Stress and the city

Urban living is associated with stress. Not a new idea.

I grew up in the bush, far away from the city. I could hear the faint echo of cars in the distance, but I couldn't see them from my house. I couldn't hear street noise, or other people. Once in a blue moon did someone come to our front door. And when they did, ironically that seemed to cause me far more stress than perhaps it should.

Now I choose to live in the city for the convenience it affords me. I find it hard to imagine that the location of my current apartment is doing my brain some untold damage. Despite the somewhat seedy location, I do not find the undesirable characters who hover in the backstreets of the surrounding suburbs a threat, but rather a mere curiosity. As soon as I open those jail-like gates that lead into my apartment, I enter my refuge. Weekend bar noise is muffled through the new-ish walls, and I find the faint echo of a passing car somewhat comforting. Importantly, the location makes up for all the birds and trees I am missing.

But perhaps this isn't the detrimental kind of city living this study refers to. One city apartment I lived in previously was not so 'idyllic'. There was a bus stop directly outside my window, and as I lay in bed at night I could often smell cigarette smoke wafting through the windows from some late-night commuter waiting for the bus home. The roar of the forced gear change as the bus struggled up the hill would partially wake me at 5am every morning. I feared for both my lungs and my fatigued brain.

Let's blame the amygdala for 'stress and the city'. It makes perfect sense after all. Responsible for processing emotional learning and memory, emotional intelligence and social awareness, then this 'neural social stress' caused by city living can surely point the finger at the amygdala as a potential culprit.

Obviously we need to identify exactly what aspect of urban living causes this stress. Personally I wonder if it all comes down to noise--too much auditory input during development. If auditory neurons are continually overstimulated, maybe the brain has to develop some introverted self-protection mechanisms that allow the child to switch off the outside world. Maybe I'm just explaining Autism here. Anyway, are the rates of Autism are higher in these socially stressed environments...? Something to look up.

Anyway, I can see the effects in myself, as an adult. When I'm trying to perform a complex task ('such as walking', my boyfriend PT would quip) then too much noise from the radio, conversation, or even traffic overwhelms me. Perhaps I need to go back and visit my childhood home in the countryside.