Blog 22: Why Stress is the Top Reason for Disregarding Personal Health and Happiness

Why Stress is the Top Reason for Disregarding Personal Health and Happiness

In my previous blog, I indicated that the education system is not listed as the number one cause for experiencing achievement pressure among young people. So in this blog I want to talk about the causes that do top the list as a result of the survey conducted by Cooperating Health Funds, with the help of Like Charlie and several young people. The survey was conducted among 1,500 18+ Dutch people.

It seems to be all about stress. Stress is a major negative factor in how much one values ​​one's health and how much one values ​​one's life. Stress related to school or education is one of the factors. However, young people also experience stress from eg their own home situation or from social media.

A majority of Dutch people are aware of the problems young people experience with their mental health. Only 1 in 5 Dutch people rate the mental health of young people as good to very good. Too much screen and social media use is seen as the main cause of these problems, combined with a negative outlook on the future (worries about student debt, climate and house prices, for example).

A sense of too much "to do" in a day is identified by the Dutch as the main cause of young people experiencing high performance pressure. Also playing an important role: the performance culture in society, the distorted image that young people consume on social media, high expectations from parents, the poor future prospects and the social engineering. Parents themselves seem to see or want to see their own role in this to a lesser extent.

Respondents' explanations confirm the connection with the many 'musts': having to perform in all areas, and always. It never seems enough and it never ends, you have to be good at everything (and not in 1 specialty or talent), and always (again) perform.

This explanation reveals an important consequence of performance pressure: it prevents you from being yourself or learning to discover yourself, and there is no room to make mistakes and make the choice that suits you best. After all, meeting the expectations of others is the primary concern.

As described in the previous blog, there are a number of solutions that need to be explored further. In any case, I think it is already very cool to see that we are at a point where action is actually being taken. In the resulting projects, Like Charlie hopes to do its part to have even more tangible impact this way.

Sources used:

• "Insight into performance pressure - by the Dutch public", report by Collaborating Health Funds.

Jurren van der Gun
Like Charlie