050, so it\’s clear why this is an important issue. By identifying what causes this effect in cities, we can learn to alleviate it. While no one has pinpointed the exact reason why city living is stressful, there are a few factors that seem likely to contribute to it.

Lack of Access to Green Spaces

Perhaps because we spent so much of our evolutionary history in them, people seem to like green spaces. Studies have shown that time spent in nature lowers people\’s stress hormones, suggesting that those who do not have ready access to places like this may experience some negative outcomes.

Loneliness in Crowds

Vastly different to the tight-knit communities that inhabit rural areas, city living can make you feel both surrounded by people and completely isolated. It\’s a strange phenomenon but one that many people would recognise, and the experience of loneliness within a crowd can leave people feeling lost and unhappy.

Traffic

Sitting in a traffic jam, frantically anxious and frustrated as you become more and more late, surrounded by people similarly ensconced in their cars and all equally angry, is the absolute opposite of a good time. Doing this twice a day for years on end, often in a commute from the suburbs to the city centre, is bound to influence anyone\’s state of mind.

Noise and Overcrowding

Cities are rarely ever truly quiet, and sometimes they can be positively cacophonous. This combined with there being people absolutely everywhere, all of the time, makes it hard for people to give themselves a break. City environments make for constant overstimulation, which is fun and exciting a lot of the time, but incredibly stressful in others.

High Cost of Living

This is very pertinent in our home city of London, and repeated across the world in places like New York, Hong Kong and Sydney. Financial worries, especially debt, can have a harmful impact on mental health and these are exacerbated in places where the average wage will barely cover the essentials.

Of course, the solution to these issues isn\’t a simple one, and requires careful city planning, policy changes and more thought when city spaces are being designed to ease the negative aspects of urban living. However on an individual level people can live more comfortably in stressful environments by meditating.

Beeja meditation has the advantage of being a technique that you can practice anywhere, even in the middle of a busy train carriage, making it perfect for urban life. City lifestyles don\’t often give you the opportunity to just stop, forget about the next place you need to get to or task you need to complete, and allow time for yourself. Taking up meditation gives you exactly this, and by allowing your overstimulated brain to unwind you will give yourself the break you need to make your day better.